[Exclusive] Forest Camping Sites Greatly Expanded... Recreation Forests Increased Tenfold

Only 43 Forest Campsites and 199 Recreational Forests
Consideration of Mountain Recreation Act Improvement and Financial Investment

The government will announce measures within this year to expand campgrounds (camping sites) that can be enjoyed in the forest and to significantly increase natural recreation forests. This decision is based on the judgment that more citizens should be able to use forests as leisure spaces to fully enjoy nature. Currently, there are only 43 forest campgrounds and 199 recreation forests nationwide, and the plan is to increase these up to 10 times.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Korea Forest Service, and other related ministries on the 8th, the government will announce plans to expand forest campgrounds and recreation forests within the year. To this end, they are reviewing easing regulations such as the Mountain Recreation Act and securing recreation forests through financial investment. A senior official from the Ministry of Economy and Finance said, "From the perspective of national leisure, more citizens should be able to enjoy the forest," adding, "To achieve this, we are considering significantly improving related regulations to increase recreation forests up to 10 times and expand forest campgrounds."

First, they are considering converting some of the conservation forest areas, where development is restricted, into semi-conservation forest areas to allow the installation of campgrounds within conservation forests. Conservation forests account for 70% of all forest areas, but since the focus is on protection, development is only permitted in extremely limited areas, making it practically difficult to install forest campgrounds. Currently, there are only 43 forest campgrounds nationwide.

Regulations will also be improved to allow campgrounds of various sizes to be installed in forests. They are reviewing measures such as relaxing road installation standards within the enforcement decree of the Forest Recreation Act. Under current law, operators must secure access roads themselves to install campgrounds. This is to ensure smooth access for emergency vehicles such as ambulances or fire trucks in case of emergencies. The access road must be connected to a public road to be recognized as a secured access road, allowing the installation of campgrounds.

An official from the Ministry of Economy and Finance explained, "There are no public roads in the forest because cars do not drive there, and only forest roads prepared for wildfire prevention exist," adding, "We are considering recognizing forest roads (where cars can drive) as access roads."

They are also reviewing plans to expand natural recreation forests up to 10 times. Natural recreation forests refer to comprehensive facilities designed to allow hiking, camping, forest bathing, leisure, and accommodation all in nature. There are a total of 199 natural recreation forests nationwide. Among them, 46 are national natural recreation forests operated by the National Natural Recreation Forest Management Office. The remaining are 129 public and 24 private recreation forests, respectively.

The government is looking into significantly relaxing the minimum area requirements to facilitate the establishment of recreation forests. According to the Mountain Recreation Act, national and public recreation forests must be at least 200,000㎡, and private recreation forests must be at least 130,000㎡. The government plans to ease these minimum area standards to allow the creation of small-scale recreation forests, aiming to foster various types of recreation forests.

The budget necessary to expand forest campgrounds and natural recreation forests will also be increased. While easing regulations to allow the private sector to enter the recreation forest business with low burdens, the government is likely to invest financially to expand recreation forest development. However, since it requires a budget of 5 to 10 billion KRW to create one additional recreation forest, some within the government believe that increasing recreation forests by more than 10 times at once will be difficult.