Importance of taxonomic research for biodiversity of Korea

Abstract

(±130 million SE) species in the world (Mora et al., 2011), but this is only an estimate, and the actual num­ ber of species discovered as of 2015 was 1.65 million (National Diversity Center, 2016), which represents only about 19% of this estimate. The discovery and record­ ing of biological species is an important process and outcome of taxonomic research, which has progressed persistently worldwide since the establishment of taxo­ nomic systems. Recently, focus on the economic value of biological species has led to each country using tax­ onomic studies, such as reports of new and unrecorded species, as evidence to claim sovereignty over indige­ nous species. This trend is making taxonomic research even more important. When a new biological species that has never been re­ corded worldwide is discovered, it becomes a candidate new species. If a species is distributed in other countries, but is newly discovered in a country where it has not been recorded previously, it becomes a candidate unre­ corded species for that country. It is only by valid pub­ lication in an academic journal or other published ma­ terial that such a candidate species can receive official recognition as a new or unrecorded species. Following official recognition, the species is added to the official list of species for that country. These academic records and valid data of species are the most certain form of ev­ idence for claiming national sovereignty in international relations. Approximately 100,000 indigenous species are esti­ mated to inhabit the Korean Peninsula (Lim et al., 2008), but the number of species recorded was only 28,462 as of 1996 (The Korean National Council for Conservation of Nature, 1996), and only 29,916 as of 2005 (Ministry of Environment, 2005). Hence, in an effort to find undis­ covered species living in the Korean Peninsula, the Ko­ rean Ministry of Environment launched the ‘Discovery of Korean Indigenous Species’ in 2006. The National Institute of Biological Resources (here after NIBR) was established in 2007, and has taken the lead on this proj­ ect in addition to ‘The Compilation of National List of Species of Korea’. Through these projects, a large number of new and unrecorded species have been discovered and added to ‘National List of Indigenous Species of the Korea’, increasing the total number of species to 45,295 as of 2015 (Table 1). This number represents a considerable increase in the number of indigenous species in the Ko­ rean Peninsula in 2015 compared to 1996 and 2005 (Fig. 1). NIBR’s ‘Discovery of Korean Indigenous Species’ and ‘Compilation of National List of Species of Korea’ proj­ Journal of Species Research 5(3):261­263, 2016