Restoration Plan for Degraded Forest in The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Considering Suitable Tree Species and Spatial Distribution

Sle-gee Lee, Hyun-Ah Choi, Hyeji Yoo, Cholho Song, Sungeun Cha, Sang-Won Bae, Yowhan Son and Woo-Kyun Lee
Additional contact information
Sle-gee Lee: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anam Ro, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea
Hyun-Ah Choi: Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea Office, Seoul 04419, Republic of Korea
Hyeji Yoo: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anam Ro, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea
Cholho Song: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anam Ro, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea
Sungeun Cha: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anam Ro, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea
Sang-Won Bae: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anam Ro, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea
Yowhan Son: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anam Ro, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea
Woo-Kyun Lee: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anam Ro, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: The ecosystem across the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is threatened by deforestation. However, there is very little attention being given to government efforts for afforestation and rehabilitation plan. The most significant barriers to addressing this problem are technique limitations, availability of information, and lack of a stepwise forest management plan. This study identifies spatially suitable tree species, and establishes a stepwise restoration plan to support decision making for restoring degraded forest in the DPRK throughout a suitable restoration map. First off, target species were chosen from reference data, and spatial distribution maps for each tree species were prepared based on social needs as well as natural conditions in the DPRK. The suitable restoration map was calculated by two priorities in a weighting method; suitable priority, and distributional clustering level. Finally, the 23 afforestation species were selected for the suitable restoration map, including 11 coniferous and 12 deciduous tree species. We introduced a stepwise afforestation/restoration plan of degraded forest in the DPRK; general (long-term), detailed (medium-term), implementation (short-term) plans. Maps with different spatial resolutions were prepared for each of the plans. A restoration map with 12.5 km spatial resolution can be used for the general plan at the national level, and maps with 5 km and 1 km spatial resolutions can be used for detailed plan at the local level and implementation plan at the site level, respectively.

Keywords: afforestation; degraded forest; DPRK; North Korea; spatial plant distribution; suitable tree species (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/856/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/856/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:856-:d:136855

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().