Chungnam Announces 5.7 Trillion Won Investment in "Future Forest Strategy"

20-Year Long-Term Roadmap Unveiled: Climate Carbon Forests, Income Innovation for Forest Products, Forest Healing, and Smart Disaster Management

Chungnam Province has announced its "Chungnam-Style Future Forest Strategy," a plan to be implemented by 2045 in response to rapidly changing circumstances such as the climate crisis, depopulation of mountain villages, aging population, and the proliferation of AI technology. The province has outlined a long-term vision to invest a total of 5.7689 trillion won to restructure forests as core resources for climate, economy, recreation, and safety.

On November 19, the province unveiled the "Chungnam-Style Future Forest Strategy (2026-2045)," a 20-year blueprint aimed at realizing "Chungnam thriving through forests."

This strategy has been developed to address the rapidly evolving environment, including the climate crisis, aging forests, an increasing elderly population, the disappearance of mountain villages, and the transition to an AI and ICT-based society.

The strategy consists of four main areas and 27 detailed initiatives: ▲ Carbon Forests for Climate Crisis Response ▲ Income-Generating Forests ▲ Forests for Recreation ▲ Safe Forests Throughout the Four Seasons.

In the area of climate crisis response, the province plans to increase the proportion of high value-added tree species such as hinoki cypress, Japanese cedar, and sawtooth oak to 82% to create economic forests, and to boost forest carbon absorption from the current 1.095 million tons to 1.514 million tons by 2045, an increase of 38%.

For strengthening the income base, the province aims to foster chestnuts as a representative K-forest product and introduce smart farms for forest products, with the goal of raising household forest income to around 60 million won. Plans also include hosting an international chestnut industry expo and attracting the National Chestnut Research Center.

In the recreation and healing sector, the province will integrate medical functions into forest healing and develop a Chungnam-Style Forest Resource Research Institute, constructed from wood, as a landmark. The creation of a garden industry hub on Anmyeondo Island is also included.

In the safety sector, the province will advance wildfire and landslide response using smart technology, pursue the establishment of a National West Coast Wildfire Prevention Center, and set up a Forest Disaster Center.

In particular, the province plans to use the agricultural and forestry satellite, scheduled for launch in 2026 and equipped with AI and ICT-based analysis, to minimize damage from forest disasters.

Park Jeongju, Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs, stated, "This strategy marks a turning point in elevating Chungnam's forests as core resources for climate response and the regional economy. We will steadily implement the established plans to ensure that Chungnam truly thrives through its forests."

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