About Overseas Forest Resources Development

Definition

The independent act of a Korean citizen or cooperation with a foreigner to develop forest resources overseas to import all or part of the resources or borrowing of development capital from a foreigner to import all or part of the developed resources (related legislation: “Overseas Agriculture and Forest Resources Development and Cooperation Act”); the scope of the development project of overseas forest resources includes afforestation carried out overseas (industrial afforestation, carbon emission rights afforestation, bioenergy afforestation), deforestation, and processing of forest products.

General Status

Target

Developing overseas forest resources to supply long-term and stable forest resources Satisfying the domestic forest product demand with 1,000,000 ha overseas afforestation by 2050

Industrial afforestation to secure lumber resources like hardwood, sawn wood, and chip: 220,000 ha

Carbon emission rights afforestation to secure carbon emission rights in preparation for climate change pacts: 20,000 ha

Bioenergy afforestation to secure bioenergy like biodiesel: 110,000 ha

Progress Direction

Securing investment stability by entering into forestry cooperation with the host country of investment

Modifying the support policy to broaden overseas forest resources development

Providing information such as data on the investment environment of major investment target countries

Expanding investment target countries to Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and Africa

Reconsidering investment consulting expertise through the green business group (overseas forestry business headquarters)

Profitability of Overseas Afforestation

Korea relies on import for 85% of lumber demand

Trees in tropical regions grow 3-5 times faster than those in Korea

The IRR (Internal Rate of Return) of overseas afforestation companies is around 12%

Overseas Afforestation Performance

34 companies entered 14 countries from 1993 to 2015, 399,000 ha of afforestation