After Korea succeeded in its reforestation efforts, the beginning of the 21st century brought significant new changes as well as challenges for forest resource management. Over 80% of forests in Korea are composed of trees older than 30 years, and a significant portion has already reached the legally prescribed felling age. Moreover, a variety of environmental issues, such as climate change, bio-diversity and prevention of desertification have been raised all over the world, and such issues cannot be effectively handled by existing technologies or today’s forestry experts.

The Research Center for Advanced Forest Technology under the Korea Forest Service was launched amidst these critical times. The Center is composed of 83 professors, doctors and graduate school students in their doctorate or masters’ degree programs from six universities and is scheduled to conduct research projects over the period of six years (from 2013 to 2019) for the development of next-generation forestation technology; ecosystem monitoring technology appropriate for forest practices; forest survey and management techniques that can enable the sustainable management of forests; low-cost-high-efficiency lumber production methods; and measures to improve profitability of the forestry industry. The final goal of these R&D projects is to develop forestry technology that can satisfy the demands of next-generation forest management and highly-professional research personnel.