15~19세기 한반도 산림의 민간 개방과 숲의 변화

Abstract

Essentially examined in this article are probable changes that would have been brought upon the forests, when the Joseon government newly designated forests as public lands and therefore allowed people to have access to most forests as well as resources inside them. In earlier times, all the forests were considered as private property of the king and therefore inaccessible. But the Joseon government (while excluding some areas as limited exceptions) opened forests to the public, and permitted them to freely take advantage of them. As a result, since the 15th century through the 19th, the primeval forest of the Korean peninsula, which had been kept intact till the end of the Goryeo dynasty, was severely reduced in its mass and depleted in its resources. Forests literally became mere ‘green lands.’BR Of course, there were other reasons which supposedly reduced the forests’ mass in the Joseon period. Large-scale constructions of palaces, offices and ships, production of salt (by boiling sea water), expansion in usages of a certain heating system(“Ondol”) in civilian residences, increase in iron refinery operations and even escalating usage of porcelain and earthenware (which required operation of kilns), all contributed to the increase in usage of wood and therefore would have been detrimental to forest preservation. But an overall analysis of the amount of wood that would have probably been used in each of the above-mentioned areas show that any one of them would not have been severe enough to compromise the forests’ ultimate regenerative power. They could have temporarily damaged the forests from time to time to be sure, but would not have brought them to a point beyond recovery.BR Examination of written records suggest that the most irrefutable cause for the forests’ ultimate reduction was a steady increase in reclamation projects aiming for the enlargement of usable agricultural lands, and the expansion of human habitats and villages. Forests were irrevocably damaged in regions where lands were newly upgraded and people started to gather in a concentrated fashion. Also, forests which were close to villages were placed under constant logging, and in many cases slowly turned into pine tree-based pure forests. These places were relatively more fertile that others, and therefore were developed more quickly (than other areas) as slash-and-burn lands, and large pine tree forests close to such lands were oftentimes sacrificed by open fire.