'Korea ranks 1st in forest management in the world,' FAO says

Comparing the results of forest management over the past 25 years (1990~2015), the Committee on Forestry (COFO) of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Oct. 12 that Korea is the world's No. 1 forest management in terms of "forest tress accumulation growth rate."

The Korea Forest Service (KFS), led by Minister Park Chong-ho, is participating in the global event held in Rome, Italy.

The COFO of the FAO is one of the biggest events in the forest sector held every two years, a regular meeting that shares international forest policy directions and releases forest-related information and statistics from around the world and continents.

The committee, which was scheduled to be held in June this year, was postponed due to COVID-19 and held a large-scale video conference as a global event from Oct. 2 to 12.

A forum was held on Oct. 12 over the report published by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in late 2019 under the topic of "Forest Futures in the Asia-Pacific Region.”

A director of the KFS in charge of the international forest cooperation participated in the event and announced the implications, including the results of the analysis in the "Forest Future in the Asia-Pacific Region."

The above UN Food and Agriculture Organization report compared the growth rate of forest resources per unit area (ha) in the period (1990~2015) and analyzed that Korea (196%) ranked first among countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Korea Forest Service shared the results of its analysis among 37 OECD countries and 20 major global economies in the same way as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization used, and the analysis also confirmed that Korea was the top in terms of forest tree growth.

The KFS shared the results of its analysis with 37 OECD countries and 20 major global economies in the same way as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization used, and the analysis also confirmed that Korea was the top in terms of forest tree growth.

"Unlike previous studies, the U.N. Forest Agriculture Organization's report is of high value in terms of time-series (1990-2015 years) comparison of 'forest management performance per unit area,'" said Ko Ki-yeon, director of the KFS.

"In addition to the pride that Korea planted 10 billion trees in the past forestation period (1973–87), it has proved to be the highest level of forest management in the world since 1990," he said.

On the other hand, Shin Won-seop (former head of the KFS), a professor at Chungbuk National University, chaired the forest committee.