Three Forest Cooperatives in Gyeonggi Secure 2.5 Billion Won in Government Funds to Strengthen Competitiveness

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hoon] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 21st that three forest cooperatives in the province, including the Paju City Forest Cooperative, were selected in the 2020 Korea Forest Service public recruitment project and secured 2.5 billion won in government funds. Accordingly, the foundation has been laid for increasing income for forestry workers in the province and strengthening the competitiveness of forest cooperatives.

The three forest cooperatives that secured government funds are Paju City Forest Cooperative, Goyang City Forest Cooperative, and Yongin City Forest Cooperative. Of these, Paju City was selected for the 'Unused Forest Resource Utilization Center Project,' while Goyang City and Yongin City were selected for the 'Forest Cooperative Specialization Project.'

All three forest cooperatives passed preliminary document screening and on-site reviews by Gyeonggi Province, and then received excellent evaluations at the final review meeting overseen by the Korea Forest Service, ultimately being selected as final sites.

First, the 'Unused Forest Resource Utilization Center Project' is a project to establish collection, processing, and distribution hubs to enable 'resource utilization' of unused by-products such as branches and stems that are typically left behind after logging.

The total project cost is 3 billion won, including 1.5 billion won in government funds, and in 2020, Paju City Forest Cooperative was uniquely selected nationwide.

Through the 'Unused Forest Resource Utilization Center,' Paju City Forest Cooperative plans to produce wood chips for fuel, sawdust for livestock facilities, shiitake mushroom logs and growth media, and eco-friendly mulching materials for green space maintenance to secure competitiveness in forestry.

The 'Forest Cooperative Specialization Project' is an initiative that creates income-generation models utilizing excellent forest resources in the region, establishing financial independence frameworks for cooperatives and securing distribution channels for forest products.

The selected Goyang City Forest Cooperative and Yongin City Forest Cooperative plan to build infrastructure that increases income for forestry workers through distribution and direct sales, and provides forest welfare services to local residents.

Specifically, Goyang City Forest Cooperative plans to establish a 'Forest Ecology (Culture) Experience Center' with a direct forest product sales store, forest café, ecological experience hall, woodcraft art gallery, and tree and flower display and sales area with wild edible plant observation experience space.

Yongin City Forest Cooperative plans to create a 'Forest Culture Complex Center' and operate a direct forest product sales store, forest café, soil play experience hall, and wood culture experience hall.

The project cost is 1 billion won per forest cooperative, including 500 million won in government funds.

A provincial official said, "From the initial stage of the project, we plan to form a personnel pool with field experts participating by sector to provide tailored consulting for areas needed by cooperatives," adding, "We will continue to pay close attention at the provincial level so that the forest cooperatives finally selected can successfully implement their projects."