A study on policies to improve wood self-sufficiency in South Korea

Although the wood self-sufficiency in South Korea up to 2007 was not even 10%, it has recently begun to increase gradually, reaching 16.7% in 2014. This improvement in wood self-sufficiency is the result of various forestry policies to expand the gradually maturing supply of domestic wood. Broadly, there were two types of policies to improve wood self-sufficiency, established as part of the Fifth National Forest Plan (2008-2017). The first are policies to ensure a stable supply of domestic timber, such as properly timed felling of forest trees that have reached cutting age and species conversion in forests of low value. Such policies will be able to supply an additional 600,000 m1 of domestic timber per year. The second type of policy is based on the time during which wood can be sold for the best price, in order to increase the income of forest owners by relaxation of the standard cutting ages. The standard cutting age for oak trees has been shortened from 50 to 25 years, and the standard cutting age for larch trees (Laiix leptolepis) has been relaxed from 40 to .30 years. Relaxing the standard cutting ages will increase the timber harvest, leading to a growth in domestic timber production of 265,000 m' per year. As a result, wood self-sufficiency is forecasted to reach 21% by 2017.