title: A measure for the promotion of mountain ecological villages in South Korea: focus on the national mountain ecological village investigation of 2014.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although South Korean mountain villages occupy 44 and 55 % of land and forest areas, respectively, these villages account for only 3 % of the national population and they suffer from a declining workforce owing to aging, wage inflation, and low forestry productivity. As a result, the South Korean government implemented a mountain ecological village development project from 1995 to 2013 in 312 of the 4972 mountain villages and investigated project performance in 2014. The present study establishes a measure for the promotion of mountain ecological villages by comparing the situation before and after the project.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis found a threefold increase in the inflow of farm/rural-returning and multicultural households compared with before the project, while the average income per farm, local product sales, and experience tourism revenue also grew remarkably every year. In addition, households utilizing forest resources increased by about 30 %, but 45.8 % of the 312 villages had no long-term plan for village development and villagers experienced low satisfaction with job creation and village income.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A systematic revision of agroforestry production and forest administration is needed to define the characteristics of farm/rural-returning populations clearly, reorganize urban-rural exchange and experience programs, and reinforce tangible/intangible cultural assets and religious traditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Resources, Sunchon National University, Suncheon, 57922 South Korea.
authors.forename: Soo Im
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Environmental Science, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, 54896 South Korea.
authors.forename: Hag Mo
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Jeollabuk-do Forest Environment Research Institute, Jinan, 55454 South Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Environmental Science, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, 54896 South Korea.
authors.forename: Chang Heon
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Resources, Gyeongnam National University of Science and Technology, Jinju, 52725 South Korea.
authors.forename: Chong Kyu
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Lee
keywords: Farm/rural-returning population; Income source development; Mountain ecological village; Promotion measure