Joo Byung-chul, Head of Southern Regional Forest Service, "Providing National Rest and Workspaces with Proper Forest Management"

Jung Byung-chul, head of the Southern Regional Forest Service (third from the left), is walking along the Yeongyang Birch Forest Trail with national forest management advisory committee members, discussing future utilization plans for the forest trail. Provided by the Southern Regional Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] “Promoting forest welfare projects that reflect regional characteristics plays an important role in improving the quality of life for the people and revitalizing mountain villages.” Nambu Regional Forest Service Chief Jo Byeong-cheol said this in an interview with Asia Economy on the 29th.

The Nambu Regional Forest Service is a regional office overseeing 3 metropolitan cities and 2 provinces in Gyeongnam and Gyeongbuk, as well as 29 cities and counties, managing 18.1% of the national public forests (4.6% of the country’s total forests).

Broadly, the national public forests under the jurisdiction of the Nambu Regional Forest Service are divided into urban areas in the southern region, including 3 metropolitan cities, and mountain village areas in the northern region such as Gyeongbuk.

Among these, the urban areas in the southern region, including Busan, focus on optimizing forest welfare functions by creating forest welfare facilities such as forest camping sites, healing forests, and hiking schools, while the northern region, including Yeongju and Uljin, emphasizes job creation and income generation in mountain villages using national forest resources.

The intention is to implement customized policies to create spaces where citizens can rest in urban areas and spaces where forestry workers can settle and coexist with local communities in mountain village areas.

In this process, the Nambu Regional Forest Service also places importance on managing conflicts with environmental organizations and collaborating with local governments for forest utilization.

First, the Nambu Regional Forest Service recently demonstrated its capabilities in minimizing conflicts with surrounding stakeholders while promoting the Busan Forest Camping Site project. The focus was on harmonizing and resolving conflicts between the justification of expanding forest welfare facilities, which are lacking in urban areas, and concerns from environmental groups about forest and natural environment damage.

This was achieved by utilizing a conflict management consulting system and operating a private council to collect opinions from environmental organizations, then revising and supplementing the originally planned project contents, which laid the groundwork for smooth project implementation.

Chief Jo said, “While carrying out the Busan Forest Camping Site project, we formed and operated a private council including environmental groups and changed the plan within an acceptable range, producing results satisfactory to both sides,” adding, “It is meaningful in that we avoided pushing the project recklessly and, even if the progress was somewhat slow, found an amicable solution to smoothly advance the project.”

The “Yeongyang Birch Forest Area Revitalization Project” promoted by the Nambu Regional Forest Service was selected as an excellent case by the Korea Forest Service headquarters for expanding forest welfare facilities through collaboration with local governments. This project focused on seeking ways to revitalize the local economy by utilizing forest resources (including national forests) owned by Yeongyang County, and was promoted in a form of mutual cooperation by sharing roles with Gyeongbuk Province and Yeongyang County.

Detailed projects include mountain village revitalization using national forests, creation of a birch healing hub, and asset utilization of idle forest resources.

Currently, the Nambu Regional Forest Service is concentrating its efforts on creating direct jobs such as forest interpreters and forest protection personnel by utilizing national forests, fostering social economy entities through support for village enterprise startups using the birch forest area, and increasing local tourism demand linked with local government projects.

Chief Jo explained, “Excluding the island region of Ulleung County, Yeongyang County has the smallest population nationwide (total population 16,146) and a high elderly population ratio (35.1% aged 65 or older), making it a representative mountain village area at risk of extinction,” adding, “Therefore, the Nambu Regional Forest Service is focusing on utilizing national forests to revitalize the local economy using the forest resources owned by Yeongyang County.”

He continued, “The concept of 적지적수 (Jeokji Jeoksu, ‘right tree in the right place’) means not simply planting trees so they grow well, but planting and managing trees according to regional characteristics and management objectives,” and said, “The Nambu Regional Forest Service will continue to do its best to ensure that forests can be valuable resources serving as resting places and workplaces for the people.”