Korea Forest Seed and Variety Center Opens






The opening ceremony of the Korea Forest Seed and Variety Center took place on 10th of September. The center aims to exclusively focus on the management of forest seeds and varieties at the governmental level. Its main tasks are to improve and breed highbred plant species inhabiting nationwide, to introduce and popularize high-valued forestry products,


and to protect the title right to species and varieties.






The center is originally designed to carry out the plant variety protection system in compliance with UPOV(the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants).


The system is employed for only 15 varieties this year and for all varieties from next week. Through this protection system, forest product farmers can be protected from conflict over royalty of forest varieties among countries, and new varieties and seeds can be registered more . Expectedly, Korea can get an advantageous position in the international free trade negotiation.






Regarding forest genetic resources, the center is in charge of reporting and approval of forest genetic resources export, preventing forest species from taking out abroad without approval of the Korea Forest Service according to Act on Management, Preservation and Use of Agricultural Genetic Resources. Further, the center is also to draw up a comprehensive master plan for national forest genetic resources management projects and to establish database of concerned information and make it available for users.









International Cooperation Division
☎ 042-481-4229