Forest Biodiversity in Relation to Ownership and Factors Influencing the Biodiversity of Korean Forests

Biodiversity is associated with the levels of functional protection, adaptation to external conditions, and resilience in ecosystems, so forest ecosystems with high biodiversity tend to have better resistance and resilience to disturbances. In this study, whether forest biodiversity varies according to its ownership status (national forests vs private forests) was investigated, and the ecological (stand characteristics, site condition, climate, etc.) and socioeconomic factors (regions administered by the Korea Forest Service, population, forestry population, forest coverage, forestry income) that influence forest biodiversity were also determined. The results were as follows. First, national forests had higher biodiversity than private forests, which demonstrated that different objectives and forest management plans in each forest type could gradually influence the state of the forest. Second, the stand structural diversity (SDivI), stand density index, quadratic mean diameter, annual heat moisture index, and reproduction type influenced forest biodiversity. Among these parameters, the stand SDivI was the most influential ecological factor for both national and private forests. Third, socioeconomic variables (e.g., population, forestry income, forest coverage, and forest management body) also significantly influenced forest biodiversity, even though the impact was smaller than that of ecological factors. Our results suggest that stand development is essential to increase stand structural diversity and that it leads to an increase in forest biodiversity. Furthermore, although the effects of socioeconomic factors are lesser than those of ecological factors, our study shows that they could influence forest conditions. To better understand factors influencing the states of forests, collaborative research bridging ecological and sociological fields will be necessary to sustainably manage forests in the future.