- Korea Forest Service, designated 6 areas including Gwangneung forest as Pine Wilt Disease Free Zone on January 7.





On January 7, Korea Forest Service (Minister: Mr. Chung Kwang-soo, Ph. D.) has designated Pine Wilt Disease Free Zone(PWD-Free Zone) in 6 areas including Gwangneung forest, Yeonje-gu in Busan, and Mokpo City.





The restriction to bring out pine trees has been lifted in these newly designated PWD-Free Zones. Regular forest management activities as well as transportation of pine trees for landscape is now allowed, however authorities will continue preventive monitoring and extensive management of adjacent pine forests for the next 3 years.





The PWD-Free Zone is designated in districts(city, gu, county) where pine wilt disease has been cleared and kept clean for 2 years after its primary infestation. PWD -ree Zone was first designated in 2008 in 5 districts including Gangneung City, and additional 6 districts are designated this year.





The first outbreak of pine wilt disease occurred in Guemjeong-san in Dongrae-gu of Busan in 1988 and it spread nationwide hitting its worst state infesting 566,000 trees in 2005. As of the end of 2009, the number of affected trees has decreased to 42,000. It is a remarkable accomplishment of 93% decrease in 4 years.





It is a result of a strong legislative framework provided by the Special Act on Pine Wilt Disease Control in 2005 and the will of the general public to "save the forest for pine wilt disease." Especially last year, many regional and nationwide initiatives were undertaken against pine wilt disease. Some of them include the "5-Year Pine Wilt Disease Extermination" (Busan, Feb.), "Forest Pest and Disease Monitoring Team" (250 teams, 1000 persons), and extensive pine forest management.





The Korea Forest Service announced that it will undertake intensive management in 51 affected districts this year and target complete extermination by 2013. It further asked for continued support and concern from local governments and the general public.