DESCOVERING THE WORLD AS A SPECIALIST OF WOOD ENGINEERING Part 1: South Korea - A Country Reborn as the Phoenix Bird

Marius Catalin BARBU
Prof.dr.eng.dr. - Universitatea TRANSILVANIA din Brasov - Facultatea de Ingineria Lemnului
Adresa/Address: B-dul Eroilor nr. 29, Brasov, Romania
E-mail: marcat@gmx.at

GENERAL ASPECTS
GEOGRAPHY
          The Korean Peninsula extends southward from the eastern end of the Asian continent (33° and 43° North latitude and 124° and 131° East longitude) in the West end of the Pacific Ocean and lies climatically in the East-Asian Monsoon belt. It is roughly 1,000 km long and 216 km wide. The Korean Peninsula encompasses 221,000 km², of which 45% is occupied by the South and the rest by North Republic (Korea Travelguide 2007).

TOPOGRAPHY
          Mountains cover 70% of the land mass, making it one of the most mountainous regions in the world. They are leaning to the East so the Eastern parts have steep slopes and the west shapes gentle slopes. Hills and low sea levels gather around the mountain ranges. The mountains range that stretches along the East coast falls steeply into the coastal plains that produce the bulk of Korea's agricultural crops, especially rice (Korea Travelguide 2007; Kwon et al. 2010).

CLIMATE
          Korea is surrounded by the sea on three sides, marked by a wide gap of temperature, compared to the size of the land. Located on the temperate zone of the middle latitude, has a mild climate with four distinct seasons. However, the country is colder in winter and hotter in summer than other countries on the same latitude with the same seasonal distinction because it is situated on the East of the Asian continent and the West of the Pacific where periodic winds prevail. The annual range of temperatures in Korea is 2 to 30°C, showing an extreme climate in both summer and winter (Kwon et al. 2010).

ADMINISTRATION
          The peninsula is divided now just slightly North of the 38th parallel. The Democratic Republic of Korea in the South (99,392 km²) and Communist Korea in the North (120,540 km²) are separated by the Demilitarized Zone (248 km long and 4 km wide). South Korea has a population of 50 million and the North Korea about 25 million. The estimated GDP per capita in South is USD 20,265 (2010) vs. USD 1,900 in the North (2009) (Korea Travelguide, 2007).

ECONOMY AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
          South Korea's story mirrors of its leader. Only six decades ago the nation was in ruins and dirt-poor after a long Japanese occupation and the Korean War. Now it's ranked 15th among the world's richest countries and is part of both the G20 and the OECD. Despite the global economic crisis, South Korea's economy witnessed a small rise even in 2009, and in July 2010 the government revised this year's growth fore cast from 5 to 5.8 %. The depreciation of Korea's currency, the won, and the financial stimulation measures taken by China and the US have aided the sales of large Korean companies such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai/Kia.
          The model for today's South Korea was born in the early 1960s. The hard work has paid off. A country in which hardly any industries existed two generations ago now builds cars, the latest home electronics, half of the world's ships and almost half of its mobile phones. Its latest accomplishment is taking the lead in the race towards a mobile digital age.
          Next, the government wants to turn South Korea into a superpower of green technology. Over the next few years, it will invest two per cent of the country's GDP into developing green technologies.

FOREST VEGETATION AND CLIMATE CHANGES
          About 18,000 years ago, the Korean peninsula faced the Ice Age, and it was linked to Japan and Taiwan. Most of the areas on the Korean peninsula were the tundra vegetation zone, where the growth of plants and trees was restricted by cold weather, while shrubs, herbaceous plants, and lichens were dominating. As climate got warmer, most of the areas on the Korean peninsula became the temperate zone. Boreal forests remain in North Korea and in high mountains of South Korea. Warm-temperate forest zone where evergreen trees are dominating is scattered in the southern coastal region and the low-lying areas.
          Based on the earliest precipitation data record, it is found that there were very severe droughts in the middle and late 18th century, and between in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. It seems that the amount of precipitation showed big differences every year.
          From the late 19th century to the middle 20th century, there were Japanese occupation period and the Korean War, in addition to terrible drought. As the agricultural and economic conditions deteriorated, Korean heavily relied on forest which provides a source of fuel, timber and food. As a result, forest was extremely deteriorated, and the volume of forest growing stock in the 1960s was less than 10m3/ha.
          Most of the forests and mountains were denuded. When heavy rain fell, soil erosion was severe. Also, Korean red pine (Pinus densiflora) which is a pioneer species became dominant in the new forests. Due to the low diversity of forest ecosystem, they fell victim to various insects. Over the recent 20 years, pine wilt disease has also caused great damage to pine trees. Since the 1980s, there has been less damage done by insects. Meanwhile, pests that eat away deciduous tree species are gradually on the rise.
          Forest has been fairly recovered due to the efforts to protect forest and replace woody fuels with other sauces, in addition to the success of forestation in the 1970s. At the end of 2007, the volume of forest growing stock reached at 97.8 m³/ha. Oak forest is gradually replacing the once-dominant Korean red pine forest due to the natural vegetation development and pests. At the end of 2007, oak forest accounts for 27%, which is higher than 23% of Korean red pine forest.
          From the 1970s to 1980s, forest had been partially destroyed due to urbanization and industrialization, and suffered from air pollution. Since the 1990s, however, the efforts to make forest greener have been made, such as environment protection campaign, implementation of sustainable forest management, conservation of forest ecosystem, and restoration of devastated forests.
          According to the data from 61 weather stations in South Korea, the annual average temperature has risen by 1°C over the past 36 years due to climate change and urbanization effect. Also, the number of torrential rain days has increased, and rainfall of over 50mm per hour increases.
          Due to climate change, it is expected that the vegetation range will shift from low to high latitude and from low-lying to high lands. According to the climate change scenario, most of the temperate areas will become warm-temperate zone. Warm-temperate zone will become subtropical areas.
          However, trees will have difficulties in catching up the rapid change of climate, so some populations of them will be reduced. As a result, it is expected that the genetic diversity of some tree species will be decreased (Kwon et al. 2010).

WOOD INDUSTRY
          Korea still imports about 90% of the total annual wood consumption (27 million m³) in spite of the global fame of successful afforestation history in Korea. Wood industry in Korea started from local small-scale lumber mills and extended to produce plywood, boards, lumber, wooden houses, pulp and paper. And the industry has advanced to the carbon-neutral bioenergy using wood as part of efforts to weather the recent energy crisis. Wood demand will increase for various purposes newly created because of its environmentally-friendly characteristics.
          In Korea, plywood industry was recorded as No. 1 exporting items for eight years in the 1970s and Korea was the world's top plywood exporter from 1968 to 1981. Incheon has been a hub city for wood industry including plywood.
In 2008, the value-added amount of the forest sector totaled around 7.29 billion USD, accounting for 2.2% of all manufacturing value added and 0.8% of the Korean GDP. Recently wood industry in Korea faces new opportunity for jumping up to create green business using renewable forest resources.
          Self-sufficiency for wood demand in Korea has increased up to 11.6 % in 2009. Domestic wood supply is expected to increase up to 16 % of total supply by 2020. To enhance competitiveness of wood industry, efforts will be made to secure supply of wood resources, to raise self-sufficiency of wood supply, and to strengthen legal and institutional supports for advanced wood industry.
          Sawmill industry produces standard lumbers and boards and used to be located in the forests. Today, about 600 sawmills are operating and some of them are running in regional hub cities for industrial convenience, and they are fully automated.
          Plywood and panles industry produces the raw materials for furniture, construction and civil engineering. Veneer resources for plywood industry using mid- to large-diameter logs changed from tropical hardwood to both hardwood and softwood, in the mid-1990s. Small-diameter thinned logs are used for MDF industry. Wood waste is used for particleboard manufacturing as wood material recycling industry. In 2009, production of plywood and boards was estimated to be 4.1 million m³, accounting for 16 % of plywood, 54% MDF, and 30 % particleboard. The plywood industry shrank, while the MDF industry showed robust growth in the global market.
          Dongwha Holdings is the leader in wood based panels production and control the market of raw and coated panels and also wood based furniture in Korea. Since its founding in 1948, Dongwha Holdings has evolved into a leading company global network of wood materials. In 2004, Dongwha became a holding (DWHK) listed at the stock exchange in Hong-Kong (also headquarter) and expanded its business areas to include nature- and human-friendly living solutions. Apart from wood products Dongwha Enterprise produces resin for furniture and interior decorating wood boards, as well as flooring materials and eco-friendly coatings. Specialized in overseas investment and trade the holding expands its presence overseas in Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam and the USA. For 2010 the group expects a turn over of 841 million USD. It owns 80 ha mills and mills and industrial land in Korea and other 200 ha in the mentioned countries. Totally it is operating an annual production capacity of 1.6 millions m³ wood based panels in the country and over 1 million m³ abroad.
          Recently, the wood construction market has been growing gradually up to 11,000 housing permits in 2009 (4.7-fold increase from 2005) in Korea. The market met the preference of people to wood construction built with sustainable building materials and suitable for lifestyles of health and sustainability concept. The market is growing for not only residential wood house but also value-added commercial wood buildings. Most products for wood construction have been imported from abroad. Recently, traditional Korean houses, Hanok including structural members have been built as well. The post and beam construction market creates new market for domestic and imported wood products for building.
          Small-diameter hardwood logs are suitable for wood chips and sawdust. Sawdust of 2.1 million m³ was used for treating waste water from livestock farm and other environmentally-friendly purposes in 2008. Wood chips of 292,000 BDT were produced and supplied for pulping to two major pulp-makers. According to recent forest bioenergy supply policy from government, sawdust as a forest biomass becomes important resources for the growing bioenergy market
          Paper industry consumes 2.9 million tons of pulp every year in Korea. Annual pulp production is 500,000 tons, accounting for 17 % of the total supply. Major pulp makers are Moorim P&P with capacity of 400,000 tons of chemical pulp and Jeonju Paper with a total production of 100,000 tons of CTM pulp. Korea ranked the eighth in the world's paper market by producing 10.6 million tons, exporting 2.7 million tons, and importing 800,000 tons of paper. Recycling ratio of used paper is 83.3 %.
          Properties of cellulose including good mechanical properties, low density, biodegradability, and availability from renewable resources have become increasingly important and have contributed to a rising interest in this material. Nanocellulose reinforcements in the polymer matrix are predicted to provide the value-added materials with superior performance and extensive applications for the next generation. Amalgamation of forest products technology with nanotechnology may shine a new light on the development of nanocomposites, nanopapers, and lithium ion battery separator.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
          The author acknowledges the IUFRO Headquarter in Vienna, Scientific Organization Committee of the 23rd IUFRO World Congress, the Korean Forest Research Institute Seoul in Seoul and the Faculty for Wood Engineering of "Transilvania" University Brasov.

REFERENCES
LEE, D.K (2010). Korean Forest - Lessons learned from stories of success and failure. Published by Korean Forest Research Institute, ISBN 978-89-8176-691-7.
KWON, T.S. et al. (2010): Forest Eco Atlas of Korea. Research note no. 384 of Korean Forest Research Institute, Samsung adcom Co., ISBN 978-89-8176-683-2.
*** (2007): Korea Travelguide
*** (2010): IC-08: Wood Processing Industry. XXIII IUFRO World Congress Organizing Committee - Korean Forest Research Institute, Seoul.