Korea Forest Service to Purchase Private Forests Equivalent to 15 Times Yeouido Area This Year

Spending 57.9 Billion KRW This Year to Purchase 4,447 ha of Private Forests
Expanding National Forest Share to 28.3% of Domestic Forests by 2028

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 10th that it will spend 57.9 billion KRW this year to purchase 4,447 hectares of private forests. The scale of the private forests to be purchased is equivalent to 15 times the area of Yeouido.

The purchase targets are ‘public interest forests’ deemed necessary for preservation by the state under forest-related laws or other laws, including urban forests, living forests, forest protection zones, Baekdudaegan protection areas, watershed protection zones, and buffer zones of the National Arboretum.

This year’s budget for purchasing private forests has increased by 1.6 billion KRW compared to the previous year. Through this, the Korea Forest Service plans to pay the purchase price for 3,705 hectares (worth approximately 47.8 billion KRW) in a lump sum, and for 742 hectares (worth approximately 10.1 billion KRW), payment will be made in installments over 10 years under a ‘forest land annuity’ scheme.

For private forest sale applications and other detailed information, please refer to the ‘We Buy Private Forests’ announcement posted on the Korea Forest Service website.

Kim Young-hyuk, Director of National Forest Management at the Korea Forest Service, said, “According to the 2nd National Forest Expansion Plan (2019?2028), we plan to expand the area of national forests to 28.3% (1.79 million hectares) of the country’s total forest area by 2028.” He added, “The Korea Forest Service will strive to secure the public functions of forests through national forest expansion and to promote public welfare through forests.”

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