[2023 Budget] Korea Forest Service Allocates 2.4 Trillion Won for Next Year... "Focus on Public Safety"

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service has prepared a budget of 2.4 trillion won for next year.

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 31st that it has prepared a budget proposal of 2.4471 trillion won for next year and will submit it to the National Assembly.

The budget proposal for next year is 56.8 billion won (2.4%) higher than this year’s budget, focusing on enhancing the economic, environmental, and social values of forests through sustainable resource management and strengthening the forest disaster response system.

By sector, the budget is allocated as follows: 766 billion won for forest resource management, 629.5 billion won for forest disaster response, 276.7 billion won for forest welfare and revitalization of forest villages, 228.2 billion won for strengthening forestry competitiveness, 131.3 billion won for improving forest ecosystem health, and 165.5 billion won for research and development.

In particular, the budget proposal places additional emphasis on projects that strengthen on-site capabilities to respond to large-scale forest fires to prevent major wildfires.

First, the Korea Forest Service has newly allocated 1.1 billion won in the budget to advance the forest fire disaster prediction and analysis system next year. Additionally, 1 billion won will be invested in three research projects focused on practical solutions for forest disaster sites.

Equipment expansion for initial wildfire suppression will also be carried out. The budget proposal includes 58.5 billion won for the acquisition of two extra-large helicopters and two medium-large helicopters early next year, as well as 6.8 billion won for the purchase of nine high-performance wildfire suppression vehicles.

New budgets have also been allocated in the forest welfare sector alongside public safety. The Korea Forest Service has newly included 1.5 billion won in the budget to create east-west trails connecting the forest paths between Anmyeondo and Uljin (42 km in the first year), and 600 million won for establishing an integrated forest welfare platform.

Budgets are also heavily invested in supporting forestry workers and expanding the foundation for forest management. The Korea Forest Service has prepared a budget of 51.2 billion won to maintain the forestry direct payment system, which will be introduced in October this year, into next year.

Along with this, the budget proposal includes funds necessary for building an integrated information system for forestry direct payments (newly allocated 5.3 billion won) and implementing a forestry worker support system to compensate for income loss due to eco-friendly timber harvesting (newly allocated 1.1 billion won).

The Korea Forest Service plans to submit the budget proposal to the National Assembly on the 2nd of next month, and the budget will be finalized after review and approval by the National Assembly.

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