Korea Forest Service Selected as 'Best' in Responsible Operation Agency Evaluation

The National Institute of Forest Science announced on the 26th that it was selected as the top institution in the ‘2023 Comprehensive Evaluation of Responsible Operating Agencies’ organized by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

The evaluation was based on the performance of 47 responsible operating agencies last year. In the evaluation, the Institute of Forest Science ranked first among 13 research-type responsible operating agencies. Responsible operating agencies are administrative institutions that take responsibility for performance based on autonomy in organization, personnel, and budget operations, and are classified into five types: research, investigation, education and culture, medical, and facilities and others. The Institute of Forest Science belongs to the research-type institutions.

Front view of the main gate of the Forest Science Institute. Provided by the National Institute of Forest Science

In the evaluation, the Institute of Forest Science was recognized for its efforts to lead forest policy through forest science and technology, aiming to ‘implement forest science research and development that expands influence,’ ‘secure future forest growth engines,’ and establish a forest science service system and sustainable management system for the public and forestry workers.

In particular, last year, it contributed to minimizing damage from forest disasters harmful to public safety by establishing a ‘real-time sharing platform for forest fire and landslide situations,’ and was evaluated as helping to revitalize the forestry and wood industry through the ‘development of domestically produced structural particleboard using wood by-products.’

The Institute of Forest Science also declared ‘carbon negative’ and established a ‘carbon negative implementation plan’ to continuously practice this, playing a leading role in national carbon neutrality as the national greenhouse gas statistics calculation agency, which was seen as a positive factor in the evaluation.

Jae-Soo Bae, Director of the Institute of Forest Science, said, “The Institute of Forest Science will focus its institutional capabilities on meeting the demands of the times through forests and science and technology, based on the autonomy of responsible operating agencies.”