Mount Kuwol Biosphere Reserve, Democratic People's Republic of Korea

 

The Mount Kuwol Biosphere Reserve, situated on the west coast of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and 100 kilometres south-east of Pyongyang, consists of a 954 meter-high mountain, adjacent coastal wetlands, lagoons and river estuaries, and agricultural areas. Both the core area and the buffer zone are part of the Mount Kuwol Nature Reserve, which was designated in 1976.

Ecological Characteristics

The reserve is characterized by various ecosystems which include the forest ecosystem in core area, agricultural ecosystem widely spreaded in the transition area, and wetland ecosystem along coastline, rivers, streams and reservoirs.

Therefore, the type of habitat and land cover can be classified into 3 types, i.e. forest, farmland and wetland. It hasmany curious rocks, cliffs, peaks, valleys, falls and ponds formed by the age-old weathering and erosion.

As a typical temperate forest area, it is consisted of broad-leaved forest, coniferous forest and broad and coniferous mixed forest. The weather has a typical temperate climate that four seasons are clearly distinguished.

A typical monsoon blows across the mountain. The soil is made up of 5-soil type; forest brown soil, alluvial soil, marshland soil, tidal land soil and paddy soil.

 

Socio-Economic Characteristics

Mt. Kuwol Nature Reserve (4,700ha) was designated in center of Mt. Kuwol area by the Decision of Administration Council No. 55 on 2 October 1976 and later, was nominated as a Biosphere Reserve in DPRK by the recommendation of UNESCO in November 2004.

 

 

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Last updated: August 2019