Park Jong-ho, Director of the Korea Forest Service, "Forest Policy Focused on Fundamentals and Supporting National Agenda"

Park Jong-ho, the Commissioner of the Korea Forest Service, is introducing the direction of forest policies promoted by the Korea Forest Service this year in an interview with Asia Economy held at the Government Complex Daejeon on the 20th. Photo by Korea Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The public and social roles of forests are becoming increasingly significant these days. Issues such as fine dust, which is discussed almost daily, the rising demand for forest welfare services, and ensuring the basic living standards of forestry workers who depend on forests as their livelihood have emerged as pressing challenges that the Korea Forest Service cannot overlook.

Moreover, as a government agency, the Korea Forest Service has the responsibility to align with the current administration’s national agenda and address forest-related issues connected to key government policy keywords. Asia Economy recently met with Park Jong-ho (59, pictured), Commissioner of the Korea Forest Service, to discuss the forest issues currently facing the agency and the direction of forest policies for this year.

- What are the main agendas the Korea Forest Service Commissioner highlights for this year?

▲ Last year, the Korea Forest Service worked steadily to complete the first half of the Moon Jae-in administration by implementing the government’s forest policy master plan, “Forests that Change My Life! Korea Within the Forest.” This year, the Korea Forest Service plans to continue focusing on fundamental forest administration such as tree planting and forest management, while also aligning with the government’s national agenda by emphasizing “economic forest cultivation,” “creation of forest jobs,” “expansion of support for forestry workers,” and “activation of New Southern and New Northern policies.”

- As fine dust has become a social issue, the importance of forests has been newly recognized. What are the Korea Forest Service’s measures to respond to fine dust?

▲ Studies show that the average concentration of ultrafine dust (PM2.5) in Korea (25) is about twice as high as the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline (10) and major advanced cities such as Tokyo (12.8) and London (11). This indicates that Korea’s air environment is quite poor. In this context, the role of forests in reducing fine dust has recently gained attention. In fact, the National Institute of Forest Science found that urban forests reduce the average concentration of ultrafine dust by 40.9%.

Accordingly, the Korea Forest Service plans to increase forested areas inside and around densely populated cities and expand the creation of wind corridor forests connecting urban centers and outskirts, helping citizens maintain a comfortable living environment and healthy life. Additionally, the agency will intensively promote research and development (R&D) to enhance forests’ fine dust reduction functions, maximizing the public benefits of forests such as air purification.

On the 3rd, Park Jong-ho, the Commissioner of the Korea Forest Service, held an on-site New Year's ceremony with forestry workers in Jeonui-myeon, Sejong City. Photo by Korea Forest Service

- The public utilization of forests through forest welfare services is increasing. What are the Korea Forest Service’s policies regarding forest welfare services?

▲ The Korea Forest Service aims to make forest welfare a broad benefit of nature that anyone can empathize with and find healing in. For example, the agency has increased the number of major forest welfare facilities such as natural recreation forests, forest bathing sites, healing forests, children’s forest experience centers, forest education centers, leisure complexes, and national forest kindergartens from 581 in 2018 to 707 last year, and plans to add 40 more facilities this year to achieve quantitative growth.

As part of forest welfare services, forest welfare experts such as forest interpreters, children’s forest guides, forest trail hiking guides, and forest healing instructors are deployed on-site to help users find mental and physical stability and healing in the forest. To this end, the Korea Forest Service has increased the number of on-site forest welfare experts from 16,666 in 2018 to 19,821 in 2019, and plans to reach 22,607 this year.

- One of the current administration’s key national agendas is “job creation.” What is the direction of the Korea Forest Service’s job creation policies planned for this year?

▲ To put it simply, the Korea Forest Service aims to create about 25,000 forest-related jobs this year, with approximately 6,500 being new positions. However, simply increasing the number of jobs quantitatively can lose its significance. For this reason, the agency plans to emphasize the professionalization of forest jobs by increasing expert positions in the forestry sector alongside quantitative growth.

To achieve this, the Korea Forest Service will first reorganize jobs into three major sectors (public, private, social economy) and six types (public jobs, social services, regional industry jobs, direct jobs, social economy/entrepreneurship, professional jobs), and set direct and indirect job targets for each project to manage implementation status.

For example, in the public sector, job creation will focus on expanding disaster safety personnel such as converting 160 wildfire disaster special firefighting team members to public officials, increasing staff for forest welfare and recreation facilities, and operating personnel for the National Arboretum. In the private sector, the focus will be on expanding employment opportunities through forest infrastructure and forest management projects such as living-type forest social overhead capital (SOC), and creating professional jobs favored by young and middle-aged workers such as tree doctors, wood education experts, and forest leisure guides.

In the social economy sector, the agency will discover resident enterprises utilizing local forest resources to foster community-centered forest businesses and support existing forest companies with social economy consulting to facilitate their entry into the social economy.

The Korea Forest Service held an on-site New Year's ceremony with forestry workers on the 3rd in Jeonui-myeon, Sejong City. The "2020 Hope Message" written by forestry workers at the ceremony. Provided by the Korea Forest Service

- On the 3rd, you held an on-site New Year’s ceremony with forestry workers in Sejong. What is the significance of this event, and what forest policies are being strengthened for forestry workers?

▲ I have been in office as the Korea Forest Service Commissioner for about a month. During this time, I have come to believe that abandoning a sense of authority and being humble allows for better communication with many people. To avoid any arrogance that might arise, I held the on-site New Year’s ceremony to meet directly with forestry workers who struggle in the field and listen to and resolve their everyday difficulties.

Forestry is a unique field within forestry administration but has been relatively neglected in various forest policies until now. Personally, I feel a responsibility to develop forest policies that truly resonate with and support forestry workers who trust and rely on me.

Broadly speaking, improving forestry workers’ income and introducing a forestry direct payment system have emerged as priority tasks. The forestry direct payment system is a project aimed at promoting the public functions of forests through forestry activities and compensating forestry household income, and its necessity has been consistently raised. However, to introduce this system, it is essential to gain public consensus and obtain approval from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the National Assembly. Therefore, during my term, I plan to focus on the process of introducing the forestry direct payment system and aim to realize it.

- There has been much expectation and significance attached to having a “promoted-from-within Commissioner” at the Korea Forest Service.

▲ It is true that it has been rare for a Korea Forest Service official to be promoted to Commissioner, so-called an internal promotion. However, personally, I do not place great significance on internal promotion. Whether the Commissioner comes from outside or is promoted internally, the role is to set the direction for the organization and support it from outside rather than focusing on internal matters.

Separately, when meeting Korea Forest Service employees, I will approach them more as a senior than as a Commissioner, and strive to foster “communication among all of us” rather than just between the Commissioner and individual employees. In particular, I will strengthen communication with young employees in their 20s and 30s and work to remove barriers between departments and divisions. Above all, I will do my best to maintain the initial mindset I had when I took office throughout my term.

*Career

▲ Department of Forest Science, Seoul National University ▲ Master’s in Forestry Policy, Michigan State University, USA ▲ Ph.D. in Agriculture, Chungnam National University ▲ 25th Technical Examination ▲ First Secretary (Counselor) at the Korean Embassy in Indonesia ▲ Director of International Forest Cooperation Promotion Division, Korea Forest Service ▲ Director of Forest Resources Bureau ▲ Deputy Secretary-General of the Asia Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) ▲ Director of Forest Welfare Bureau ▲ Planning and Coordination Officer ▲ Chief Representative for Implementation of the Inter-Korean Joint Declaration and Head of the Inter-Korean Forest Cooperation Subcommittee ▲ Deputy Commissioner of the Korea Forest Service

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.