Chungcheongnam-do announced on the 23rd that the province's representative premium forest, the "Anmyeondo Pine Forest," has been finally selected as one of the "Top 10 Forest Genetic Resource Protection Areas for 2026" hosted by the Korea Forest Service.

The Korea Forest Service launched this public contest to discover and promote core protection areas with exceptional ecological value and conservation management among the 473 forest genetic resource protection areas (180,000 hectares) nationwide.

The Anmyeondo Pine Forest is a historically profound forest that has been managed at the national level since the Goryeo Dynasty. During the Joseon Dynasty, it preserved the historical significance of forest culture by supplying timber necessary for palace construction and royal coffins.

A dense natural forest of superior Anmyeon pine trees is distributed across 115 hectares—equivalent to the size of 164 soccer fields—and the province has designated and managed it as a "Pine Genetic Resource Protection Forest" since 1978.

Having been selected as a "National Forest Cultural Asset" in 2019 and a "Korea Forest Service Premium Forest" in 2023, it has once again proven its ecological and historical value by making the list of the "Top 10 Forest Genetic Resource Protection Areas."

Taking this selection as an opportunity, the province plans to strengthen its response system—such as intensifying precise surveillance and expanding preventive tree injections—to protect Anmyeon pine trees from the pine wilt disease currently spreading nationwide.

"The selection of the Anmyeondo Pine Forest as one of the Top 10 Forest Genetic Resource Protection Areas is the fruit of the provincial residents who have protected the forest from generation to generation," said Ahn Gyu-won, Head of the Mountainous District Management Division. "We will concentrate all our efforts on controlling the pine wilt disease to thoroughly safeguard our precious forest resources from the disease."

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