• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.330-338
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• 2023

To investigate the impact of forestry projects on the carbon stocks of forests, we estimated the carbon stock change of above-ground and soil before and after forestry projects using forest type maps, forestry project information, and soil information. First, we selected six map sheet with large areas and declining age class based on forest type map information. Then, we collected data such as forest type maps, growth coefficients, soil organic matter content, and soil bulk density of the estimated areas to calculate forest carbon storage. As a result, forest carbon stocks decreased by about 34.1~70.0% after forestry projects at all sites. In addition, compared to reference studies, domestic forest soils store less carbon than the above-ground, so it is judged that domestic forest soils have great potential to store more carbon and strategies to increase carbon storage are needed. It was estimated that the amount of carbon stored before forestry projects is about 1.5 times more than after forestry projects. The study estimated that it takes about 27 years for forests to recover to their pre-thinning carbon stocks following forestry projects. Since it takes a long time for forests to recover to their original carbon stocks once their carbon stocks are reduced by physical damage, it is necessary to plan to preserve them as much as possible, especially for highly conservative forests, so that they can maintain their carbon storage function.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.4
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• pp.554-568
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• 2021

Forests are the largest carbon (C) sinks in terrestrial ecosystems. Recently, as enhancing forest C sequestration capacity has been proposed as a basic direction of the Republic of Korea's "2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy," accurate estimation of forest C sequestration has been emphasized. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines, sequestration quantity is calculated from changes in C stocks in forest C pools, such as biomass, deadwood, litter and soil layer, and harvested wood products. However, in Korea, only the overstory biomass increase is now considered the amount of sequestration quantity, so there can be a significant difference from the actual forest C sequestration. In this study, we quantified forest C exchange through C flux measurement using an eddy covariance system and an automated soil chamber system in a 57-year-old Korean pine plantation located in Mt. Taehwa, Gwangju-si, Gyeonggi-do. Then, the net amount of C sequestration was compared with the amount of the overstory biomass increase. We estimated the annual C stock change in the remaining C pools by comparing the net sequestration amount from the C flux measurement with the overstory biomass increase and C stock change in the litter layer. Therefore, the net C sequestration of the Korean pine plantation estimated from the flux measurement was 5.96 MgC ha^-1, which was about 2.2 times greater than 2.77 MgC ha^-1 of the overstory biomass increase. The annual C stock increase in the litter layer was estimated to be 0.75 MgC ha^-1, resulting in a total annual C stock increase of 2.45 MgC ha^-1 in the remaining C pools. Our results indicate that the domestic forest is a larger C sink than the current methods, implying that more accurate calculations of the C sequestration capacity are necessary to quantify C stock changes in C pools along with the C flux measurement.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.101 no.1
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• pp.83-90
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• 2012

Forests as carbon sinks and sources, play an important role in mitigating global climate change. Nonpermanence problem of forest carbon offset projects should be addressed practically and properly for obtaining credible forest carbon credits. This study aims to analyze major non-permanence approaches and their applicability for Korean forest carbon offset projects. Introduction of the buffer system, one of the most generally used non-permanence approaches, should be considered first for domestic forest carbon offset schemes. From the research survey, experts preferred the buffer system to other approaches such as forest certification, conservation easement, and longer conservation period. Standard development including a buffer system with a risk assessment tool is required to assure project participation and permanence of carbon credits.

• Journal of Korea Foresty Energy
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.37-45
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• 2005

This study presents a method how to estimate the change of stand volume, the stand biomass and the carbon removals, using dynamic stand growth model according to whether the practices for forest management are implemented or not. As a result, it shows that the rate of stand change was significantly high if the practices were implemented. Consequently, the change of carbon removals was also high. The carbon removals at the stand where the practices were not implemented, was estimated about 0.27tC/ha. And the carbon removals at the stand where the practices were implemented, was estimated 166.02tC/ha(thinning from above) and 163.75tC/ha(thinning from below). It is confirmed that the thinning activities has a great influence on the change of carbon removals and there was little difference of the carbon removals between thinning types. From this result, it is proved that forest management like thinning activities is prerequisite condition to improve the carbon removals of stand.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2011

Amidst the raising of climate change in relation to the earth's environment as an international issue, there is a growing interest in forest resources. In particular, Korea faces a period in which we need to control carbon release pursuant to the Convention on Climate Change and the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol; therefore, the importance of forests is becoming greater. Recently, there has been a focus on light detection and ranging (Lidar) which is a means of acquiring in a short time various necessary pieces of information for forest management as three dimensional geospatial information. In this study, the carbon absorption of a forest was measured by using the Lidar data obtained from the Lidar. Carbon absorption release was calculated on the basis of three criteria involving the minimum height of a tree, the density of the forest, and the minimum area of the forest, which are items proposed by the Forest resources surveyor. Through this study, a method of extracting the carbon absorption of a forest area using the Lidar data quantitatively was confirmed.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.193-206
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• 2024

This study aimed to quantify changes in forest cover and carbon storage of Korean Peninsular during the last two decades by integrating field measurement, satellite remote sensing, and modeling approaches. Our analysis based on 30-m Landsat data revealed that the forested area in Korean Peninsular had diminished significantly by 478,334 ha during the period of 2000-2019, with South Korea and North Korea contributing 51.3% (245,725 ha) and 48.6% (232,610 ha) of the total change, respectively. This comparable pattern of forest loss in both South Korea and North Korea was likely due to reduced forest deforestation and degradation in North Korea and active forest management activity in South Korea. Time series of above ground biomass (AGB) in the Korean Peninsula showed that South and North Korean forests increased their total AGB by 146.4Tg C (AGB at 2020=357.9Tg C) and 140.3Tg C (AGB at 2020=417.4Tg C), respectively, during the last two decades. This could be translated into net AGB increases in South and North Korean forests from 34.8 and 29.4 Mg C ha^-1 C to 58.9(+24.1) and 44.2(+14.8) Mg C ha^-1, respectively. It indicates that South Korean forests are more productive during the study period. Thus, they have sequestered more carbon. Our approaches and results can provide useful information for quantifying national scale forest cover and carbon dynamics. Our results can be utilized for supporting forest restoration planning in North Korea

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.97-107
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• 2010

A forest project for the sequestration of carbon dioxide helps to reduce the concerntration of greenhouse gas in atmosphere and provides various co-benefits. A lot of forestry-based carbon offset programs have been developing for the purpose of CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility), voluntary GHG emission reduction, and regulatory context etc. in worldwide. We studied major characteristics - project type and criteria, additionality, credits, permanence, carbon accounting and monitoring, co-benefit - of advanced forest carbon offset programs. Also, we tried to comprehend the direction and basic elements to design a domestic program.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.103 no.1
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• pp.137-146
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• 2014

We have developed the Forest Carbon Sink Index on afforestation and reforestation activities, a regulation stated in article 26 of the 'Law on the maintenance and enhancement of carbon sink (Carbon Sink Law)', which took effect on March, 2013. According to the legal purpose to evaluate the performance of individual forest carbon offset projects and to compare each other at a certain point, values of the forest carbon sink index were calculated by the scoring method. Three criteria were established based on the Carbon Sink Law: 'Carbon' (real greenhouse gas reduction), 'Human' (socio-economic effect) and 'Nature' (environmental effect). Continuously, 9 indicators from the three criteria were selected by top-down approach; the adequacy of each criteria and indicators were reviewed through on-line Delphi survey; and finally weighted value of each criteria and indicators were assigned. To reflect the characteristics of the domestic forest carbon offset projects, which focus on corporate social responsibility-typed projects, we applied the score weighting method to minimize gaps among criteria and ones among indicators. After applying our newly developed forest carbon sink index to five domestic forest carbon offset projects, we could confirm that the criteria of 'Human' and 'Nature', which criteria are in relatively low weight, can play a role as an actual incentive to reduce negative socio-economic and environmental impacts. Based on performance evaluation of the five forest carbon offset project by the forest carbon sink index, the best or good performance project developers could be rewarded, and further the performance evaluation would work as an incentive to stimulate the involvement of domestic project developers in the field of forest carbon offset project.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2009

This study aims to identify negotiation alternatives related to Post-2012 reducing emissions from deforestation (RED) and enhancement of forest carbon stock (EFCS) activities. It also aims to recommend a negotiation strategy considering environmental integrity and national interest on the basis of estimating reduction potentials of each alternative on the assumption that tradable carbon credits play an important role as positive incentives. In order to estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potentials and income potential from RED and EFCS activities, 99 countries were selected by the Global Forest Resources Assessment of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. A 'baseline and credit' method was applied to estimate RED activities. Gross-net and net-net methods were applied for EFCS activities. According to the results, Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have more potential to get positive incentives through RED, while China, Chile, and the Republic of Korea have more potential to get positive incentives through EFCS. This study suggests including both RED and EFCS activities in the boundary of policy approaches and endowment of positive incentives to consider GHG reduction potentials in the global scale and equity among developing countries. Making a discount rate application of forest management activities can be also recommended to factor out the effects of human-induced activities by EFCS activities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.2
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• pp.233-243
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• 2021

Considering worldwide efforts to mitigate repercussions of climate change, the South Korean government has declared to reach net zero by 2050 to achieve a carbon-neutral sustainable society. For full implementation of NDCs, the government has actively reflected its forestry sector into these strategies. Since coarse woody debris (CWD) in forests represents an enduring carbon storage, it is of particular significance to determine characteristics of changes in carbon stocks of CWD by utilizing data on dead trees monitored in permanent sample plots within national forest inventories (NFIs). In this study, therefore, both occurrence and carbon stocks of CWD were estimated in such plots using data on CWD from the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th NFIs. Subsequently, characteristics of changes in carbon stocks over time were analyzed. Based on the analysis of 2,021 plots available for monitoring in each NFI of Gangwon Province, the volume of CWD (m³ ha^-1) was found to be 4.71 in the 5^th NFI and 4.09 in the 6^th NFI. However, the volume of CWD declined to 3.09 in the 7^th NFI. Moreover, the annual carbon stocks of CWD (ton C ha^-1) were estimated to be 0.67 in 2009, 0.64 in 2014, and 0.41 in 2019, showing a downward trend over time. This study provides a basis for future research to investigate long-term changes and estimate carbon stocks of CWD in South Korea forests.