어장관리정책이 양식업의 지속가능성에 미치는 영향

Abstract

Aquaculture in Korea has grown significantly from 540,000 tons in 1980 to 2.31 million tons in 2020. Aquafarming grounds, the production sites of aquaculture, have mainly been developed in inner bays. These structures are vulnerable to pollutants introduced from the land. The effects of recent high and low water temperatures are leading to the death of aquaculture organisms, making these aquafarming ground environments unfavorable. There is a need to actively promote the aquafarming ground management policy to enhance the sustainability of aquaculture. However, although Korea's aquafarming ground management policy has been promoted since 1986, Korea's aquafarming ground environment has not improved significantly, according to experts. The main reasons are difficulties securing a budget for the aquafarming ground management project, lacking human resources, and a lack of willingness to participate. These limitations must be addressed by determining and intensively promoting the most effective policy. Accordingly, this study aims to analyze how the aquafarming ground management policy can positively affect the sustainability of aquaculture. Therefore, a research model and a hypothesis were established, and a survey was conducted with stakeholders. Through the structural equation model analysis, the following research results were derived. First, the direct effect showed that the “use and preservation of clean aquafarming ground” positively affected (0.166) the “sustainability of aquaculture.” Second, the total effect (direct effect + indirect effect) showed that the “use and preservation of clean aquafarming ground” positively affected (0.254) the “sustainability of aquaculture” by “aquafarming ground environment improvement.” Third, for the preservation of the aquafarming ground environment, the “establishment of an integrated platform for aquafarming ground management” was found to have the greatest project effect, followed by “expansion of real-time observation system” and “assessment of vulnerability to the climate crisis.” The “calculation of the natural purification recovery period” had the greatest effect on improving the aquafarming ground environment, followed by a “review of the introduction of the total permissible aquaculture system” and “expanding the designation of the aquafarming ground management area.” Fourth, for “sustainability of aquaculture,” the “calculation of natural purification recovery period” had the greatest project effect followed by (second priority) the “expansion of clean aquafarming ground regeneration project,” “expansion of designation of aquafarming ground management area,” “review of introduction of total allowable aquaculture system,” and (third priority) the “calculation of aquafarming ground capacity.” It was determined that these study results can be used by policymakers as basic data to select and promote aquafarming ground management projects according to Korea’s policy promotion, where not all aquafarming ground management policies can be promoted.