• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.89 no.2
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• pp.260-274
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• 2000

The purposes of this study were to reveal the backgrounds, process, and evaluation of the "Forest Survey Project(1910)" and to determine the influence of the "Comments on the Classification of Forest Land Ownership in Korea(1910)", which was based upon the results of the project, on forest policy in the early period of the General-Government of Korea. The forest survey project was conducted by two Japanese, Kiuchi and Saito, to understand the forest distribution in the Korean Peninsula by ownership and stand. However, the accuracy of the project was very low due to the lack of budget and time. Especially, village forests and special easement forests in the northern peninsula were classified into the Nation Forest without Administration caused by the informality and arbitrariness of the survey. Nevertheless, the General-Government of Korea used the results of the survey for establishing the forest policy on the classification of the forest land ownership in Korea at that time. The "Comments on the Classification of Forest Land Ownership in Korea(1910)" was based upon the results of the survey as mentioned above. The comments was realized as colonial forest policy through the Forest Ordinance in 1911 and a series of policies consolidating the modern forest ownership. To conclude, the "Forest Survey Project" was used to establish colonial forest policy in the early of the General-Government of Korea while its accuracy was truly low. Moreover, the "Comments on the Classification of Forest Land Ownership in Korea" had a great influence on the formulating the directions and details of colonial forest policy in Korea under the rule of Japanese Imperialism.