Enhancing the provisioning of ecosystem services in South Korea under climate change: The benefits and pitfalls of current forest management strategies

Abstract

We present a study about the integrated impact of adaptive management and climate change using spatially-explicit tools at first time for assessing changes in forest ecosystem services in South Korea. The aims of this study were to: (i) project potential changes among forest ecosystem services under various scenarios, (ii) assess the impact of forest management [Sc1: controlled, Sc2: business as usual, and Sc3: adaptive management] and climate change through comparison among them, and (iii) find insight for strategies to implementing both sustainable society and environment. For this purpose, the integrated tool was applied to analyze the changes in five ecosystem services: forest carbon storage, carbon sequestration, industrial wood production, freshwater supply, and forest recreation. The simulated results show that the ratio of these five ecosystem services of Sc3-to-Sc2 in the 2040s was estimated as 88.4%, 114.7%, 105.4%, 228.2%, and 86.5%, respectively. These results showed clear trade-offs between industrial wood production and freshwater supply on one side and forest recreation and forest carbon storage on the other side. In the case of carbon sequestration, the harvest activity might provide a negative effect in the short term, but it with a longer-term perspective could be positive through reforestation activity. In addition, this study showed that future climate change until 2050 in Korea could have a generally negative influence on forest carbon sequestration but that these negative effects could be partly offset through harvest management.Therefore, the plans of the spatial distribution of management activities for the equilibrium of demand and supply in ecosystem services should be required.

Application of integrated Korean forest growth dynamics model to meet NDC target by considering forest management scenarios and budget

“…The KO-G-Dynamic model has previously helped enhance the forest growth model [ 37 – 40 ]. It can accurately predict the growth of temperate forests (which grow yearly), also considering the climatic impacts overlooked by traditional dynamic growth models [ 28 , 41 ]. These climate factors affect diameter at breast height (DBH) and mortality [ 39 , 40 , 42 ].…”

“…The analysis reflects the current transition in the forest physiognomy in Republic of Korea from young-matured stands to over-mature forests. Four scenarios were established individually according to the application of the variables which are climate change and forest management intensity in South Korea [ 41 ].…”

“…is planned annually [ 55 ]. Therefore, in this study, the thinning intensity, the frequency of implementation for which the current state was maintained, and the addition of 35,000 ha of legal final cut to maximize forest growth were applied to Scenario 4 [ 41 , 56 ].…”

Stakeholder participation, indicators, assessment, and decision-making: applying adaptive management at the watershed scale

“…Assessment efforts use indicators that reflect biophysical and hydrological processes and changes in the temporal and spatial distribution of watershed conditions (He et al, 2000 ); AM approaches must also include socio-economic indicators that measure the dynamic interactions between environmental and social systems (Morton & Padgitt, 2005 ). For example, Kim et al ( 2021 ) explored the benefits and pitfalls of management strategies in the forests of South Korea, finding important tradeoffs between recreational uses and carbon sequestration, and between freshwater supply and wood production. Similarly, El Mahrad et al ( 2020 ) studied the socio-environmental interactions derived from the management of coastal lagoons in Northern Africa; they found that science-based knowledge is critical to informed decision-making that can result in sustainable outcomes.…”

How to manage land use conflict between ecosystem and sustainable energy for low carbon transition?: Net present value analysis for ecosystem service and energy supply

“…Accordingly, Kim et al (2010) conducted an important study to comprehensively evaluate the public value of forests and convert them into monetary values using alternative cost method. Similarly, Kim et al (2021b) and Lee et al (2018 quantified the dynamics of several ecosystem services over time and forest management. Although these studies supported forest management policies by focusing on the forest ecosystem services, they did not lead to land policy supporting through comparison with other land use values.…”