Korea is evaluated to have low forestry competitiveness due to its rugged mountain terrain and small scale of forest ownership. However, Austria and Japan boast high forestry competitiveness despite their rugged terrain, high labor costs, and low timber prices. Germany has also vitalized forest management, gathering many small-scale forest owners.

The Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) hosted the “International Seminar on Improving the Profitability of Forest Management: Small-Scale Forestry” on Oct. 18 (Weds.), sharing forestry-advanced countries’ cases and support policies and discussing measures to apply them to Korea.

In his presentation, “Small-Scale Forest Management and Policy Tasks in Korea,” KREI senior research fellow Min Kyungtaek pointed out that the current forestry based on short-rotation clear cutting does not enable sustainable forest management, and argued that long-rotation selective cutting based on natural regeneration is necessary. For this, he said, “It is needed to reform the excessive forestry subsidy system and invest more in the forest management infrastructure such as forest roads.”

Dr. Alois Schuschnigg at the Austrian Research Centre for Forests introduced the present state of Austria’s forestry. The country boasts high forestry competitiveness despite its rugged mountain terrain, with the forestry and timber industry accounting for 1.7% of GDP. Although there are many small-scale forest owners, their own forest tree production using simple machines reaches 44% thanks to the sufficient forestry infrastructure including forest roads.

President Carl von Butler of the Bayern Forest Owner Association in Germany introduced the current situation of Bayern’s private forest management and government support policies. Because small-scale forest owners are not interested in forest tree harvest, the Association makes efforts for promotion. Also, the Association strives for marketing to sell its members’ timber.

Dr. Herbert Borchert at Germany’s Bavarian State Institute of Forestry introduced the present status of small-scale forest management. The Bayern forest authorities try to gather timber produced by many small-scale forest managers and to connect them with sawmills. Particularly, the Forest Owner Association signs a contract with sawmills and makes efforts to sell timber that members produce. Due to high labor costs for simple laborers, small-scale forest owners produce timber by themselves. Production costs do not include labor costs, which leads to high profitability.

Vice President Nagata Shin of the Japanese Forestry Association introduced the current state of forest management in Japan. He pointed out the slow progress of the forest management plan in Japan’s forest ownership structure, and the need to establish a system commissioning the making of the plan.

Discussants were as follows: Kangwon National University professor Kim Junsun, Chonnam National University professor An Giwan, Kyungpook National University professor Park Juwon, Dr. Won Hyeongyu at the National Institute of Forest Science, Dr. Gwon Obok from the Forestry Promotion Institute, Dr. Chong Hogun at KREI, and Vice President Lee Sanggui of the Forest Manager Association. Participation of forest managers and graduate students in the audience also led to a heated discussion.