On February 11, 1991, South Jeolla Province promulgated an ordinance establishing Wando Arboretum, and the arboretum was formally launched on April 10 of that same year as the Jeollanam-do Wando Arboretum. It was later renamed Wando Warm-Temperate Arboretum in 2007, and reorganized again in 2008 as the Wando Arboretum of the Forest Resources Research Institute. Situated at the southwesternmost point of the Korean peninsula, the arboretum occupies terrain where mountains and sea meet.
Wando County describes the site as South Korea's only warm-temperate arboretum and its largest naturally occurring warm-temperate forest. Official pages, however, give different figures—2,000 to 2,050 hectares and 3,449 to 3,801 resources—so any number should be dated to its source. The stable point is its role in conserving and researching broadleaf evergreen forest. A National Warm-Temperate Arboretum project, targeted for completion in 2030, is also under way around the existing provincial facility; the operating arboretum and the new project should not be conflated.
A December 2025 Korea Forest Service release gives the updated national project a budget of KRW 181.5 billion, 376 hectares, and a 2030 target. Earlier releases gave 373 hectares and a smaller budget, showing that design and finance evolved. Neither figure equals the roughly 2,000-hectare forest area in descriptions of the existing arboretum. Visitors should distinguish collected displays and greenhouses from naturally occurring forest. Construction may alter trails. An anomalous “00:00–00:00” tourism-page display is not evidence of 24-hour opening; verify hours, closures, and fees directly. “Warm-temperate” is an ecological category, not merely a slogan.