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Current state of forest fire and suppression in S. Korea

Kiyeon Ko (Mr.)

Korea Forest Service

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Forest status & Korea Forest Service

Forest fire and control structure

Major forest fire control policy

Table of contents

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Forest status & Korea Forest Service

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68%24%

8%Private

National

Public

Forest CoverForest Cover

129.5

102.5

94.4

0 50 100 150

National

Public

Private

Stock volume per ha(m3/ha)

6.4 million ha of forests cover 64% of the land

About 70% of forests are privately owned

Near to 100 % of forests covered with woods

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• 4 Bureaus

• 19 Divisions

• 1Team

Minister

Press Secretary

Deputy Minister

Administrative Services

Bureau of Coordination and

Plantation

Bureau of Forest Resources

Bureau of Forest Use

Bureau of Forest Protection

Planning and FinanceAdministration

ManagementLegislative affairs and AuditInformation & Statistics

Forest PolicyForest ResourcesGreen Job PromotionTimber Utilization and

Product International Cooperation

Forest Land ManagementNational Forest

ManagementForest Recreation &

Outdoor ActivitiesForestry Support

Forest Environment ConservationUrban Forest & Landscape Forest Fire ControlForest Engineering &

RehabilitationForest Disease & Pest

Organization Organization chartchart

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Agencies under Agencies under KFSKFS

Korea Forest Service

Korea Forest Research Institute

(KFRI)

National Natural Recreation Forest

OfficeNational Arboretum

Forest Human Resources Development

Institute

4 Departments4 Research Centers

Forest Aviation Headquarters

Regional Forest Service

Korea Forest Seed and Variety Center

8 Aviation Stations 5 Regional Forest Service27 National Forest Station

Div. Forest disaster mgt.

Agencies colored in red address fire issue

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Forest fire & control structure

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Ⅰ. Forest fire situation in Korea

For the last 10 yrs, 97% of damage made in spring season (Feb. to

May)

In average, 523 fire cases reported every yr, scorching 3,726ha

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Most fires caused by human activities

Dry and windy spring season easily induce forest fires

Waste burning8%

Tobacco9%

Visitor toancestor's

6%

Childern's firework3%

Others12%

Carelessness43

Weed burnig19%

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Fires in North Korea

• 2004. 4. 18

• MODIS Image

Cheongyang Fire

• Period : Apr. 14. 2002 14:10 ~

4. 15 08:00 (18 hrs)

• Damaged Area : 3,095ha

• Damaged Area : $ 6 mil

• Max. Wind Speed : 15.1m/sec

Samcheock Fire

• Period : Apr. 7. 2000 10:04 ~

Apr. 15. 09:04 (191 hrs)

• Damaged Area : 17,097ha

• Damaged Amount : $ 36 mil

• Max. Wind Speed : 23.7m/sec

Kosung Fire

• Period : Apr. 23. 1996. 12:20 ~

Apr. 25. 18:20 (54hrs)

• Damaged Area : 3,762ha

• Damaged Amount : $ 23mil

• Max. Wind speed : 27m/sec

Yangyang Fire

• Period : Apr. 4. 2005. 11:53 ~

Apr. 6. 08:40 (33hrs)

• Damaged Area : 973ha

• Damaged Amount : $ 18mil

• Max. Wind speed : 23m/sec

Deadliest Forest Fires

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• Variation in temperature, rain- or snow-falls

• Public’s visits to mountain areas during weekends and

holiday season

• Arson by those who lost employment or showed discontent

toward society during economic hardship period

• Lax fire prevention capacity during local elections

Elements contributing to forest fire occurrence

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Major forest fire control policy

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Objective of the policy and main countermeasures

Remove elements contributing to a forest fire by thorough prevention activities

Early spotting and swift suppression of a forest fire

Objective

• Implement site-based countermeasures in an attempt to early

suppression and minimization of damage

Strategies

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Main countermeasures

Proactive prevention

Suppression before

turning into a big fire

Early spotting and surveillance

Raising awareness among the public

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1. Proactive prevention

Check visitors from going to walks in designated forests, provide relevant information on entrance control measures via web service

Dispatch fixed monitoring force to places

Entrance control to mountains or

walks

• Spring season forest fire vigilance period’from 1 Feb. to 15 May

• Forest fire control center set up in forest offices across the country to be in charge of countermeasures

• Coordinated work with relevant agencies in a local level

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Site based

fighting system

Remove hazardous materials

Ban burning of farm waste and trash in March to April

• Run ‘special hazardous materials team’ to burn wastes in

a safety insured environment

• Cut woods surrounding wooden cultural properties

• Remove leaves or easily burning trash at a roadside

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Forest Fire Control Center

□ Run Forest Fire Control HQ during Fire Seasons

o Spring Feb.1~May15, Fall Nov.1~Dec.15

o Forest Fire Control Center

• Main Center at KFS

• 3 Regional Forest Fire Management Center

• 220 Regional Centers at Local Government

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2. Early spotting and surveillance system

Overnight surveillance post and team

- participated by NGOs or volunteers

Coordinated work with police to search for intentional arsonist

Closely cooperate with military to keep fire within DMZ from being disastrous

• Dispatch monitoring personnel (30 thousand) to forest areas

• Forest fire surveillance flights using medium sized

helicopters(13) for early spotting of a fire

• Unmanned surveillance camera(578), monitor tower (3,300)

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FFDRS shared with related organizations with no delay

Deliver information to head of village or various

stakeholders through SMS

Terrestrial and

aerial surveillance

Real time Forest

Fire Danger

Rating system

Monitoring on

overnight fire,

arson, DMZ

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3. suppression in early stage

Keep KFS helicopters (47) ready for dispatch

System of water supply to suppression activities

After fire alert, immediately respond to incidence

mayor or county head command for less than 100 ha,

for big fire more than 100 ha, metropolitan city mayor or

governor take over command

• Integrated commander set up site suppression center with

relevant agencies who address specific mission without

overlap each other

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Integrated

incident

command system

Dispatch aerial fire

craft within 30 min

178

Maintenance service at night and on ground, timely

responding to dispatch order

Mobilize available aircrafts from available sources in

case of big fire

Sign MOU between agencies to ensure timely and

systematic mobilization of aircrafts

Attach water tanks to military helicopters(7)

Helicopter pilot reports basic briefs to command center

Enhance aerial

suppression

capacity

Special prevention

& suppression team

• Dispatch 50 crew members to local office (9,950 in total)

• Mechanized suppression system for initial response and

overnight fire fighting

• Keep vigilant on remaining and recurrent fire source

189

Run survey team during the forest fire seasonInvestigation into

cause and survey

on damaged area

from forest fire

- team crew 163(KFS 14, Local 108, regional KFS 41)

- examine the cause, catch culprit, post analysis on the

handling of fire case

※ team focused on major forest fire with attention from the public

Education programme for the expert survey team

- 3 weeks long training session including 2 weeks abroad

• Enhance the credibility of survey and related statistics

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Public advertising through major broadcaster

4. Publicity activities

Partnership with major conservation, climbing, and other NGOs groups

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Various programs fit for

specific target group

Campaign aimed at

visitors to mountains

Raising awareness on fire

using various media

Develop innovative publicity

ideas and programmes

Rice paddy waste, traditional days people visit cemetery in forest, wild herb picking period

Deliver information on fire risk to farmers

Loudspeaker broadcasting mainly in rural town

Organize PR contest and print out good

practices to wide range stakeholders

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• Feb. 2 to 6, 2009 organized by KFS and GFMC with supports from KFRI

• Attended by 250 experts from GFMC of ISDR, ASEAN, countries and stakeholders

• Programs: Symposium on climate and forest fire, Meeting on ICS, 6th Northeast Asia GFMC conference, field tours

• Discussed preparation matters for the Pan Asia Forest Fire Network Meeting to be held in S. Korea, 2013

5. Briefs on GFMC Meeting in Pusan, S. Kore, 2009

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2111

Thanks for the attention !

Korean government supports cross boundary

cooperation on forest fire issue at bi- or multi- lateral levels,

and will be engaged in such international efforts in order to

ensure global forest free of threats from forest fire