녹색성장에 대응한 중장기 산림정책 추진전략(1/2차 연도)

Abstract

최근 기후변화와 생물다양성 손실, 에너지 위기 등이 국제적인 이슈로 떠오르면서 산림의 중요성이 커지고, 주5일 근무제 정착, 건강에 대한 관심 증가 등으로 인해 국민들의 산림에 대한 관심과 수요는 다양화되면서 급격히 증가하고 있다. 그러나 한편으로는 시장개방 확대, 산촌인구의 고령화 심화 등의 영향으로 여전히 임업생산은 미비하고 임가 소득은 저조하여 국내 임업·산촌의 상황은 나아지지 않고 있다. 따라서 증가하는 산림에 대한 수요를 충족시키는 동시에 임업·산촌을 활성화시킬 수 있는 방안을 모색하는 것이 필요한 시기이다.

이 보고서는 최근 산림을 둘러싼 대내외적 여건 변화를 반영하여 산림정책의 중장기적인 방향을 제시하고 있다. ‘제5차 산림기본계획(2008∼2017)’이 절반 가량 지난 시점에서 기본계획의 중간점검 필요성이 제기되면서, 이 연구는 산림의 여건 변화와 미래 트렌드, 그리고 국내외 산림정책을 검토하고 산림 관련 다양한 이해관계자들의 의견을 반영하여 미래를 내다보는 산림정책의 방향과 핵심 추진 전략들을 종합적으로 제시하였다.

Background of Research With the international community facing global environmental problems such as climate change, desertification, and loss of biodiversity and energy crisis, the importance of forest has been growing more and more recently. Domestically, the demand for leisure and healing in the forest as well as education about forest is increasing as a result of increasing urbanization, introduction of five-day working week, and growing interest in health. Even though domestic forest resources have increased along with the public benefit of forests, the forest industry's productivity and forest farmers' income have remained low. As a result, there is a growing demand by forest farmers to use the forest land. As this is the case, there is a conflict of interests between the general public who wish to conserve the forest and forest farmers who wish to develop it. The direction for mid- and long-term forest policy should be set on resolving the conflicting needs of interested parties through partnerships and on seeking harmony and co-existence beyond the social, economic and environmental benefits sought by the sustainable forest management of today.

Method of Research This year, which is the first year of this research, the direction and goal for long-term forest policy was set by analyzing changes in domestic and international circumstances surrounding forestry and trends in domestic and international forest policy. Also, a survey was conducted to find out forest farmers' and the general public's opinions on forest and forestry. The core tasks and detailed strategies for achieving the goal were derived from a field survey, on-site meetings, and expert seminars. In the second year, policy priorities will be identified and a detailed project plan will be finalized.

Research Results and Implications In order to meet all the conflicting needs of interested parties, the basic goals were set on making compensations for maintaining the multifunctionality of forest, boosting the competitiveness of forestry, invigorating local communities, conserving the forest ecosystem, and expanding forest environmental services, and core strategies and policy tasks for each goal were selected. First, compensations will be made for forest environmental services in private forest areas to maintain the multifunctionality of forest through forest protection trust and direct payments for forest environmental services. Second, the forest industry will be nurtured and its competitiveness strengthened through the timber industry, forest product export, and agroforestry. Also, a forest income stabilization system will be constructed by expanding disaster insurance and by implementing a direct payment system. Third, in order to invigorate the local forestry, efforts will be made to foster forest industry clusters, mountain village-type community businesses, and model forests at local and regional levels. Fourth, in order to conserve the forest ecosystem and expand forest environmental services, efforts will be made to improve the health of the forest through prevention of forest disasters and expansion of tailored afforestation programs, expand diverse forest environmental services for leisure, healing, education, recreation and sports, and actively manage the forest in urban areas. Finally, in order to put these strategies into practice, efforts will be made to construct and improve policy support systems such as forest management governance system, management support system for different types of managers, and forest land management system.

Researchers: Hyun-Deok Suck, Cheol-Su Chang, Kyung-Taek Min, Ho-Gun Chong, Sun-Jin Ahn, So-Hee Park, Gook-Hoon Cho Research Period: 2012. 1～2012. 10 E-mail address: hdseok@krei.re.kr