Forest land decreases, private forest owners increase... 9.2 out of 10 are individuals

Over the past five years, the area of forestland has decreased, while the number of private forest owners has consistently increased. It is understood that private forests are largely held in small-scale ownership by individuals.

The Korea Forest Service announced the results of the "2023 Nationwide Forest Owner Status Survey" on the 30th. According to the survey, the number of private forest owners nationwide last year was 2,201,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous year. Among them, individual owners accounted for 2,014,000, representing 92% of the total.

The nationwide forest owner status survey (statistics) began in 2018, and over the past five years, the number of private forest owners has shown a steady upward trend. A notable point is that while the total forestland area is decreasing, the number of owners is increasing.

In fact, the forestland area was 6,364,000 hectares in 2019, 6,356,000 hectares in 2020, 6,349,000 hectares in 2021, 6,343,000 hectares in 2022, and 6,337,000 hectares last year, showing a decrease. This corresponds to an average annual decrease of 5,400 hectares.

Conversely, the number of private forest owners nationwide was 2,174,000 in 2019, 2,182,000 in 2020, 2,192,000 in 2021, 2,198,000 in 2022, and 2,201,000 last year, showing an average annual increase of 5,400 owners.

Provided by Korea Forest Service

Behind the situation where the forestland area is decreasing while the number of private forest owners is increasing, the rise in owners holding small-scale private forests is also noteworthy.

As of last year, 1,895,000 owners nationwide held private forests smaller than 3 hectares, accounting for 86.2% of the total, and the proportion of these owners has steadily increased over the past five years, according to the Korea Forest Service.

Another notable point is that the proportion of individual owners residing in the same city or province as their privately owned forest decreased by 0.1 percentage points from the previous year to 44.2% (960,000 people) last year. This indicates an increase in cases where owners possess private forests outside the regions where they actually reside.

The distribution of private forest owners by city and province was highest in Jeonnam with 385,000 owners, followed by Gyeongbuk with 331,000, and Gyeongnam with 311,000.

The survey results can be viewed or downloaded from the Korea Forest Service website or the Forest and Forestry Statistics website.

Lee Seon-mi, head of the Forest Big Data Team at the Korea Forest Service, said, “Considering the annual increase in private forest owners, the Korea Forest Service plans to develop policies to revitalize private forest management. Based on the survey results, we will carefully examine the causes of the increase in owners to ensure effective policy support.”

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