Sustainable Development Goals Policy Brief Series No.10
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Sustainable Development Goals Policy Brief Series No.10 Sharing Korea’s Experience in Sustainable Forestry: Possible Applications in Developing Countries UNDP February 2019 Sustainable Development Goals Policy Brief Series No.10 Sharing Korea’s Experience in Sustainable Forestry: Possible Applications in Developing Countries Table of Contents Executive Summary ··································································································· 4 1. Introduction ··········································································································· 6 2. National reforestation programs during the 7 twentieth century in South Korea ······································································· 2.1. Reforestation activities before 1973 ··································································· 7 2.2. Reforestation activities after 1973 ······································································ 7 2.3. Saemaul Undong and reforestation····································································· 12 2.4. Benefits of the reforested lands ········································································· 14 3. Current forest policies in South Korea ······························································· 17 3.1. Sustainable forest management practices ·························································· 17 3.2. Carbon offset schemes ························································································ 20 3.3. Forest protection ································································································· 22 3.3.1. Forest fires ···································································································· 22 3.3.2. Diseases and pests ························································································ 23 3.4. Forest utilization ································································································· 24 3.4.1. Forest product ······························································································ 24 3.4.2. Urban forests ································································································ 24 3.4.3. Recreation forests ························································································· 26 3.5. Research and development ················································································· 28 4. Cross-border experiences in sustainable forest management ······························································································ 30 4.1. Traditional knowledge and forest management in South Korea ························ 30 4.1.1. Historical governance on forest resources ··················································· 31 4.1.2. Community-based forestry ·········································································· 32 4.2. Community-based forestry in other countries ··················································· 34 4.3. Implications ······································································································· 35 5. References ············································································································ 39 Tables, Figures, and Boxes Figures Figure 1. Tree planting event hosted by Korea Forest Service ················································ 8 Figure 2. Shifts in pheasant, dove, hare and deer populations in South Korea between 15 Figure 3. Proportion of each public benefit of the South Korean forests ································· 16 Figure 4. Changes in the annual benefit and cost of the reforestation in South Korea ·············· 16 Figure 5. The Jeju experimental forests: (a) Japanese cedar forest (b) A greenhouse ·············· 19 Figure 6. Number of forest fire and damaged areas ····························································· 22 Figure 7. Total area and average per capita of residential urban forests in South Korea ·········· 25 Figure 8. View of the Daegwallyeong Natural Recreation Forest ··········································· 26 Figure 9. Number of recreation forests and visitors to the recreation forests in South Korea ······ 26 Figure 10. A long-term monitoring site (a) and an open-field nursery simulating the impacts of climate change (b) in the Gwangneung experimental forest ··················· 29 Figure 11. Culturally protected Korean red pine forest enclosing the royal tomb, West Five Royal Tombs in South Korea ······························································· 31 Tables Table 1. Summary of the National Forest 10-Year Plans established in South Korea ··············· 11 Table 2. Initial tree planting policy of Saemaul Tree Planting from 1972 ······························· 13 Table 3. SFM criteria and forest sustainability index (FSI) ···················································· 17 Table 4. Total amount and value of major forest product of South Korea, produced in 2016 ··· 24 Table 5. Factors of forest therapy and their effects ····························································· 27 Table 6. Benefits per capita from the utilization of recreation forests ···································· 28 Boxes Box 1. Self-regulatory by Songgye for Korean red pine forest conservation ························· 33 Executve Summary South Korea is among the only four countries that has succeeded in rehabilitatng its forests afer World War II. The combinaton of South Korea’s experience in reforestaton and rapid economic growth is a good example that developing countries striving to achieve sustainable development can learn from. This paper presents the reforestaton actvites of South Korea during the twenteth century to help develop strategies to sustain forest management and their utlizaton in developing countries. Forests in South Korea were severely devastated due to Japanese colonizaton and the Korean War, which intensifed the shortage of livelihood optons and the crises resultng from natural disasters. Prior to 1973, the South Korean government atempted to develop a foundaton for reforestaton. The government created a legal foundaton to promote public partcipaton for plantng trees and fuelwood forests during this period. However, reforestaton actvites only took of during the imple- mentaton of the First Natonal Forest 10-Year Plan (1973-78), a long-term reforestaton project in South Korea. This project featured the actve applicaton of community-based forestry and the inte- graton of reforestaton actvites with rural economy improvement (i.e., Saemaul Undong). Further reforestaton actvites have followed the frst plan, sustaining the efect of reforestaton on a naton- al scale. An important element for successful reforestaton in South Korea was the efectve implementaton of community-based forestry. The Forest Law pushed local villagers to organize community-based forestry cooperatves called Sallimgye. During South Korea’s reforestaton period, this local group led public partcipaton in all reforestaton actvites, including seedling producton, tree plantng, for- est patrol, and forest product harvestng. Public partcipaton provided substantal labor and helped the government contnue reforestaton eforts. In turn, it contributed to amelioratng the rural economy as a principal component of the economic development project, ttled Saemaul Undong. For example, the community-based seedling producton, namely the Saemaul nursery program, played a role in meetng seedling demand for reforestaton and providing incentves for villagers through extra remuneraton. The South Korean government contnues to address the growing needs for forest protecton along with climate change mitgaton and adaptaton. In partcular, atenton has been placed on the pre- venton of forest fres and the restoraton of burnt forest lands. There is also growing interest to- wards systematc control of forest pests such as pine wilt disease. Moreover, the government pro- motes carbon ofset by legalizing the emission trading system and supportng actvites that help maintain and improve carbon sequestraton of the country’s forests. In additon to carbon sequestraton, South Korea evaluates other public benefts of reforested lands, notably biodiversity conservaton, disaster risk reducton, and water resource management. Forest 4 Policy Brief Series No.10 researchers have assessed the value of reforestaton in South Korea, and found that the economic benefts of reforestaton highly exceeded the total cost of reforestaton, making it an economically desirable and viable propositon. Currently, South Korea is implementng forest policies and practc- es for various purposes, such as improving the urban environment (urban forests), encouraging lei- sure spaces (recreaton forests), and pilotng new forestry systems (forest management in Jeju ex- perimental forests) along with traditonal tmber and non-tmber forest products. Research and de- velopment also contnuously address on-going issues such as climate change and environmental management. These outcomes and the current state in South Korean forestry highlight the signif- cance of reforested lands for society. In the past, South Korea received a signifcant amount of ofcial development assistance (ODA) for reforestaton and economic development. As Korea became an OECD-DAC country, it places high importance on contributng to environmental protecton and economic progress in developing coun- tries. Considering the unique experiences of South