S. Korea`s forests shrunk by over 42,000 ha in five years: report

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has lost 42,513 hectares of forest land
in the last five years, a report by the Korea Forest Service said Tuesday.
The statistics submitted to the National Assembly that were released ahead of the
parliamentary audit come as the Lee Myung-bak administration is moving to ease
the country's green belt restrictions around major metropolitan areas. The move
is aimed at creating more land that can be developed for commercial use to
bolster the construction sector and breathe new life into the sluggish economy,
whose outlook has been downgraded from growth in the 5-percent range in 2007 to
the upper 4-percent range this year.
Of the total, the largest proportion was 7,204 ha converted into housing land
from 2004 to 2007, with 5,911 ha being used to make room for factories and other
commercial purposes.
Another 5,372 ha were made into roads, and 5,159 ha were used to make golf courses.
Gyeonggi Province, which borders the capital city of Seoul, converted 10,330 ha
of forests for other uses, followed by North Gyeongsang and South Chungcheong
provinces.
Rep. Choung Hae-gul, who received the report, said the number of cases of illegal
destruction of forest land rose from 2,070 in 2004 to 2,492 in 2007.