"Korea's Success in Sustainable Forest Management Following Reforestation... Gaining Recognition in the International Community"

A graph visualizing the increase rate of growing stock volume by member countries of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization from 1990 to 2015. During this period, South Korea recorded a 196% increase rate in growing stock volume, securing the undisputed world No. 1 position. Provided by the Korea Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] South Korea has been recognized as a representative country that successfully achieved forest restoration in a short period by planting over 10 billion trees during the forest greening project from 1973 to 1987. Additionally, an analysis has shown that the 'sustainable forest management' carried out over 25 years from 1990 to 2015 was also successful. Based on these analysis results, the Korea Forest Service demonstrated South Korea's excellent forest management achievements to the international community.

According to the Korea Forest Service on the 13th, at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Committee on Forestry (COFO) event, when comparing member countries' forest management achievements from 1990 to 2015, South Korea was announced to be at the world’s highest level in terms of 'growing stock volume increase rate' (referring to the volume of timber that continues to be produced from original seeds or seedlings in forestry).

FAO COFO is the largest event in the international forestry sector, held biennially as a regular meeting. At this event, member countries share international forest policy directions and announce forest-related information and statistics worldwide and by continent.

This year, the FAO COFO originally scheduled for June was postponed due to the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and was held via video conference from the 2nd to the 12th.

Kogi-yeon Go, International Forest Cooperation Officer at the Korea Forest Service, continues her presentation at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization Forest Committee discussion held on the 12th. Photo by Korea Forest Service

Especially on the evening of the last day of the meeting, the 12th, Ko Gi-yeon, International Forest Cooperation Officer of the Korea Forest Service, participated as a presenter in a forum titled ‘The Future of Forests in the Asia-Pacific Region’ and attracted attention by introducing the implications of the analysis report related to the forum’s theme.

First, the report showed that from 1990 to 2015, South Korea recorded a 196% increase in forest resources (growing stock volume) per unit area (hectare) (from 5㎥ to 158㎥), ranking first among Asia-Pacific countries.

Based on this, Officer Ko analyzed the forest management status of 37 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries and the 20 major countries of the world (G20) in the same manner as the FAO report’s analysis, reaffirming that South Korea’s growing stock volume increase rate was the highest among the compared countries.

Officer Ko emphasized, “The FAO report holds high value in terms of the time-series comparison (1990?2015) of ‘forest management performance per unit area.’ Above all, the Korea Forest Service has proven to the international community that South Korea not only successfully completed forest restoration in the past but also has achieved world-class forest management performance from the 1990s to the present based on these analysis results.”

Meanwhile, the Korea Forest Service cited as major achievements that former Korea Forest Service Commissioner Shin Won-seop (currently a professor at Chungbuk National University) chaired the FAO COFO meeting this year, and that the preparation status for the World Forestry Congress (WFC), to be jointly hosted by the Korea Forest Service and FAO in May next year, was discussed as one of the agenda items at the meeting.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.