Korea Forest Service Detects 103 Cases of Illegal Forest Land Conversion in Protected Areas

Forest law enforcement officers are investigating the scene after detecting signs of illegal activities within the forest.

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service announced on the 21st that it recently conducted a special crackdown on illegal activities within forest protection zones in cooperation with local governments, uncovering and taking action against 103 violations.

The types of violations detected during the crackdown include illegal forest land conversion (28 cases), unauthorized entry into restricted forest areas (9 cases), unlicensed logging (5 cases), illegal harvesting of forest products (2 cases), as well as unauthorized burning and illegal dumping of waste.

The Korea Forest Service is currently pursuing legal action under forest laws for 41 cases including illegal forest land conversion, unlicensed logging, and illegal harvesting of forest products, while imposing fines of up to 1 million KRW for 31 cases such as unauthorized entry and burning.

The recent special crackdown involved 1,898 judicial personnel including forest special judicial police from the Korea Forest Service and local governments, as well as forest protection staff from Cheongwon, along with 32 forest drone monitoring teams from the National Forest Management Office.

The Korea Forest Service plans to continue monitoring illegal activities within forests and impose strict penalties upon detection of violations even after the special crackdown.

In particular, the Korea Forest Service emphasized that for cases of illegal forest land conversion by unidentified perpetrators within forest genetic resource protection zones and illegal harvesting of forest products such as gorosoe sap, they will secure evidence through neighborhood inquiries and other means to identify and legally prosecute the offenders.

Kim Yong-gwan, Director of the Forest Protection Bureau at the Korea Forest Service, stated, “Considering the increased risk of forest fires due to dry weather conditions, we will actively educate and crack down on illegal activities within forests to prevent them from leading to forest disasters.”

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