| dc.description.abstract | The green fund was established to protect forest environments and improve the function of forests for the people, and support the expense of creating and promoting global forest resources and environments. The main source of the green fund is from the dividend of the lottery fund based on the Lottery Tickets and Lottery Fund Act. The current projects of the green fund are regulated to promote forest environmental functions by the Creation and Management of Forest Resources Act. As the scale of the green fund increases, it is necessary to analyze the fund’s current operating system and improve the project performance.
The purpose of this study is to develop strategies to improve the operating system of the green fund for maximizing the green fund project performance. We first analyzed the fund’s current system and found main problems. Then, we suggested some strategies to improve the current system and resolve the issues. Also, we suggested ways to expand the use of the green fund reasonably, and showed the mid-term fiscal outlook and the expected outcomes from the green fund projects. Furthermore, we suggested the role of the Korea Green Promotion Agency (KGPA) as a public institute for the Korea Forest Service (KFS).
Concerning the current status of the green fund system, we found some issues to be improved. First, it is needed to re-establish names and classification of the green fund projects because the current names and classification are inappropriate to deliver the contents of projects. Second, the scope of the green fund should be expanded for the promotion of forest environmental functions. Third, due to an increased number of projects, it is difficult to conduct a site-visiting evaluation, checking the adequacy and appropriateness of a project in the field, for all candidate projects. Fourth, the current follow-up monitoring system should be improved. Last, it is needed to develop a database system that includes the history of past projects done and monitoring results.
To address these issues, we suggested re-establishing the classification of current green-fund projects, introducing a preview system before evaluation, asking a matching fund for a portion of total expenses, and constructing a database system.
When it comes to expanding the scope of green fund projects, we established three principles. First, the new areas of projects should be in accordance with the purpose of the green fund imposed by law. Second, those areas should not be duplicated with those of the existing special corporations that work for the KFS. Third, the projects should be difficult for the KFS to perform directly because of current budget and project limits. In this study, we suggested five new project areas: monitoring forest projects such as afforestation and other management activities, supporting forest disaster prevention and recovery projects, implementing REDD+ projects, building and operating ecological parks for wildlife. In particular, we suggested that the KGPA can have an important role to monitor and manage completed forest projects for follow-ups.
Every year, the KFS conducts forest resource management and afforestation projects, builds urban forests, and constructs forest roads. However, there has been no following-up efforts due to the limitation of budgets and available staffs. So far, the scope of the role of the KGPA has not been clearly defined in the law except the role of the agency that allocates and operates the green fund. Thus, the KGPA can have the role of inspecting and managing forest projects done by the KFS such as afforestation, forest management, disaster management, and forest road construction.
By improving the operational efficiency and usage of the green fund, we expect a variety of benefits in forest environmental functions. Building forests for the underprivileged living in social welfare institutions will create a green space and opening the space to the neighbors will ease the conflict between the strata, and improve the quality of life of the underprivileged. For marginalized groups, by creating green space in dense residential areas, the environment and landscape of those areas can be improved, which provides recreation areas and promotes the function of forest environments there. Through experiences and participatory education in forests, adolescents can learn forests and environments with physical and mental health benefits. Also, indirect experiences from forest campaigns and promotion can increase the people’s awareness of the importance of forests.
Researchers: Lee, yohan
Research period: 2013. 11. - 2014. 3.
E-mail address: johnlee@krei.re.kr | - |
