It has been revealed that a total of 74,947 hectares of protected areas in South Korea overlap with economic forest cultivation zones. This area is equivalent to 1.2 times the total area of Seoul. The investigation was based on the country’s protected areas recorded in the global protected areas database.
On June 5, in celebration of World Environment Day, Greenpeace published a report titled ‘Unprotected Protected Areas’ in collaboration with Professor Park Jong-won from the Department of Law at Pukyong National University, highlighting the vulnerability of domestic protected areas to logging.
Greenpeace’s Seoul office analyzed the map of economic forest cultivation zones from South Korea’s Forest Service and confirmed that a total of 74,947 hectares of protected areas overlap with economic forest cultivation zones. The economic forest cultivation zones are areas established to sustainably supply high-quality timber, where the Forest Service plans to carry out a sustainable management cycle involving planting, growing, harvesting, and utilizing forest resources.
Among the protected areas that overlap with economic forest cultivation zones is the Baekdu-daegan protection area, referred to as the ecological axis of South Korea. After a visit to Jirisan, one of the Baekdu-daegan protected areas, by Greenpeace in April 2024, it was found that logging had occurred across 11 zones from buffer areas to core habitat areas. A notice reading ‘Location for the Leading Forest Management Complex and Forest Thinning Pilot Project’ was found on the logged areas.
Protected areas are designated to minimize ecosystem destruction due to human development activities, comprising well-known national parks such as Seoraksan and Jirisan. Particularly, the Baekdu-daegan protection area is known as the core ecological axis connecting the north and south of the Korean Peninsula and a treasure for biodiversity. The complete logging in this area poses a significant risk of extensive ecological destruction.
Greenpeace pointed to a weak legislative framework as the background for the economic forest development within protected areas. According to the Greenpeace report, current laws do not clearly define the legal concepts of ‘economic forests’ and ‘protected areas.’ Protected areas are managed based on the purposes set by ten different legal regulations. While certain areas prohibit logging based on designated purposes or detailed classifications, most areas do not prohibit logging, and even where it is prohibited, extensive exceptions make it permissible.
Professor Park Jong-won from Pukyong National University stated, “The Baekdu-daegan Protection Act adopts a blacklist approach, listing prohibited activities within protected areas but does not include logging as a prohibited activity. Allowing logging within protected areas contradicts the legislative intent of preserving the natural environment of Baekdu-daegan from indiscriminate development activities and does not align with the goals of effective conservation and management required by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework Goals 3 (30×30).”
Cho Tae-young, a biodiversity campaigner, stated, “Developing protected areas leads to the destruction of habitats for wild flora and fauna, as well as carbon sinks, undermining the sustainability of forests. The Forest Service should dissolve economic forest cultivation zones within protected areas, and the Ministry of Environment should effectively manage protected areas according to international standards set by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).”
The South Korean government signed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) in 2022 and announced a goal to expand protected areas and areas of ecological coexistence (OECM) to cover 30% of the national territory by 2030 in the fifth national biodiversity strategy in 2023. However, recent developments, including the installation of a cable car in Seoraksan and airport construction in certain areas of Hongdo within the Dadohaehaesang National Park, have sparked controversies over the increase of so-called ‘paper parks’ where protected areas exist in name only.
The recently released report ‘Unprotected Protected Areas’ was reviewed by notable figures including Choi Joong-ki, head of the organization Friends of the Mountains and Nature, honorary professor at Inha University’s Department of Oceanography; Han Sang-hoon, chief researcher at the Korea Wildlife Research Institute; and Yoon Yeo-chang, honorary professor at Seoul National University (Forest Science).
Greenpeace plans to release simulation videos showing the ecological impact of economic forest development in Jirisan and to advocate for legislation to prevent development activities within protected areas, as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the importance of these regions.
Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr