국내 습지의 현명한 이용을 위한 법적 과제

The wise use component of the Ramsar Convention was one of the most important aspects of it, while the convention itself does not define "wise use". According to the convention, Article 3(1) requires that Contracting Parties shall formulate and implement their plannings so as to promote as far as possible the wise use of wetlands in their territory territories as well as the conservation of the wetlands included in the List. As Convention leaves each party free to choose the most appropriate means to achieve the wise use obligation, Parties may adopt national wetlands legislation or policies to implement this obligation. From a legal point of view, though the wise use concept has been continuously interpreted or reinterpreted by COPs since 1987, the Ramsar interpretation of wise use has not been unclear. In 2005, COP defined that the wise use of wetlands was the maintenance of their ecological character, achieving through the implementation of ecosystem approaches, within the context of sustainable development. The concept of wise use can be considered to be competible with the concept of sustainable use under the Convention on Biodiversity Conservation. In this view, Provisions and legal systems for the conservation and wise use of wetlands under the Wetlands Conservation Act of 1999 are necessary to be reviewed and reconsidered within the context of sustainable development. Thus this paper reviews domestic laws, mainly the WCA, relating to the conservation and management of wetlands in the context of the wise use concept, and provides an improvement on the domestic legislation relating to the wise use of wetlands. The current environmental laws, however, regard coastal wetlands and public waters such as tidal flats as objects of reclamation or landfill, which is not for conservation or the wise use but for harmful development or unwise use. Under the WCA, the provision of an unavoidable damage does not require any restoration measures for the damaged wetlands, which hampers to achieve its objectives and goals to make them encourage to use wetlands in a bad ways with unwise use. To resolve the problems, the provisions relating to the wise use should be enacted explicitly for efficient conservation of wetlands such as the expansion of the protected wetlands’ criteria for no net loss management, establishment designation criteria, implementation of no net loss policy, establishment of provisions for compensation and mitigation including restoration, guarantees of property rights of private wetlands, securement for finances for wise use and conservation with restoration of damaged wetlands. The wise use under the Ramsar Convention has an important meaning because it suggests the way of improving Korean wetlands related legislations. It should be considered to revise the WCA as follows; 1) It protects not some of wetlands protected area, but all the natural wetlands; 2) When wetlands are loss lost or damaged unavoidably only in a case of development projects with public interests, it imposes the responsibility of compensation and/or mitigation of damaged wetlands to on the developers or the users to reduce the impact of wetlands’ damage at the minimum extent.