Gotjawal Forest

Gotjawal Forest
View of Gotjawal Forest. A forest in such a flat area is very rare in densely populated South Korea
Korean name
Hangul
Hanja	n/a
Revised Romanization	Gotjawal sup
McCune–Reischauer	Kotchawal sup

Gotjawal Forest is a naturally formed forest located on the middle slopes of Halla Mountain, Jeju Island in South Korea. It covers the rocky area of ʻaʻā on Jeju Island off the southwestern coast of South Korea. Due to the geographical feature, the region remains largely undisturbed by people. The Gotjawal Forest is an enclave of the Southern Korea evergreen forests ecoregion, and is a favorite place of the Jeju locals.

Traditionally, Jeju locals call any forest on rocky ground "Gotjawal" (곶자왈). According to the Jeju Dialect Dictionary, "Gotjawal" refers to an unmanned and unapproachable forest mixed with trees and bushes. However, Song Shi-tae suggested, in his Ph.D. dissertation, a new meaning for the term "Gotjawal" because of its direct association with "ʻAʻā. Therefore, using the term "Gotjawal Lava" instead of "ʻAʻā" can be useful in land and groundwater management. Some people insist that the meaning of Gotjawal should not be restricted to geological features according to Jeong Gwang-jung's 2004 study. They say the ecological, historical, and cultural context should also be considered. However, it is still not clear how they define the meaning of Gotjawal.

In his 2003 study, Song asserted that protecting the Gotjawal area on Jeju is essential to protecting the island’s groundwater, because rain water penetrates directly into the groundwater aquifer through cracks in the region’s rocky earth.

The Gotjawal forest is considered to have three important features such as "its formation in rocky areas", "plants specific to this ecosystem", and "rain water penetrating to the groundwater aquifer".

The Gotjawal forest is formed on rocky areas. As it was difficult to develop these areas for agriculture, the forest remained untouched even in the twentieth century. In his 2000 study, Song Shi-tae insisted that Gotjawal’s terrain is mainly on ʻaʻā lava. Based on his field research, the Distribution Map of Gotjawal Terrain on Jeju-do was drawn. However, further research revealed that the terrain is not pure ʻaʻā lava but rather a mixture of ʻaʻā lava, and Pahoehoe lava, which Dr. Song also suggested naming Bille lava, following the dialect term of local people.