[Opinion] Relaxation of Forest Service Mountain Area Regulations... A Breakthrough for Population Decline in Gapyeong-gun

Seo Taewon, Gapyeong County Governor

Gapyeong-gun's dense forest resources cover 82% of its area, a valuable result achieved through decades of dedication and unseen sacrifices by both forest owners and local residents. According to a recent report, as of 2020, the total public value of forests?including forest recreation functions and water source conservation functions?amounts to 259 trillion KRW, with each citizen benefiting approximately 4.99 million KRW annually.

Despite the significant benefits provided by the forests, 52% of Gapyeong-gun's forests are privately owned, with about 21,000 forest owners. Additionally, 84% of the conservation forest areas restrict the construction of general houses except for farmhouses, causing most private forests to be undervalued and neglected. Moreover, more than half of the forest owners reside outside the area, resulting in very low interest in utilizing forest resources.

In this context, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Korea Forest Service are currently revising the “Special Act on Support for Population Declining Areas,” which includes easing mountain area regulations to allow residents from the metropolitan area to build houses within forestry-use mountain areas in conservation forests when relocating to population-declining regions.

Until now, only farmers and fishermen could build farmhouses in forestry-use mountain areas. However, once the Special Act on Support for Population Declining Areas is amended, metropolitan residents moving to Gapyeong-gun, a population-declining area, will be allowed to build general houses in forestry-use mountain areas through local ordinances. Furthermore, the Korea Forest Service is revising related laws to permit local governments to relax some key criteria for mountain area development permits?such as average slope, elevation, and timber volume?by up to 20%, depending on local conditions.

The Korea Forest Service’s policy to ease mountain area regulations in Gapyeong-gun, a population-extinction area, is expected to boost the economic activity intentions of forest owners living outside the area and increase property values, thereby revitalizing the local community.

In particular, allowing house construction in conservation forests for those relocating to Gapyeong-gun is expected to attract population inflow through urban-to-rural migration from the metropolitan area. The relaxation of major permit criteria, including average slope and timber volume, will stimulate land transactions for mountain development, significantly contributing to the local economy of Gapyeong-gun as well as related industries such as real estate and construction.

To overcome the imminent population extinction crisis, Gapyeong-gun plans to promptly implement administrative procedures, including enacting local ordinances to attract metropolitan residents and out-of-area forest owners in line with the Korea Forest Service’s mountain regulation easing. Additionally, Gapyeong-gun will work to improve living conditions for both the increasing incoming population and local residents to enhance convenience.

Through these efforts, Gapyeong-gun aims to build a special county united by healing and happiness, where people live, work, and rest while leveraging its abundant forest resources as a future growth engine in the cultural tourism industry.

The easing of mountain area regulations will be the first step for Gapyeong-gun to overcome its population decline crisis and harness forests as a future growth engine. Gapyeong-gun warmly welcomes the Korea Forest Service’s policy and will devote all efforts to promoting population inflow and regional economic revitalization, transforming the value of forests into a future growth driver.

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