Effectiveness of a Priority Management Scheme of Living Modified Organism Re-Collection Areas in Natural Environments of South Korea

Since 2009, the Ministry of Environment and the National Institute of Ecology in South Korea have been conducting a living modified organism (LMO) monitoring and post-management project in natural environments to prevent the unintentional release and spread of LMOs to natural ecosystems. The project surveyed six administrative districts of South Korea from 2009 to 2013 and collected 1960 LMO suspicious samples from 1850 monitoring sites. As a result, 113 LMOs were identified at 65 sites and removed for post-management. An analysis of the five-year LMO monitoring results showed that LMOs were re-collected in 38.4% of the 65 areas where they were initially collected. This result led to the establishment of a new LMO management system in 2014, with priority given to areas where LMOs had been re-collected twice or more within the last five years. Intensive surveys and post-management were conducted four times a year in these priority management areas. The results confirmed that the novel management system for LMO priority areas effectively prevented the continuous collection of LMOs in the same areas. In conclusion, establishing a safety management system for priority management areas, intensive surveys, and post-management efforts are crucial for protecting natural ecosystems from the putative risks of unintentionally released LMOs.