Korea Forest Service Allocates 2.6 Trillion Won Budget for Next Year... 12 Billion Won Increase from Previous Year

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 3rd that it has prepared a budget plan worth 2.6 trillion KRW for next year.

The budget plan for next year represents an increase of 12 billion KRW (0.5%) compared to the previous year. Excluding completed projects such as large-scale facility construction (109 billion KRW), the actual growth rate is 5.6% (an increase of 139 billion KRW).

The Korea Forest Service plans to focus next year’s budget on achieving national policy goals such as ▲strengthening forest disaster response to ensure public safety ▲enhancing support for forestry, wood industry, and forest welfare specialized businesses ▲addressing climate change through forest utilization.

First, investments will be expanded next year to improve response capabilities against everyday and large-scale forest disasters. The basic survey of landslide-prone areas will be expanded from 33,000 sites to 46,000 sites, and the number of check dams will increase from 510 to 1,000, with a budget of 188.6 billion KRW allocated.

A budget has also been newly allocated for building a forest watershed map to detect debris flows early (18 billion KRW) and for expanding the installation of guide signs in vulnerable areas and developing on-site response technologies to establish a resident evacuation system (28.2 billion KRW).

The monitoring and firefighting system to prevent large forest fires will also be strengthened. To this end, the Korea Forest Service plans to introduce two forest helicopters next year (contract scale totaling 88 billion KRW) and deploy 16 domestically produced high-performance forest fire trucks in the field (6 billion KRW). Additionally, to detect forest fire risks early, the expansion of the forest fire monitoring network (2.4 billion KRW) and the advancement of the forest fire forecasting system (200 million KRW) will be pursued.

To prevent the spread of pine wilt disease damage, which is increasing due to abnormal climate, new support will be provided for controlling damaged dead trees and trees at risk (35.3 billion KRW) and for species conversion within special control zones (24.5 billion KRW).

The Korea Forest Service will also expand support for forestry workers and the wood industry by strengthening investments in forest roads, which are key facilities for forest management. The length of forest fire-fighting roads will increase from 409 km to 500 km (157.4 billion KRW), and the length of forest product transport roads will increase from 14 km to 30 km (4.5 billion KRW). Along with this, the Korea Forest Service plans to carry out structural improvement projects for forest roads (13.6 billion KRW) to prepare for wind and flood disasters.

Projects to stabilize the income and management of forestry workers will also be strengthened. Support will be provided for forestry direct payments (50.7 billion KRW), policy funds (new loans of 120 billion KRW), and forestry worker development (1.1 billion KRW). Examples include expanding forestry management entity registration (from 5 billion KRW to 5.4 billion KRW) and support for topsoil application on turf cultivation areas (from 400 million KRW to 2.3 billion KRW). The aerial pest control for chestnut trees and other general pests, which has been supported by helicopters, will be changed to drone-based pest control from next year to meet the demands of forestry workers in the field (2.3 billion KRW).

The budget plan for next year also places emphasis on investments to respond to climate change. Based on supporting the achievement of national greenhouse gas reduction targets, it will expand afforestation management (144.5 billion KRW), large tree tending projects (15.4 billion KRW), and forest restoration projects such as at Gariwangsan Mountain (26.7 billion KRW → 34.7 billion KRW). It will also promote the construction of the National Forest Ecology Institute (40 billion KRW), a specialized institution for forest restoration technology development and education.

To secure green spaces in urban areas, the Korea Forest Service will actively promote the garden city creation project next year (expanding from 1 site to 8 sites, 8.9 billion KRW) and newly allocate a budget (8.7 billion KRW) to hold international garden expos in Sejong in 2026 and Ulsan in 2028 to raise public awareness of the importance of gardens and green spaces.

The budget plan for next year will be finalized after review and approval by the National Assembly.

Im Sang-seop, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, said, “The Korea Forest Service will strive to ensure that next year’s budget is used effectively to create ‘valuable and healthy forests that everyone can enjoy.’”

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