Gyeonggi-do to Increase 'Forest Recreation Facilities' in Urban Living Areas

30 New Sites Established from This Year, 300 Jobs Expanded

Dongducheon Recreation Forest [Provided by Gyeonggi Province]

[Asia Economy Reporter La Young-cheol] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 1st that "this year, a total of 31.7 billion KRW will be invested to promote 11 forest recreation facility projects, aiming to build forest recreation infrastructure."

The province is currently creating 11 new sites including Hwaseong Mubongsan Natural Recreation Forest, Suwon Arboretum, Seongnam Cheonggyesan Forest Bathing Area, Icheon Wood Culture Experience Center, Dongducheon Healing Forest, Anyang Children's Forest Experience Center, and Goyang Nanum Woodworking Workshop, all of which are easily accessible from urban living areas.

For 21 existing aging forest recreation facilities such as Yongin Natural Recreation Forest, Yeoju Hwanghaksan Arboretum, Ansan Daebudo Forest Bathing Area, and Nanum Woodworking Workshop, supplementary projects will be carried out.

Maintenance work is underway on a total of 273 km of hiking trails including Gwanggyosan, and this year, 4.3 billion KRW has been newly allocated to maintain trail signposts and create 27 rest areas at famous mountains in Gyeonggi Province.

In addition, various "customized experience programs" reflecting residents' demands such as forest healing, woodworking experiences, and forest experiences will be expanded and operated.

To this end, a total of 271 forest welfare professionals including 20 forest healing instructors, 124 children's forest instructors, 29 woodworking instructors, and 27 forest interpreters have been deployed across healing forests, natural recreation forests, arboretums, children's forest experience centers, and forest bathing areas throughout the province.

The province plans to increase the number of forest recreation facilities from 200 to 230 by 2023 and gradually expand jobs in the forest recreation sector to 300 this year.

Currently, there are a total of 200 forest recreation facilities in the province, including 18 natural recreation forests, 20 arboretums, 5 healing forests, 41 forest bathing areas, 92 children's forest experience centers, 1 forest campground, 2 wood culture experience centers, 3 forest education centers, and 1 forest ecological culture experience complex.

Lee Seong-gyu, Director of the Gyeonggi Province Forestry Division, stated, "We will do our best to promote projects so that residents exhausted by COVID-19 can enjoy rest and leisure in well-maintained forests."

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