Agencies willing to operate forest guide and mountaineering guide training courses need to get rigid certification accredited by the Recreation Certification Committee and in the future only those who are trained in certified agencies can serve as forest guide and mountaineering guide.



Visitors to recreation forests and arboretums approximately amount to 10 million people per year and the number of those who go mountaineering is estimated around 36 millions, 75% of which go mountaineering more than once a year.



The Korea Forest Service(KFS) regulated the Act on Forest Culture and Recreation on August 5, 2005 and the act has been in effect since then in order to provide high quality services of recreation forests for an increasing number of recreation forest goers.



According to the forest culture and recreation certification system, applicants are supposed to submit documents required by the Act on Forest Culture and Recreation to the Forest Recreation Policy team at KFS, and apply for certification. And then the certification screening committee exams them and certifies eligible agencies.



People who have completed training courses by certified agencies will be preferentially engaged as forest guide in providing services for visitors to state-run arboretums, recreation forests, or noted mountains.



KFS is planing to develop 4 training programmes of forest culture and recreation and disseminate them to certified agencies around the mid of October so that the programmes can be adopted to the training course.



''Through this certification system, we have established a systematic method to provide higher quality services of recreation forests and are planing to enhance forest culture and recreation training programmes to be used in the field for sustainable improvement of forest recreation quality'' said one official from KFS.



In addition, Mr Kim Jeonghun, grade-5 official in charge of budget at the Ministry of Finance and Budget said that they will positively give a financial support for establishment of this system in order to provide high-quality services of forest recreation for the people.





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