Chungnam Invests 15.5 Billion KRW in New Forest Roads and Facility Maintenance Projects

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province announced on the 15th that it will invest 15.5 billion KRW in constructing new forest roads and upgrading and repairing aging forest road facilities.

The new forest road construction will involve creating 62 km of roads, including 34 km of main forest roads (7.6 billion KRW) and 28 km of work forest roads (3.8 billion KRW).

The targeted sites for new construction mostly include forest areas requiring economic forest development through afforestation and forest cultivation, regions for forest protection and recreational resource use, and connections to remote mountain village access roads.

The planned new routes will undergo a preliminary feasibility evaluation conducted by an evaluation committee composed of university professors and environmental organization experts to determine the suitability of project implementation.

Facility upgrades and repairs will be carried out on 235 km of existing forest roads (4.1 billion KRW).

Forest roads are essential facilities needed to mechanize work within forests due to the decline and aging of the rural population, which results in a shortage of labor for forest operations.

They are also recognized as fundamental forest infrastructure effective for sustainable forest management activities such as afforestation, forest tending, logging, forest product transportation, as well as wildfire suppression and forest protection activities.

The province began constructing forest roads in 1984 and has expanded forest management infrastructure by building a total of 1,536 km of forest roads up to last year.

Lee Sang-chun, Director of the Forest Resources Division of the province, stated, “We plan to continue expanding new forest road construction for sustainable forest resource management,” and added, “We ask for the active cooperation of forest owners so that the construction of forest roads can enhance the economic value of forests and various additional values.”

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