Pine Wilt Disease Aerial Spraying 'Suspended'... Korea Forest Service to Switch to Drone Precision and Ground Control

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Starting this year, aerial pesticide spraying for pine wilt disease will be discontinued, and instead, drone precision and ground spraying will be strengthened. This measure aims to minimize the environmental impact of the pesticides used in aerial spraying.

Kang Hye-young, Forest Disaster Control Officer at the Korea Forest Service, is presenting the "Improvement Plan for Aerial Control of Pine Wilt Disease" on the 22nd at the Government Complex Daejeon. Photo by Korea Forest Service

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 23rd that it has prepared and will implement the "Improvement Plan for Pine Wilt Disease Control" reflecting this content.

The improvement plan focuses on stopping aerial spraying for pine wilt disease from this year and strengthening drone precision and ground spraying, especially in important conservation areas and emergency outbreak sites.

Aerial spraying began in 2005 and was the main method for controlling pine wilt disease until last year.

However, environmental groups have continuously raised concerns that the neonicotinoid-class pesticide thiamethoxam used during aerial spraying could adversely affect ecosystems such as honeybees.

Recently, regions including Europe and the United States have been moving toward restricting the use of neonicotinoid-class pesticides.

This pesticide is a type of insecticide widely used in areas cultivating vegetables and fruits and is registered as an approved pesticide by the Rural Development Administration. Although its harmfulness has not been definitively proven, neonicotinoid pesticides continue to face international regulations and social controversies.

Accordingly, the Korea Forest Service formed the "Forest Pest Pesticide Expert Council" in September last year and, after several discussion sessions, ultimately decided to stop aerial spraying. This decision was made by accepting the opinions of environmental groups and experts participating in the council.

Following this, the Korea Forest Service notified local governments and control agencies nationwide of this decision and urged them to replace aerial spraying with drone precision and ground spraying.

To ensure the safety of control projects, the Korea Forest Service will begin a preliminary appropriateness review of drone precision and ground spraying next month and will also establish a "full-process management system" considering environmental impacts.

The full-process management system will be designed to cover the selection of target areas by control agencies, preliminary appropriateness reviews by specialized institutions, implementation of control projects by control agencies, and post-management by the Korea Forest Service and control agencies.

Provided by Korea Forest Service

Additionally, the Korea Forest Service plans to regularize consultative meetings with experts from forestry, pesticides, and ecosystems fields to expand and conduct research projects on the environmental impact of forest pest control pesticides, continuously establishing an eco-friendly pest control foundation in the forest pest sector.

Kang Hye-young, Director of Forest Disaster Control, said, "The discontinuation of aerial spraying is a decision made in full understanding of concerns about the pesticides used in aerial spraying for pine wilt disease," adding, "We will thoroughly ensure that the improvement plan replacing aerial spraying is firmly established in the field."

Meanwhile, pine wilt disease is a fatal forest pest disease with a mortality rate reaching 100% upon infection. In 2015, as damage from pine wilt disease rapidly spread, the Korea Forest Service conducted aerial spraying over 22,000 hectares nationwide that year.

However, recently, demand for aerial spraying (from local governments) has decreased, and limitations on aircraft availability have led to a reduction in the scale of aerial spraying each year. For example, last year, aerial spraying was conducted only on a limited basis in Jeju Island and some areas of Gyeongnam (1,000 hectares).

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