The Korea Forest Service has been working over the past decades to develop recreational forests across South Korea, with aims to transform the country’s natural forests and mountains into public parks for recreational and leisure activities.

The state-run forest management body embarked on the recreational forest development project in 1988, and has since come to operate 166 state-run, public and private-run forest recreation parks visited by some 16 million people annually, as of end-2017.

And now, the KFS wants to take its project to the next level by repositioning recreational forests as parks for not only leisure and relaxation, but also sports and outdoor activities like rock climbing and forest exploration trips. 

In the process, the state-run forest management body hopes to create new business opportunities for towns located near the nation’s recreational forests as well as make forests more accessible to social minorities including the elderly and disabled.

As the first step, the KFS said it will work to develop its forests as places offering active sports activities and entertainment in ways that best leverage the natural resources of a given forest park.

For instance, it plans to introduce rock climbing opportunities at Yonghwasan, live busking performances at Yumyeongsan, ocean fishing at Sinsido, mountain biking and paragliding at Bangjangsan and alpine skiing at Cheongtaesan.

On the other hand, forest parks located in more remote areas, such as Cheongoksan, will be transformed into specialized parks for outdoor camping equipped with camping caravans and cabins, the KFS said.

Meanwhile, the Korean forest management body plans to position the forest park in Gummasan as a forest that welcomes travelers with pets or long-term campers looking to stay at the same camping site for up to a month.

Expanding the total number of recreational forests is also a major item on the KFS’ agenda. It plans to add 19 new state-run and public forest parks by 2021, bringing the total number of recreational forest in Korea to 175.

In terms of resource allocation, the body plans to prioritize new forest park development in regions where such natural amenities do not exist, which make up around half of all municipalities across Korea.

In the process of bringing the envisioned changes to life, the KFS hopes to revitalize the economy of towns located near Korea’s recreational parks. The forest management body wants to forge new businesses and job opportunities for locals living in such towns by introducing tourism packages linked to the forests.

For instance, the KFS said it would team up with private businesses based near the recreational forests to offer visitors access to local housing and recreational facilities like woodworking shops and tourist farms.

To make forest-related activities more accessible to visitors, the KFS is also planning to launch a one-stop reservation system for state-run and city-run recreational forests by 2020.

The upcoming integrated system will provide the public easy access to information on tourism activities in nearby towns and reservation services for forest exploration trips to places like Gombaeryung Pass, the Birch Forest and the Korea National Arboretum, according to the forestry management body.

As part of efforts to make Korea’s forest parks more accessible to social minorities, the KFS also wants to expand the number of priority guest rooms for the elderly and disabled from 70 in 2018 to 300 in 2020.

In addition, the body has pledged to work together with the police and fire department to strengthen safety and sanitation checks on forest infrastructures as well as ensure that emergency hotlines for accidents and medical emergencies remain fully open to the public at all times.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com) and Lee Kwon-hyung (kwonhl@heraldcorp.com)