Increase in Small-Scale Forest 'Sanju' Owners... 2.2 Million Private Forest Owners Nationwide Last Year

As the number of forest owners with small-scale forests increases, the total number of private forest owners is also rising every year.

The Korea Forest Service announced the "2022 National Forest Owner Status" on the 31st. The forest owner status is used as basic data necessary for establishing private forest policies through analysis of ownership status of private forests nationwide and the residence of individual forest owners. This statistic was also designated as a national approved statistic (No. 136035) in 2018.

Provided by Korea Forest Service

According to the statistical data, the number of private forest owners nationwide last year was counted at 2.2 million, an increase of about 7,000 compared to the previous year. Among them, individual forest owners accounted for 2.01 million, representing 92% of the total.

By city and province, Jeollanam-do had the largest number of forest owners with 380,000. However, when looking at the ownership area (scale) per forest owner, Gyeongsangbuk-do was found to have the largest ownership area per person nationwide, with each owner holding 950,000 hectares on average.

The ownership size of private forest owners under 1 hectare accounts for 70% of the total.

In particular, the increase in forest owners with less than 1 hectare has been noticeable over the past five years. Among individual forest owners, the proportion of owners residing in the same city or province as the location of their owned forest was 44.3% (960,000 people) last year.

The results of the nationwide forest owner status survey can be checked or downloaded from the Korea Forest Service website (Administrative Information - Forest Statistics).

Lee Seon-mi, head of the Forest Big Data Team at the Korea Forest Service, said, “Based on the results of the nationwide forest owner status survey, the Korea Forest Service will analyze the causes of changes such as the increase in regional forest owners and small-scale private forests, and utilize this for promoting private forest policies.”

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