[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service is expanding the supply of domestic timber.
On the 30th, the Korea Forest Service announced that it will increase domestic timber production to 5 million cubic meters this year, focusing on economic forest cultivation complexes.
The expansion of domestic timber production reflects the expectation that demand for forest biomass wood pellets will increase due to the increase in the Social Overhead Capital (SOC) budget in the civil engineering sector and the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS).
With the SOC budget increase this year activating civil engineering projects, the Korea Forest Service plans to increase timber production in preparation for the higher utilization of wood for renewable energy purposes.
For example, the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard mandates power producers to supply a certain percentage of their total power generation from renewable energy sources, with the related ratios increasing from 5.0% in 2018, 6.0% in 2019, 7.0% in 2020, to 10.0% from 2023 onwards.
In this regard, the Korea Forest Service plans to meet the increasing timber demand mainly through economic forest cultivation complexes.
Economic forest cultivation complexes are designated by the Korea Forest Service to ensure stable supply and increase of high-quality timber through selective and focused forest management. Currently, a total of 387 sites are designated nationwide, producing domestic timber from 2.34 million hectares of forest.
Additionally, the system is being improved to utilize forest biomass that is unused?such as fire-damaged timber for power generation wood pellets and livestock bedding?and through the establishment of unused forest resource centers to recycle discarded forest by-products, actively promoting resource utilization to balance supply and demand in the timber industry.
Han Chang-sul, Director of Forest Resources Division, stated, “We will strive to establish a sustainable forest resource circulation system for high-quality timber production and ensure stable supply of raw materials for the timber industry while enabling income generation for forest owners.”
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