Korea Forest Service Freezes Mountain Development Charges at Previous Year's Level

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service will freeze the charges related to mountain area development at the same level as last year.

On the 30th, the Korea Forest Service announced that it has frozen the costs for alternative forest resource creation and restoration fees, which must be borne by the responsible party when developing mountain areas such as mountain land conversion, at the previous year's level in accordance with the "Mountain Management Act."

The alternative forest resource creation cost refers to the expenses for conservation, management, and creation of mountain areas that must be paid when obtaining permission for mountain land conversion to use the land for other purposes. The mountain restoration fee is the cost incurred when restoration is not carried out for mountain land conversion, temporary use, soil and rock extraction, mineral extraction, or areas prone to disasters, and is executed on behalf of the responsible party.

The charge standards announced this year are the same as those applied last year. For example, the alternative forest resource creation cost is calculated by adding 1% of the individual publicly announced land price to the following amounts: 6,790 KRW/㎡ for quasi-conservation mountain land, 8,820 KRW/㎡ for conservation mountain land, and 13,580 KRW/㎡ for restricted areas of mountain land conversion and temporary use.

Additionally, the mountain restoration fee is set between 72,261,000 KRW and 589,014,000 KRW per 10,000㎡ depending on the slope when mountain land is converted, temporarily used, or when soil and rock or mineral extraction occurs.

Choi Byung-am, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, explained, “As COVID-19 prolongs and prices rise, the burden on citizens and forestry workers is increasing. The Korea Forest Service judged that there is a need to reduce the burden related to mountain area development charges and therefore decided to freeze the charges at the same level as last year.”

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