Memorial issue: Ecology in a changing world

摘要

Even in the 21st century, there are still plenty of environmental problems left for us to deal with: population increase, poverty, environmental pollution caused by the rapid increase in the use of fossil fuels, urbanization, degradation of the ecosystem and biodiversity, and misuse of natural resources. We can see that drastic changes in the world ecosystem have been caused by climatic and human activity, and these environmental changes have proven detrimental to biodiversity and the function of the ecosystem. These are reflected in human life. The International Association for Ecology (INTE-COL) was established to resolve these problems through ecological principles and methods in association with the relevant international institutes and academic societies. And the International Congress of Ecology, which focuses on global ecological problems, is held every 4 years. The 8th International Congress of Ecology was held in Seoul, Korea from 11 to 18 August 2002 under the theme 'Ecology in a Changing World'. The Seoul Congress, hosted by the Ecological Society of Korea and supported by the Ministry of Environment of Korea, aimed to discuss the most urgent environmental problems at the beginning of the 21st century. These problems were considered by ecologists from around the world and methods to resolve them were discussed.