Government reaches out beyond borders to make the Earth greener


It is now high-tech gadgets and automobiles that make Korea a global model of success, but the nation’s original start-from-scratch story lies within its forests.

Korea made itself green out of the rubble of the Korean War, and its reforestation garnered much praise from around the world. As Lester Brown, a well-known U.S. environmental analyst, once said, “South Korea is a reforestation model for the world. We can reforest the earth!”

With this significant achievement under its belt, the Korea Forest Service is now reaching beyond its borders to developing countries in Asia and South America, where economic growth has been accelerating deforestation and land degradation. Last year’s Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, which was the 10th of its kind and hosted by the KFS in Changwon, was an occasion that further enhanced Korea’s role as a bridge between developing and developed nations on desertification and other climate change issues.

Green growth, a way to meet domestic demand for wood

To achieve self-sufficiency and become less dependent on imports for wood, the KFS has drawn up a decades-spanning plan to facilitate Korean companies’ plantation investments on 1 million hectares (10,000 square kilometers) of land overseas. So far we are ahead of schedule. By the end of 2011, a quarter of the goal, or 254,000 ha, had been planted by 24 companies in 12 countries.

The pioneer in Korea’s overseas forest investments is Korea Development Co., a Seoul-based company that made inroads into Indonesian tropical forests in 1968. Government-supported offshore plantation had not been in practice until 1993, when Hansol Homedeco Co. cultivated 508 ha of forests in Collie, western Australia, partly to meet the growing domestic demand for a steady wood supply.

The away-from-home investments picked up in the following decade. Hansol Homedeco had planted trees on 9,000 ha of land in New Zealand by 2002 and on 16,000 ha in Australia by 2003. Then the company shifted its operational focus in 2004 from afforestation to silviculture, which aims to enhance the quality and density of existing forests. In Australia, fast-growing species of Eucalyptus were planted for producing woodchips, a raw material for wood pulp, while New Zealand became richer with species of Radiata Pine, valued for rapid growth and desirable lumber and pulp qualities.

Seyang Cosmo Inc. advanced into Vietnam in 1994 and cultivated 16,000 ha of forests by 2011. Since 2000, the firm’s investments have yielded long-awaited fruit, bringing in massive amounts of processed woodchips to Korea. Seyang’s current arena centers on reforesting felled areas in Vietnam.

The National Forestry Cooperative Federation, an umbrella state-run body, has secured 10,000 ha of land for forest plantations in West Java, Indonesia, and about 7,000 ha of forests had been cultivated by 2011.

Korindo, a leading Korean company that has built its name in Indonesia with its thriving logging business, cultivated 100,000 ha of forests in the period between 1994 and 2011. It has set the goal of adding 10,000 ha of forests to Indonesia every year over the next five years to maintain the strength of its wood production on more than 100,000 ha, and started a new palm oil plantation project on 200,000 ha of land.

Donghae Pulp Co., since making inroads into Hainan Province, southern China, in 1997, has planted trees on 5,000 ha, and in 2004 started bringing in timbers of Casuarina species to Korea for domestic use.

Korea Development Co., the pioneer in Korean offshore plantations, cultivated 14,000 ha of forests in Indonesia until 1999, although its tight financial conditions now make it difficult for the firm to commence a new project.

In line with international calls for green growth, Korean corporate investments in the field of forestry bioenergy have significantly increased as well. Since 2007, the soaring prices of raw materials and oil have prompted corporate giants like Samsung C&T Corp., LG International Corp., Samtan Co. and Daesang Holdings Co. to reach out for renewable energy from forest resources abroad.

Joining hands with Asia & South America

Taking the initiative in spearheading global green growth, the KFS has been strengthening bilateral cooperation with countries in Asia, securing a steady supply of wood resources and in return, pooling its expertise and technology on forest restoration.

This year, the KFS’ cooperative relationships further expanded toward South America, a continent where natural resources abound and ecological endemism thrives. New memoranda of understanding on forest cooperation were signed between the KFS and the environment ministries of Chile, Brazil and Ecuador in May and June this year.

Celebrating its decades-spanning forestry partnership with Indonesia, the KFS held the 20th Forest Forum with Indonesia’s Forestry Research and Development Agency in July. Indonesia was the first country where the KFS made overseas forest investments and held the first bilateral Forest Forum in 1979. A KFS official is currently dispatched in Jakarta to facilitate the rehabilitation of degraded forests, provide Korea’s seedling technology and conduct joint research on climate change adaptation.

Korea’s international cooperation in forestry had a epochal moment when President Lee Myung-bak made a visit to Jakarta and signed the MOU on Wood Biomass Energy Industry Development with his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in 2009. In line with the agreement, Indonesia set out to provide 200,000 ha of land for Korean forest plantations, and the four Korean enterprises ― the National Forestry Cooperative Federation, Korindo, PT Bara Indoco and PT Solar Park ― have since been actively pushing forward their plantation projects in the Southeast Asian country.

With Cambodia, one of the Asian countries with a high potential for forest resources development, the MOU Concerning the Cooperation on Investment in Forest Plantation and Climate Change was signed in 2009. Cambodia has since authorized the provision of 200,000 ha of land for Korean plantations and given administrative assistance for Korean private-sector investments.

With private investments picking up, the government has also thrown its weight behind overseas plantations in order to help secure pulp and other wood resources in the face of growing concerns of the shortages of forest resources on the planet.

In particular, SK Forest Co., in partnership with the Korea Green Promotion Agency, an arm of the KFS, was granted from the Cambodian government in January the right to cultivate 150 ha of experimental and rehabilitated forests in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Also, Hanwha Co. signed a contract with the Forestry Administration of Cambodia to plant profit-sharing forests and afterwards secured 34,000 ha of land in Kratie, a Cambodian border city, for the purpose. Other pulp and wood companies are also trying to make inroads into Cambodia’s wealth of forest resources.

The KFS currently operates bilateral partnerships with 16 countries: Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Mongolia, China, Tunisia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil and Japan.

Diffusing green growth to the world

As a way of facilitating global efforts to prevent forest degradation and ecological destruction in developing countries, the KFS has been actively promoting the transfer of its advanced technology and expertise on sustainable forest management to the international community.

As part of such efforts, the KFS has planted 550 ha of mangrove forests in Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar, Pidi, Lhoksumawe and Aceh Utara, the five Indonesian regions badly damaged by the 2004 tsunami, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the region. It also established the Mangrove Information Center as an education facility for local communities.

The KFS regularly dispatches forest experts to Indonesia to improve tree species and establish modern seedling farms and build the capacity of the local communities to manage their forests in a sustainable manner. Through a seedling farm established in 2010, the KFS has engaged in seed management and genetic resources projects for the country.

As part of the mutual commitment to forest cooperation, the Korea-Indonesia Forest Center opened in 2011 to invigorate Korean investments and facilitate capacity building programs in Indonesia.

A variety of education programs are under way. A number of civil servants from Indonesia, Myanmar and Mongolia have visited Korea to receive training in the field of forestry, some taking master’s or doctoral courses in Korean universities. With the rising demand for such training programs, the KFS seeks to expand its budgets to provide more educational opportunities for Asian officials and experts.

Expanding ODA for anti-desertification

With its experience of rapid and efficient forest rehabilitation, the KFS has engaged in various aid projects for the countries threatened by desertification and land degradation.

First of all, in the Mongolian deserts, known as the origin of yellow dust that plagues the Korean Peninsula every spring, the KFS has been implementing a 10-year Mongolian Greenbelt Plantation Project since 2007. KFS officials have been dispatched to Mongolia to implement a desertification prevention project over 1,200 ha of land in Lun Som and Dalanzadgad, establish modern seedling farms and share their plantation expertise.

The KFS has also conducted 1,034 ha of forest plantations since 2007 at the Kubuchi Desert, Inner Mongolia, to help curb rapid desertification and restore its ecology.

Non-governmental organizations have chipped in. The Northeast Asian Forest Forum and Future Forest have actively been engaging in “friendship forests” cultivation projects to prevent the spread of deserts in China and Mongolia. The cause has recently been joined by private enterprises and provincial governments in Korea.

In Nyangu, marked by large swaths of degraded forests in central Myanmar, the KFS has dispatched a group of forest experts from 2008 through 2010 to rehabilitate 150 ha of forests.

The KFS will continue to make its best efforts to become a global green growth leader, expanding its Green Overseas Development Assistance project to enhance the efficiency of forest plantations abroad, promoting sustainable forest management and preventing deforestation and land degradation worldwide.

By Lee Don-koo, Minister of Korea Forest Service