"Forests Are Children's Playgrounds" Korea Forest Service Increases Safety Budget for Early Childhood Forest Experience Centers

The Korea Forest Service is significantly increasing the budget for safety management of Early Childhood Forest Experience Centers.

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 7th that it will invest 1.6 billion KRW in the safety management budget for Early Childhood Forest Experience Centers this year.

Considering that last year's safety management budget for these centers was 300 million KRW, this year's related budget represents a 417% increase compared to the previous year.

Provided by Korea Forest Service

Along with the budget increase, the scope of safety-related maintenance targets will also expand. As of the end of last year, there are 462 Early Childhood Forest Experience Centers nationwide in operation. Among them, 83 centers are managed by the government. The rest are operated by 362 public and 17 private centers.

Until now, the Korea Forest Service has selected six institutions annually through safety inspections that urgently require repair or replacement due to aging facilities and wood decay, providing safety maintenance budgets accordingly.

However, starting this year, the Korea Forest Service explained that the number of management targets will expand from the existing six centers to 31 centers in line with the increased budget.

Early Childhood Forest Experience Centers are a type of forest education facility designed to allow young children to run and play in the forest and experience the forest and nature firsthand, offering various experience programs and forest education services.

It is estimated that approximately 2 million young children visit Early Childhood Forest Experience Centers nationwide annually.

Nam Sung-hyun, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, said, “The forest is a happy playground and classroom for children,” adding, “The Korea Forest Service will continue to strengthen support to ensure that children can safely engage in forest experience activities at Early Childhood Forest Experience Centers.”

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