Gangwon Province, which battled wildfires almost every year until about a decade ago, has earned recognition for turning that record around — and for expanding its forests through reforestation. The Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province was named an "excellent" institution in the Korea Forest Service's pilot evaluation of the forest carbon sink index for 2026.
The pilot evaluation assessed metropolitan and provincial governments on their efforts to maintain and strengthen forest carbon sinks as part of the national response to climate change, scoring participants on reforestation, forest tending and the use of domestically produced timber. Three regional governments were ultimately selected; alongside Gangwon Province, Gyeonggi Province and South Jeolla Province — including Gwangju — were also chosen.
Gangwon Province posted high scores across multiple categories: 6 points for carbon absorption through forest management, 6 points for carbon storage from the use of domestic timber, 5 points for the share of domestically sourced wood used in timber-frame construction, and 6 points for registering spatial data on new reforestation, forest tending and timber harvesting.
Gangwon Province also swept the 2026 forest-tending excellence awards. The Gangneung National Forest Management Office took the top prize, while the Chuncheon National Forest Management Office and Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province shared the encouragement award. The excellence award went to the Yeongju National Forest Management Office in North Gyeongsang Province.
The Gangwon Forest Science Research Institute was particularly praised for its wildfire-prevention forest-tending work around the Baekdudaegan Ecological Arboretum, which improved visitor safety and forest recreation functions while enhancing the capacity to stop fire from spreading by linking the work to existing firefighting infrastructure.
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