Identifying Relevant International Forest Regimes for South Korea Based on Their Issues

HIGHLIGHTS South Korea's interest in international forestry has continued to increase over time, especially in various forms of world forestry governance. Six main international forest issues in South Korea can be derived from international forest regimes: Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), forest land degradation and desertification, climate change, illegal logging, forest biodiversity, and species conservation. South Korea tends to adopt new policies rapidly as a response to calls from international forest regimes. South Korea contributes to international forest regimes in order to achieve domestic goals for the issues derived from the regimes South Korea also stimulates other countries' participation to deal with the issues by using incentives. SUMMARY South Korea has focused on bilateral agreements to supply timber since the 1990s which requires cooperation with forest-related international organisations. This study analysed the relationship between South Korean and international forest regimes by identifying the issues these regimes face and analysing South Korea's contribution to these regimes. The study used data from an in-depth content analysis of key policy documents between South Korea and each of the regimes. The results confirm six forest-related international issues: Sustainable Forest Management, Sustainable Development Goals, forest land degradation and desertification, climate change, illegal logging, forest biodiversity, and species conservation. South Korea contributed to these regimes through cooperative initiatives and projects. This contribution, furthermore, directs other countries' participation to confront the issues. Most of the international forest-related issues in South Korea are derived from external elements such as international agreements or governances. South Korea also uses international regimes to encourage national goals.


INTRODUCTION
International regimes are generally defined as a set of interrelated norms, rules, and procedures that structure the behaviour and relations of international actors in order to reduce the uncertainties and facilitate the pursuit of common interests (Le Prestre 2017). Regime theory, in the context of world politics and international cooperation, began to emerge in the early 1980s. This theory represents a means of national-level policy to optimise domestic interests that result in transformations at the international level to promote collective, shared interests (Smouts 2008).
Major forests-related debates are conducted under international regimes that cover both global and regional regimes. International forest governance by global forest-related regimes has been the main focus of world forest politics, for example, regarding sustainable forest management (SFM) (Dimitrov 2005, Gale and Cadman 2014, Singer 2008, environmental topics such as biodiversity and climate change (McDermott et al. 2010a), trade, Criteria and Indicators (CandI), and other forest-related issues (e.g. Arts and Babili 2012, Giessen 2013, Humphreys 2012, Rayner et al. 2010. As a consequence of the abundance of various international regimes, forest issues have been addressed in various ways. This status quo of regime fragmentation and complexity occurred because of the multiple interests of actors from different sectors and the particular interests of states (Giessen 2013). Accordingly, regional regimes have considered forest issues, either directly or indirectly, and they have drawn valuable attention from political and academic points of view in recent years (e.g. Arts et al. 2010, Cashore and Stone 2012, Gale and Cadman 2014, Giessen and Sahide 2017, Nurrochmat et al. 2016, Sahide and Giessen 2015, Sahide et al. 2016, Varkkey 2014. The terrestrial ecosystems of South Korea have an abundance of species with high biodiversity since the country's forest cover is approximately 64% of its total land area (KFS 2019e). The forest in South Korea is characterised by temperate forests with annual mean rainfall from 600 mm to 1,800 mm (KFS 2019c). However, rainfall distribution is seasonal and differentiated by region, thus hindering tree growth. In this regard, South Korea has had a close relationship with many countries to fulfil its domestic demand for timber and forest products through bilateral agreements and participation in international governance.
South Korea started overseas plantations in 1993 to allow for continuous timber supply, and it reached a scale of 484,558 ha in 2019 (KFS 2019f). Currently, the Korea Forest Service has signed bilateral agreements on forestry cooperation with 28 countries (details in KFS 2019c). South Korea has also increased its participation and cooperation in forestrelated international organisations in keeping with international trends, such as environmental conservation and SFM, since the 1990s (KFS 2019b). Over time, South Korea's interest in international forestry has continued to increase, especially in various forms of world forestry governance.
The relationship between South Korea's domestic forest policy and its international forest regimes is a timely yet under-scrutinised topic. Therefore, this study aimed to: i) identify international forest policy issues in South Korea corresponding to international forest regimes, and ii) analyse South Korea's contribution in these regimes based on its international forest concerns.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The study analysed the relationship between South Korea's domestic policy and international forest regimes and its contribution to these regimes by identifying specific issues. Member states in such regimes can affect the regimes' policymaking process as influential actors by introducing their own formal and informal interests to these regimes (Gehring 1994, Hasenclever et al. 1997, Krott 2005. By contrast, the outputs from the international regime, especially on SFM and natural resource conservation, raise a new issue at the national level (Andonova 2008, Cortell andDavis Jr, 2000, Pülzl andRametsteiner 2002). According to Singer (2008), the international forest regime and national forest-related policy mutually adjust to each other despite this relationship being an uncompelling means to access the regimes' effectiveness. Therefore, this policy analysis framework provides insights that allow us to observe the overall depiction of the interaction between South Korea's international forest policy and the forest regime. Krasner (1982) defined the international regime as "sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decisionmaking procedures wherein actors' expectations converge in a given (issue) area of international relations." The number of discussions regarding forest concerns and conflicts in the context of world politics increased after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, which was the catalyst for state-based forest regimes based on conventions or protocols in the 1990s (Guneau and Tozzi 2008, Humphreys 2012, Kunzmann 2008, Levin et al. 2008, Overdevest and Zeitlin 2014. Since then, the international regime concept has been considered to be effective for empirical analyses in international forestry (Arts et al. 2013, Giessen and Sahide 2017, Rayner et al. 2010. As a consequence, in recent decades, many international forest regimes have been launched, especially in the fields of SFM and forest conservation (e.g. Humphreys 2012, Rayner et al. 2010). The number of international forest regimes only pertains to 'forest-related' rather than exclusively 'forest-focused'. In contrast to forest-focused regimes that establish forests as their main issue, forest-related regimes consider forests as a non-primary but formal issue (FIGURE 1).

International forest regimes and South Korea
International forest-related policies in South Korea have been developed, while the contemporary global trend in forestry has been reflected since the early 1990s (Park and Lee 2014). The outputs from the international regimes, especially on SFM and natural resource conservation, has raised a new issue at the national level (Andonova 2008, Cortell andDavis Jr, 2000, Pülzl andRametsteiner 2002). In other words, sets of principles, norms, and rules related to specific issues and enacted through international regimes have been codified into the international forest policy in South Korea.

Issues in forest policy
An issue in forest policy is defined as a specific problem that introduces the policy process (Sadath andKrott 2012, Wibowo andGiessen, 2012). Such issues place either high or low on the political agenda dependent on the actor's will to achieve their goals (Bernstein and Cashore 2012, Bernstein et al. 2010, Krott 2005. Over the last two decades, various forest issues have been discussed at the international level of forest governance (Edwards andGiessen 2014. McDermott 2014) and have demonstrated the regime's dynamics (Smouts 2008). S ince international forest regimes deal with internationally debated forest-related issues, understanding the issues in which they are interested is a way to further understand the regimes' ultimate impact.

METHODS
Social science methods for document analysis and empirical content analysis were conducted to verify the hypothesis in this study. Qualitative content analysis is a widely and effectively applied method of data analysis in political science that opens social reality through both manifest and non-manifest contexts (Burns and Giessen 2016, Kreuger and Neuman 2006, Rahman and Giessen 2014. Moreover, the qualitative method increases the reliability and the validity of the data and supports a sound empirical basis for cause and effect analysis in the policy field , Sarker et al. 2017, Schusser et al. 2012, Schusser et al. 2015, including foreign policy (Gallhofer et al. 1996). Consequently, documents from the Korean Forest Service (KFS) and international forest regime documents were analysed to verify the hypothesis. Such programs consist of public statements regarding the most critical issues. Sahide FIGURE 1 Regime types based on the issue  and enhance multiple forest values through human interventions (FAO 2019). The non-legally binding Rio Forest Principles adopted at the UNCED in 1992, offer recommendations for SFM (UN 2019), which are the starting point of the SFM paradigm. After the principles, an increasing number of the concepts from the Criteria and Indicators (CandI) process gained attention for evaluating the achievement of SFM at the global, regional, country, and management unit level (Baycheva et al. 2013, Caswell et al. 2014, Linser et al. 2018a, Linseret al. 2018b. The Montreal Process is a national-level CandI process for temperate and boreal forests. South Korea is one of the founding members participating in its annual meeting and submits Country Reports by using the agreed MP CandI to identify shared goals and improve capacities (Montreal Process 2015). Furthermore, South Korea has introduced SFM into policies and systems, such as forest legislation, since the end of 1994. South Korea has considered SFM as the basis of its national forest management since the 4th National Forest Plan (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007), and in the Framework Act on Forestry in 2001 (KFS 2018).

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
The Committee on Forestry (COFO) is the highest FAO Forestry statutory body that aims to identify emerging forest policies and issues around the world so that FAO member countries and other forest organisations can take appropriate action. Since the first committee in 1972, the biennial sessions of COFO have been held at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy (FAO, 2020a). South Korea placed its name on the list of COFO members as a member state of FAO. The 22nd session of COFO, on 23-27 June 2014, introduced the contributions that forests can make to the SDGs (FAO, 2013). SDGs are the 17 goals adopted by the United Nations (UN) on 25 September 2015 (UN 2020). The resolution's aim is to achieve the goals by 2030 to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities, and tackling climate change while ensuring that no one is left behind. According to the 6th National Forest Plan 2018-2037, the Korea Forest Service (KFS) has managed SDGs, emphasising the importance of multilateral forest cooperation and official development assistance (ODA). For example, to achieve the SDGs, the KFS plans to expand forest ODA to 25 billion won by the last year (2037) of the plan (KFS 2018).

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
The UNCCD was signed in June 1994 and entered in force in December 1996 to prevent desertification and protect the global environment through financial and technical international assistance to areas affected by drought and desertification (KFS 2019b). Since the achievement of UNFCCC membership in August 1999, South Korea has addressed assorted forest land degradation and desertification issue-related policies (KFS 2019b). Following the 6th National Forest Plan 2018-2037, this issue is being dealt with as one of the main et al. (2018) argued that the analysis of these documents is one of the fundamental methods to assess forest policy.
For empirical data, this study relied on the online-based reportorial resources of the international forest governances, which were reviewed based on the discovered issues. A repository is a physical online warehouse of materials (e.g. documents, data, information) for reporting, analysis, and sharing Dayal 1994, Rahayu et al. 2019). Rahayu et al. (2019) mentioned that online-based repositories guide researchers in their collection of critical empirical materials and to conduct their studies in an efficient, effective manner. A web-based open-source system produced by an organisation or institution acts as a repository for intellectual outputs (research and educational materials) (Tansley et al. 2003).
Firstly, the last two national reports were used as significant principal sources for analysis to identify international forest policy issues in South Korea corresponding to international forest regimes (i.e., the 6th National Forest Plan and Achievements and 2018 Footprints of International Forest Cooperation). The documents from the KFS cover all the forest issues because the KFS is the only governmental agency specialising in forestry and is charged with developing and implementing forest policies in South Korea. Secondly, several legal instruments were collected to identify the relationship between domestic policy and international regimes for a robust observation (i.e., charter/constitution, projects, conventions, agreements, action plans, declarations, principles, statements, decisions, resolutions, annual reports, publications, memorandums of understanding, and others). Public media were considered as supplementary data to enrich this analysis as another source of empirical materials. However, almost nothing was found to be relevant and consistent for this study. This is because South Korea lacks public attention in international forest issues and such discourses are a network provided by the media; where topics and problems between politics and society are processed into focused opinions (Kleinschmit and Krott 2008).

INTERNATIONAL FOREST ISSUES IN SOUTH KOREA
After scrutinising the relationship between South Korea and the international forest regimes that most recently cooperated with South Korea, six main international forest issues were identified: Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), forest land degradation and desertification, climate change, illegal logging, forest biodiversity, and species conservation. These six issues are explained in further detail in the following sections.

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and the Montreal Process
According to the definition from the FAO, SFM is defined as the sustainable use and conservation of forests to maintain barriers, such as foreign trade restrictions on illegal logging (details in KFS 2019a). The Legitimate Timber Trade Promotion System is the most significant impact that the APEC has on South Korea regarding illegal logging and is the system behind the specific standards for legal logging of imported timber and wood products. Some actors, including the KFS, expected that the system would improve the transparency of the administration and establish the distribution order of wood trade by supplementing the shortcomings in the reporting and inspection of imported wood (Song 2020, Kim 2020. However, there are many problematic aspects to implementing this system. For example, the extended customs clearance period would lead to substantial damages, and although there is a legal document from the importer, there is a blind spot, which is the difficulty in determining the authenticity of the documents (Kim 2019).

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Forest biological diversity encompasses tree species diversity and the multitude of plants, animals, and micro-organisms associated with forest areas (CBD 2019a). Because forest biological diversity covers multilateral ecosystems, landscapes, species, populations, and genetics, these forest biological diversity losses make it difficult to manage the changing environmental conditions. CBD is an international legally binding treaty with the goals of conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. Through the adoption of the CBD by UN member states in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the issue of forest biological diversity loss has been considered in world politics. South Korea became a member of the CBD in 1994. Following CBD, South Korea has or will promote the systematic conservation through the 3rd National Biodiversity Strategy (2018-2022), Forest Genetic Resource Reserve Management Basic Plan (2013-2017), and the Endangered Conifer Species Conservation Measure (2016). Moreover, the country launched the National Forest Seed Variety Center on 12 August 2020, which is an agency affiliated with the KFS (KFS 2019b). The Center supports the development of new varieties of flora with high-quality seed production and distribution, as well as cooperates with the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGFRA) to establish a cooperative system among countries related to the protection of species varieties in forests.

SOUTH KOREA'S CONTRIBUTION TO INTERNATIONAL FOREST REGIMES
South Korea contributes to international forest regimes through the following cooperative initiatives and projects based on the issues identified above. This contribution is significant, from a domestic point of view, and focuses on managing the issues by international cooperation, and to internationally stimulating other countries' participation to deal with the issues by using incentives. tasks. Although this issue does not directly apply to the forests in South Korea, the KFS remains part of the UNCCD to develop new national forest cooperation projects to prevent land degradation, improve air quality in Northeast Asia, and expand cooperation between nations and organisations.

United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Following the foundation of UNFCCC in 1992, the 2016 Paris Agreement was enforced to preserve forests as carbon sinks, encourage reducing emissions, deforestation and forest degradation, promote the role of conservation, sustainable forest management, and enhance forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+), as well as achieve Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in climate change negotiations (UNFCCC 2019). Therefore, the country has aimed to participate in a long-term GHG reduction of 37% (25.7% domestically, 11.3% overseas) of Business As Usual (BAU) (852 million tons) by 2030 . Therefore, based on the Act on the Management and Improvement of Carbon Sinks, Korea intends to increase the use of domestic wood and replace fossil fuels with forest biomass to increase the absorption of greenhouse gases in forests and expand new carbon absorption sources. Expanding the REDD+ business and secure carbon emission rights is also necessary to achieve overseas reduction targets (11.3%). In this context, South Korea increased the cooperation of related ministries, including of the forestry sector and linkages with emission trading schemes in NDCs, and simultaneously executed pilot projects to implement all the processes of REDD+ in the four Southeast Asian countries to accumulate expertise and improve the availability of the results (KFS 2019a).

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
Illegal logging, especially in tropical forests, has been receiving increasing attention from policymakers worldwide. APEC started to address illegal logging and associated trade in 2010, which is the year that APEC leaders promised to strengthen cooperation on the promotion of SFM and rehabilitation (APEC 2019). Since 2011, APEC has addressed the issue under the Experts Group on Illegal Logging and Associated Trade (EGILAT), and lately, member states have adopted the EGILAT Multi-Year Strategic Plan 2018-2022. Also, illegal logging that is common in export countries is a frequently debated topic in national forest policy since South Korea is an APEC member economy, as well as a country reliant on imports to fulfil 83% of its total demand for wood . Notably, the amendment to the Wood Use Law was issued in 2017. Moreover, specific standards for the legal logging of imported timber and wood products were enacted and announced in 2018 (ibid). Additionally, several related policy programmes have been planned or are under execution to protect the domestic timber industry by utilising illegal wood trade restriction systems and responding to non-tariff   (see TABLE 1), and they signed comprehensive Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) to promote the 2030 strategic plan.

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
The Changwon Initiative was launched in 2011 at the 10th Conference of the Parties of UNCCD as a series of action plans that the KFS, UNCCD and UNEP carry out together for reforestation in Asia and Africa (KFS 2020b). This partnership then led to the Greening Drylands Partnership (GDP) Project. The objective of the project is to support developing countries to promote action programmes for reversing desertification, land degradation and drought, as well as reforestation and forest rehabilitation in degraded lands. Projects were annually implemented from the first phase in 2013 to the sixth phase in 2018 in Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Peru, Ecuador, Benin, Ethiopia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Armenia, Belarus, Cameroon, Togo, and Niger (KFS 2020a).

Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought Northeast Asia Network (DLDD-NEAN)
The Land Degradation and Drought Northeast Asia Network (DLDD-NEAN) is a regional cooperation platform among South Korea, China, and Mongolia (UNCCD 2019). The DLDD-NEAN is an official reporting entity to the UNCCD and is operated by a Steering Committee that meets annually in conjunction with fora to discuss thematic sub-regional issues. The first Forum held on 19 November 2012 in Seoul, South Korea spoke for capacity building and exchange of experiences and best practices regarding combating desertification, land degradation, and drought. The KFS takes a secretarial role in the DLDD-NEAN. A feasibility study on the 'Joint demonstration project for prevention and control of dust and sandstorms' originated in Erlinhote, China and Zamiin Wood, Mongolia source areas was conducted between 2012 and 2013 in collaboration with the UNCCD secretariat (UNCCD 2019). Moreover, South Korea intends to continuously contribute to the improvement of air quality in Northeast Asia by discovering new projects to reduce yellow dust and fine dust through the DLDD-NEAN (KFS 2019a).

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (FERI) was proposed and adopted in October 2014, at the 12th Conference of the Parties of CBD in PyeongChang, Korea (KFS 2020a). The Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (FERI) is supported by the KFS and implemented by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which aims to support parties in developing countries involved in ecosystem conservation and restoration. The CBD has selected and implemented projects in Guatemala, Chile and Columbia, in collaboration with international organisations, including Bioversity and International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)

DISCUSSION
The results of this study indicate that si x main international forest issues in South Korea can be derived from international forest regimes. So uth Korea also stimulates other countries' participation to deal with the issues by using incentives.

International forest policy in Korea driven by international forest regimes
International forest-related policies in South Korea have been developed to actively cope with changing international circumstances since these policies in South Korea have been driven by international negotiation, governance, and policies rather than domestic concerns (Park and Lee 2014). Following the increase of international state-based forest regimes which search for potentially useful methods to define and assess SFM, which was mainly the result of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 (Holvoet andMuys 2004, Humphreys 2012), South Korea has expanded its participation in these regimes. In the early 1990s, it joined global-based organisations such as the UNFCCC and Conservation on Biological Diversity (CBD; ibid), and in 1994, it contributed to the development of CandI by supporting the creation of the Montreal Process for SFM (Montreal Process 2015). Additionally, South Korea reflected this SFM paradigm in its domestic policy in the 4th National Forest Plan (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007), adopting SFM as the primary goal of the plan (KFS 2018). By the early 2000s, the focus on illegal logging emerged as a primary global forest concern relating to forest governance (Singer 2008 This study also found that So uth Korea tends to adopt the new policies rather rapidly as a response to calls from international forest regimes. Some issues such as SFM, climate change, and forest biodiversity have been reflected in domestic affairs for about 20 years by various policy instruments in terms of strategy plans, legislation, cooperation with other ministries, the foundation of related centres, and more. However, the radical policies have overlooked domestic considerations, which could be one of the problematic aspects of continuously developing the policies. Such an issue can be seen in the case of the Legitimation Wood Trade Promotion System followed by the APEC's illegal logging issues; wherein the commencement of the system without considering the domestic market led to conflicts between the government and industries. Thus, it remains to be seen how the details can be worked out.

International forest regimes reflected in South Korea's cooperation with other countries
Domestic policies created by external influences may also contribute to the policy initiatives or projects of international forest regimes, while each country introduces their own formal and informal interests to the regimes (Gehring 1994, Hasenclever et al. 1997, Krott 2005. So uth Korea contributes to the international forest regimes to achieve the domestic goals for the issues derived from the regimes. The Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM) project under FAO and the Changwon Initiative under UNCCD are models of these findings. These initiatives and projects attract the interest of other developing countries in such issues by incentivisation. The study also found that South Korea realised the importance of the international forest regime in strengthening international cooperation. South Korea proposed and took a leadership role in the foundation of Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) and Land Degradation and Drought Northeast Asia Network (DLDD-NEAN), to impose its interests in the Southeast Asian region and Northeast Asia, respectively. The general purpose of international regimes may be to resolve a variety of problems in several problem areas, however, some other regimes are confined to one specific problem area (Diehl and Frederking 2001). AFoCO covers most of South Korea's international forest issues related to regional regimes, except for illegal logging. In other words, the international forest regime AFoCO may become one of South Korea's main international forest policy initiatives.

CONCLUSION
It was found that South Korea adopts international forest issues driven by international governances and efficiently develops the policies to apply them to national-level policies. This adoption is often rapid, which has led to some conflicts in implementation. It is, however, acknowledged that the adopted issues encourage policy initiatives in international forest regimes and promote the establishment of new governance (e.g. AFoCO). Moreover, through the international forest regimes, South Korea supports developing countries to take part in the issues by using incentives, which is also a means for South Korea to improve cooperation in forestry with other countries.