Pressing Ahead to Keep
Country Green
Korea Forest Service to work for the Act on Protection of Baekdu Daegan 
Mountain System to preserve mountain ranges

Global warming has had a traumatic effect around the globe creating floods and mudslides. Statistics show that some 930 hectares of forests are inundated by mudslides a year on average in Korea, which is quite a jump from only 200 hectares in the 1980s.
The Korea Forest Service(KFS) is in charge of efforts to fight the dreadful development. The master plan has been established under the Act on Protection of Baekdu Daegan Mountain System to protect nature and ecosystem in Korea. KFS is confident that it will be able to do the job, recalling its experience of creating over 2 million hectares of forests in 15 years, the shortest time in the world.
Following are excerpts of an exclusive interview with Mr. Cho Yon-hwan, Chief of the Korea Forest Service by Elizabeth M. Oh, president & publisher of NewsWorld:
Question: The Forest Rehabilitation Project to turn mountains green, which started in 1973 has had an enormous success to the extent that the UN Agricultural and Food Organization nominated Korea as a successful country in reforestation. Can you tell us the process of the project and its current status?
Answer: We have been able to restore our forests with the project in the shortest possible time, an unprecedented record of 15 years. The project started in 1973 and culminated in 1987 and during the period, we were able to create 2,155,000 hectares of forests and 78,000 hectares of erosion control banks. We have been able to turn the bare mountains into green lush ones so to speak.
We have stabilized nitrogen bacteria in poor forest soil as part of an effort to improve the soil quality, which also contributed to the recovery of ecosystems in those mountains.
The forest growing stock has increased to 73 m3 at the end of 2003 compared to 6 m3 in 1952 and 17 m3 in 1978. The economic function of forests has been enhanced through planting trees in degraded land and fire, disease and insect damaged forests.
Total production of forest products amounts to 3,197.2 trillion won in 2003, which is 53 times the production of 60.6 billion won in 1975.
Q:What has been the significance of the establishment of Baekdu Daegan Mountain System(BDMS), the core of mountain ecosystem and future promotion plans?
A: Baekdu Daegan Mountain System(BDMS) is the main series of mountain ranges in the Korean Peninsula, stretching 1,400 km starting from Mt. Baekdu in North Korea to Mt. Jiri in the southern regions of the peninsula. No rivers flow from east to west because of this great mountain range. The mountains of the peninsula are composed of one "Great mountain range,"one "middle range"and 13 ranges. BDMS in the South stretches over 6 provinces including Gangwon, North Chungcheong, North Jeolla, South Jeolla, North Gyeongsang and South Gyeonsang provinces and 32 cities and counties.
In order to preserve the ecosystem of the great mountain range, the National Assembly drafted the Act on Protection of Baekdu Daegan Mountain System in 2003 to prevent exploitation of BDMS and to preserve its ecosystem. Under the law, the Korea Forest Service and the Ministry of Environment agreed to set up protective zones.
We held consultations with local authorities, residents and NGOs to designate the zones. The basic protected zones cover 540,000 hectares, among which the local authorities submitted for 250,000 hectares and the Korea Forest Service readjusted to 260,000 hectares.
Q:Can you explain to our readers what is the so called ?urturing Forests into Real Ones?
A:There are many forests looking green, but stopped growing due to the lack of right care. Many forests were damaged from fire and insects; on average, 6,400 hectares of forests are burned and 320,000 hectares of forests are damaged by insects and diseases. Every year, some 7,000 hectares of forests are being turned into other uses like roads, factories, stone quarries, among others.
The ?eal forests?are forests with appropriate functions, goals, and roles. We have to build forests with economic benefits producing quality timber; forests with recreational functions providing fresh air and beautiful scenery; forests with water storage functions; and forests with rich biodiversity and carbon sink functions.
There are some 2.15 million hectares of forests that need care, according to a survey by a team of experts from 1999 and 2002.
Since 1998, forest tending projects have been implemented on 820,000 hectares of forests, and it will be further extended to cover 1 million hectares of forests from 2004 to 2008. Ultimately, some 4.9 million hectares of forests will be taken care of until 2022 so as to expand carbon sink resources.
The project also create jobs for low-income people, about 2,000 jobs this year with the government set to dish out 31 billion won. 5,000 jobs will provided by 2008.
Forests by highways will be intensively burnished to help improve the landscape.
Q: Could you tell us about the insects that cause the so called "pine tree aids"?
A: Those insects were first found in Busan in 1988, brought into the country in pine logs imported from Japan. They kill pine trees no matter what, which is why they are called the "pine tree aids,"also known as pine wilt disease.
The pine wilt disease attacked pine trees in Busan and South Gyeongsang Province, but they spread to other areas including Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province, South Jeolla Province and Jeju Island.
We have been fighting the spread of those deadly insects by burning the infected pine trees. We tried to remove all the infected pine trees by April before the rainy season.
We drew up the second line of defense in the areas within 2 km of the infected areas. Aircrafts were used to spray insecticides in the areas to prevent further. Air sprays were conducted three to five times in a year.
Our third line of defense includes the areas 2 km outside the second defense line. We restrict logging in those areas, especially the infected pine trees.
The National Assembly legislated the Act on Pine Wilt Disease, which will come into effect on Sept.1, following the establishment of enforcement decrees. The law will back up various measures to prevent the spread of the insects by limiting the shipment of infected trees.
Q: Every year, there have been forest fires and mudslides in the mountains around the country. Can you tell us the forest protection policies?
A: On average, some 580 cases of forest fire occur every year, damaging 6,600 hectares. As of the end of June, there were 433 cases of forest fire affecting 2,033 hectares this year. Damage from those fires have been enormous because the damaged areas were 20 times the size of Mt. Nam in Seoul; it is difficult to arrive at figures in terms of its public interest. Direct damage has been calculated to amount to some 16.3 billion won.
In an effort to reduce the number of forest fires and minimize the damages, we have increased the number of firefighters to 3,940 this year from 3,008 of last year.
We also expanded the number of forest fire guards to around 20,000 and stationed them in fire-danger zones backed up by helicopters based in 8 centers around the country. We also installed surveillance cameras in key areas for early detection. The areas with those cameras expanded from 135 to 165 locations this year. There currently are 39 helicopters and the number will be increased to 41 with the addition of two more helicopters by the end of this year.
The government has been all-out to prevent forest fires especially to save human lives and minimize property damages. However, this cannot be done by the government alone. Cooperation of the public is greatly needed in preventing reckless fire disposal within the forests.
Global warming causing climate changes has been setting off natural disasters often growing in scale, exceeding past records.
Mudslides averaged 200 hectares a year in the 1980s, but it increased to 350 hectares in the 1990s and 930 hectares in the 2000s.
In the past five years, mudslides washed away 927 hectares of forests on annual average; 232 km of roads were damaged annually on average with 12 deaths a year. There has been an increase in storms and torrential rains sweeping the country with 250 mm of rain in Jeonju, South Jeolla Province on Aug.3.
As a measure to protect forests from mudslides effectively, the KFS has been conducting scientific and systematic management of those forest likely to be affected by mudslides. It has also expanded environment-friendly disaster prevention systems to keep forests sound and healthy.
KFS built erosion control dams to prevent mudslides, doubling their number from 200 to 400 a year.
KFS use GIS to control areas prone to mudslides more scientifically and systematically. The system will be completely developed by the end of the year and in turn the danger warning system will be fully operational.
Erosion control dams and other disaster prevention installations have been built in the watershed, along with the integration of various forest projects including the construction of disaster prevention forests in a bid to boost the disaster prevention function and expand public and economic functions in keeping watch over the watershed.
We have been working on a plan to plant environmentally sound trees with deep roots with large capacities to hold water and soil. We have prepared preventive measures to control forest disasters.
Q: Can you tell us major projects for this year and their details?
A:We have a policy to "nurture forests into real ones,"well equipped with various functions in terms of economy, culture and environment. We also have a plan to advance and professionalize forest administrative systems and reform forest administration for it to become a first-class government unit.
The list of key tasks include: developing forests with economic and environmental values by enhancing the quality of forest management and improving national forest management; establishing policies that can increase the income of forest workers and the supply of domestic timber; building disaster prevention facilities against calamities including wildfires, insect damages and landslides; promoting forest recreation culture so that people can enjoy the nature and diverse programs; strengthening environmentally sound forest management system in terms of conservation and development; developing advanced forest science technology for sustainable forest management and for UNFCCC; strengthening international cooperation in the forestry sector and expanding South-North cooperation in preparation of the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol and North Korea forest rehabilitation projects.
Q: Can you explain to us about "Carbon Sink CDM Project"agreed with Indonesia and Korea and about the international cooperation in connection with the Kyoto Protocol?
A: In line with the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol( Feb.16, 2005), we plan to be ready to do our share of responsibility for reducing greenhouse gases and expanding carbon sinks. We plan to establish a 10-year plan for domestic forestry sector, including forest tending, protection and bio-mass utilization. At the same time, we plan to create 150,000 hectares of forests overseas by 2017.
During the 17th Session of the Korea-Indonesia Forestry Committee held from July 4-5 in Indonesia, our side proposed that both sides draw up CDM projects until the 18th Session of the Committee in 2007. Indonesian side said their country is the most appropriate country for CDM projects due to its rich forest resources, government intentions, and legal and technical aspects. They welcomed our proposal and agreed to appoint experts and provide information. The joint project is still in the early stages, but we have established the foundation for CDM carbon sink projects.
We also have been making efforts to create an Asian regional partnership to cope with CDM and climate change in cooperation with the United States, Japan, China, India and Australia?countries with large greenhouse gas emission.
KFS is ready to expand forest activities through inter-governmental joint projects and private enterprise investments, providing cooperative action for CDM and JI projects.
We also plan to dispatch experts and study rain forests to build the foundation for CDM projects.
Q: You have done a lot since you came to KFS in terms of your job as head of KFS, especially prevention of wildfires. Do you have any thing more to add to answers you provided in this interview?
A:One of our country's proudest achievements aside from the Miracle on the Han River is in the field of forestation. We have virtually turned all mountains in the country green. Germany and Japan are two other countries that have achieved similar accomplishments as us. But they had the system handed down historically. In other words, they had better things to work with compared to us.
Korea was divided into south and north at the end of the World War II and had gone through the Korean War. Illegal logging and chaotic situation followed, vastly damaging the forests in the country. South Korea is one of the leading countries in terms of reforestation. Our success is more widely recognized overseas than at home. It took only 15 years, from 1973 to 1987, to rehabilitate our forests, the shortest period ever recorded.
Members of the North Korean delegation to the joint 60th Independence Day Ceremony last Aug. 15 were quite surprised by the rehabilitation of our forests. What we do from now on is more important than what we had done in the past because we have to continue to take care of those trees until they are fully grown and are able to contribute to the national economy by becoming an important national asset. They need care like children. But the public pays scant attention to it, having the misconception that the trees grow well by themselves. It takes from 40 to 50 years for pine and larch to fully grow.
The Act on the Protection of Baekdu Daegan Moutnain System is very significant in that it will help preserve the life line of the Korean Peninsula, including its ecosystem by legally preventing reckless development projects. It will be preserving a great wall surrounding us by keeping our traditional forests and mountains unharmed.
KFS will from now on work for creating a new environment for cities as well under the Act on Forest Culture and Recreation so as to increase forest cover in urban areas.
KFS? annual budget amounts to 1,000 billion won and about 300 billion won is spent annually to plant trees, which is far short of meeting the expectations; we need to double the amount to do the right job. KFS has 1,700 employees including the officers in five agencies under KFS such as the Forest Aviation Office and National Natural Recreation Forest Office.
Q: What is your philosophy for life?
A: I think that all people should be like trees. Trees do their best at the places they were born and give everything without reservation. There are many things that humans can learn from trees and the world will become a better place only when inhabited by morally righteous people. nw

Cho Yon-hwan, chief of the Korea Forest Service
A map of Baekdudaegan stretching from north to south in the Korean Peninsula.