Various social and environmental problems have recently emerged due to global climate change. In South Korea, coniferous forests in the highlands are decreasing due to climate change whereas the distribution of subtropical species is gradually increasing. This study aims to respond to changes in the distribution of forest species in South Korea due to climate change. This study predicts changes in future suitable areas for Pinus koraiensis, Cryptomeria japonica, and Chamaecyparis obtusa cultivated as timber species based on climate, topography, and environment. Appearance coordinates were collected only for natural forests in consideration of climate suitability in the National Forest Inventory. Future climate data used the SSP scenario by KMA. Species distribution models were ensembled to predict future suitable habitat areas for the base year (2000-2019), near future (2041-2060), and distant future (2081-2100). In the baseline period, the highly suitable habitat for Pinus koraiensis accounted for approximately 13.87% of the country. However, in the distant future (2081- 2100), it decreased to approximately 0.11% under SSP5-8.5. For Cryptomeria japonica, the habitat for the base year was approximately 7.08%. It increased to approximately 18.21% under SSP5-8.5 in the distant future. In the case of Chamaecyparis obtusa, the habitat for the base year was approximately 19.32%. It increased to approximately 90.93% under SSP5-8.5 in the distant future. Pinus koraiensis, which had been planted nationwide, gradually moved north due to climate change with suitable habitats in South Korea decreased significantly. After the near future, Pinus koraiensis was not suitable for the afforestation as timber species in South Korea. Chamaecyparis obtusa can be replaced in most areas. In the case of Cryptomeria japonica, it was assessed that it could replace part of the south and central region.

North Korea has actively participated in the international community related to environmental agreements. It has proposed various environmental policies internally since the Kim Jong-un regime. In particular, it emphasizes activities related to climate change response, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the conservation of ecosystems including forests and wetlands. In this study, a new security cooperation plan was proposed with an understanding of the climate crisis and environmental regime as a starting point. To this end, trends and recent activities for climate-environment cooperation in the international community and on the Korean Peninsula were analyzed. In addition, North Korea’s conditions for cooperation on the Korean Peninsula, technology demand, and the projected future environment of the Korean Peninsula were dealt with. Ultimately, through advice of experts, we were able to discover cooperation agendas by sector and propose short-term and long-term environmental cooperation strategies for the Korean Peninsula based on them. In this study, conditions and directions for cooperation in fields of climate technology, biological resources, air/weather, water environment, biodiversity, renewable energy, bioenergy, and so on were considered comprehensively. Among 21 cooperation agendas discovered in this study, energy showed the largest number of areas. Renewable energy, forest resources, and environmental and meteorological information stood out as agendas that could be cooperated in the short term. As representative initiatives, joint promotion of ‘renewable energy’ that could contribute to North Korea’s energy demand and carbon neutrality and ‘forest cooperation’ that could be recognized as a source of disaster reduction and greenhouse gas sinks were suggested.

본 연구는 북한 산림복원을 생태계 서비스의 관점에서 비용-편익 기반 경제적 가치로 확인하였고, 산림복원 형태에 따른 경제성을 비교하였다. 특히 산림복원에 따른 편익을 탄소저장, 수자원공급, 토양유실방지, 재해저감 등 생태계 서비스로 분류하고 경제적 가치로 환산하여 종합적 편익을 산출하였다. 산림복원 시나리오에서는 최근의 북한 조림실적과 산림정책을 고려하여 ‘단독조림 시나리오’ 와 ‘산림협력 시나리오’를 구성하여 동일한 복원기간이나 조림의 양적 물량 차이를 시나리오로 도출하였다. 단독조림 시나리오에서는 향후 20년 동안 3조 8,294억원의 비용으로 80만 ha의 산림을 복원하여 6조 8,684억원의 편익이 발생할 것으로 산출되었다. 순현재가치로 경제성을 평가 하였을 때, 3조 390억원으로, BCR은 1 이상이었다. 산림협력 시나리오에서는 10조 531억원의 비용으로 220만 ha의 산림을 복원하여 18조 8,909억원의 편익이 발생할 것으로 산출되었다. 마찬가지로 순현재가치로 경제성을 평가하였을 때, 8조 3,599억원이며, BCR은 1 이상이었다. 두 시나리오에서 모두 BCR은 1 이상으로 경제성을 갖는 것으로 도출되었으나, 예상되는 편익의 양에는 큰 차이가 있었다. 다만, 조림면적에 따른 단순화된 비용-편익 분석이므로, 경제성 (BCR)이 유사하게 나타나는 한계가 있으며, 조림속도나 생물리적 차이를 고려하지 않았다. 결론적으로 산림복 원은 비용보다 편익이 높은 사업이 될 수 있으며, 산림협력을 통해 그 가치를 증진시킬 수 있다. 장기적으로 이러한 경제성이 근거가 되어 기업과 국제·민간기구 등의 협력을 통해 다양한 형태의 산림협력이 추진되길 기대한다.