Korea Forest Service newly designates 170 ha of national and private forests in Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do as a Forest Genetic Resources Protection Area

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 6th that it had newly designated a total of 170 ha, including 147 ha of national forest and 23 ha of private forest, in Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do, as a forest genetic resource protection area.

The newly designated area this time is a 'natural ecosystem conservation area' type among the seven types of forest genetic resource protection areas, and is connected to the existing forest genetic resource protection areas designated in the Pyeongchang and Hongcheon areas.

Accordingly, about 9,300 ha of forest is connected to a continuous protected space, which is larger than Naejangsan National Park (about 8,000 ha) and Bukhansan National Park (about 7,700 ha).

The Korea Forest Service plans to designate and manage forest genetic resource protection areas by comprehensively considering their ecological value and connectivity with existing protected areas, and continue to increase the connectivity of protected areas by linking them with major forest ecological axes such as Baekdudaegan.

We plan to expand cooperation with forest owners for private forests with high ecological value to encourage voluntary participation of the private sector in forest conservation and expand the basis for the government, local communities, and the private sector to conserve biodiversity together.

Park Young-hwan, head of the Forest Environment Protection Department, said, "We will systematically designate and manage forest genetic resource protection areas and establish a 'well-connected protected area system' to increase the biodiversity and ecosystem health of our forests."