[Feature story: Park Yeong-joon, head of Jindo-gun Forestry Association] 

A new leap by investing in the future values of a forest in the mountains 

Increases income, creates employment and enhances rights and interests for residents 

Jindo-gun has become quite familiar to us as the setting for the movie “Myungryang,” recently released, which has taken Korea’s all-time first place in box-office record. Jindo-gun is a historic battlefield for anti-Mongol struggle in the Koryo Period and a hard-fought field of Myungryang’s sweeping victory to defend the country patriotically in the Chosun Period. This place also keeps alive the spirit of Jeonnam’s excellent ethnic culture. Jindo-gun Forestry Association exerting efforts to protect the beautiful natural landscape here prepared a foothold of increasing income by paying attention to the future values of a forest in the mountains in the meantime. Association head Park Yeong-joon has contributed to increasing income, creating employment and enhancing the rights and interests for inhabitants by pushing for making a memorial park of Bobae Forest, nursing the saplings and Dendropanax morbifera Lev project successfully. We met him to hear about how he has transformed the institution officially required of management improvement into a most valuable association.

The first-ever memorial hall of forestry association and nature-friendly tree funeral open 

Since the launch, Jindo-gun Forestry Association had been operating forest and credit businesses solidly, when in 1988 it fell to an association required of management improvement under the sudden IMF crisis. When Park Yeong-joon took office as a fifth-popularly-elected head in November 2005, he began to build a foothold of new leap for Jindo-gun Forestry Association about to close with his unusual leadership. “I decided that it was hard to revive it with first-dimension forestry business. Then, for region-specific business, I implemented the businesses of sapling production, memorial hall, tree funeral, and specified sales business, all of which was only possible with the officers’ and union members’ sheer efforts.” After inauguration, Association head Park gave up all holidays including the biggest ones, and looked around memorial halls and cemetery parks to draw the basic picture of his ideas on ‘Bobae Forest Memorial Park.” Timely, the subscription for unique Forestry Association project held by the Korea Forest Service adopted his idea in 2009. Then, even after the choice of his tree funeral idea for the subscription, it was hard to accommodate his idea to the local sentiment under Confucian thinking against dedicating ancestral ashes under the root of a tree. By visiting the welfare section of Jeonnam Provincial Office, he delivered the Association’s plan for performing tree funeral, charnel house and sod field at the same time, and secured the working expenses through Jindo-gun. By donating the area of 7,000 m² for charnel house and sod field by adoption to Jindo-gun despite the financial difficulty of the association, he was able to install them on the same area for the convenience of users and his plan took wings. However, not all went well with the process of business. He had to face the prejudice against trade at a forestry association, worry about damaging the forest, misunderstanding about tree funeral and negative public opinion arising from the cemetery as NIMBY facilities. Still, with his usual belief that ‘Civil petitions will sprout up,’ Association head Park, positively listening to their complaints by finding any possible ones at initial stage, sincerely persuaded the residents until he achieved the worthy success. ‘Bobae Forest Memorial Park’ has planted a thousand trees, including camellia, llex rotunda, Dendropanax morbiferus as well as the existing oaks, on an area of 109,517m² using them as memorial tree. Besides, by installing 1,000 enshrine walls in the form of crane wings position shown in the tactics of Myungryang naval battle, he opened a nature-friendly grave facilities in 2012 for the first time as a forestry association. 

To avoid the worry about NIMBY facilities attached to ‘Bobae Forest Memorial Park,’ he divided the park by installing another wing wall from the graveyard with baby camellia on an area of 18,714m². For this section, he built children’s swimming facilities, ecological education park and clamshell stage for ordinary people’s event with a size of 150 seats plus convenient facilities such as pavilion and shower rooms. Jindo-gun Forestry Association built up so brilliantly that in 2012 regular meeting, it paid 5% capital dividend plus usage dividend to its 4,529 members while now paying scholarship annually to the children of members in an effort to increase their income and expand welfare. The memorial hall under association’s management holding 200 funeral events annually is receiving a warm support from Jindo-gun residents by reducing the funeral expenses over 40% with direct and indirect cost savings effect.                            

Association head Park said, “I feel rewarded to see families sitting around and chatting away remembering their dead relatives at holidays or worship at their ancestor’s grave. Especially, I am proud that our association has provided the basis for protecting mountain and forest environment and minimizing the damage to forest by improving the funeral culture, considering the reality that 1.5% of the Yeoeuido area is annually being eaten away by graveyards.” Additionally, Lee Nak-yeon, the present Jeonnam governor, visited this workplace three times with interest offering consultation on the project when he was a lawmaker. I appreciate his efforts.”   

Throwing off the dishonor as an association for management improvement, Jindo-gun Forestry Association was chosen as the best association for 2010 and 2011 and excellent one for 2012 in the evaluation of management-oriented business conducted by the Office of Forestry and Federation of Forestry Association. At the award ceremony of citation by Federation of Forestry Association in 2013, it received the award for superior management association from the Federation‘s president.

Will prepare the basis for profits with more diverse businesses

Jindo-gun Forestry Association is enlarging the solid basis for self-reliance with the business of nursing young trees dreaming about the Mecca for warm-temperate breed saplings. Currently, the Association is nursing around 1.14 trees, including Dendropanax morbifera Lev, Chamaecyparis obtuse, silver magnolia, camphor, rose of Sharon, etc., on the facility nursery (10,000m²) and bare-ground field (52,489m²). This, bringing the effect of creating employment for annually 2,500 persons, raised an income of over 200million won in 2013 and he completed contracts to deliver 320,000 saplings to each city and gun in Jeonnam region for 2014. Using its profits, the association is holding an event for ‘tree dispensation’ and contributing to profit return for the welfare of its members and inhabitants. They are also supplying saplings to members within the jurisdiction and users at reasonable price range by opening a tree market. So far, Jindo-gun Forestry Association has produced high-breed excellent saplings to meet the customers’ satisfaction and been able to create a stable revenue model. Since sapling nursery business is the basis for forest management, they are going to make efforts to supply high-breed saplings at more reasonable prices in the future.

In the meantime, Jindo-gun Forestry Association signed an MOU in 2013 with Hyundai Farming Association (President Kim Cheon-joong) on the production and circulation of Dendropanax morbifera Lev (Hwangchil) products and went into an earnest production. Jindo-gun Forestry Association is nursing and planting these trees to provide material. Hwangchil drinks made using these trees grown here is currently on the market around the country with the labels of ‘Hwangchil Stamina 100’ and ‘Jindo Hwangchil’ for cooking, alongside ‘Haneul beam,’ an eco-friendly shroud from paper-mulberry material.    

Association head Park said, “Hwangchil is a typical warm-temperate tree breed often seen in Jindo but it is known to be healthful enough to go by the name of Qin Shi Huang’s herb of eternal youth. Hwangchil, containing a large quantity of saponin ingredient, purifies blood to lower cholesterol levels and is known to help prevent aging and constipation together with anticancer and antibacterial efficacy. It characteristically emits the scent of rest that puts one at ease.” 

Association head Park is aiming to carry out diverse businesses using Hwangchil tree and become a leader in popularizing this item as a luxury. He is on constant alert after exchanging an MOU with Korea Funeral Culture & Policy Institute to provide service as funeral coach for the funeral of victims from Sewol Ferry accident that happened at Jindo area. He is also beating his brains about his next business of a healing camp for the old unexpectedly left alone. Association head Park Yeong-joon clarified that after all terms of office he wants to live in nature returning to the forest. However, we want to give him a bigger hand for his way ahead because there are still many roles he has to perform for the development of our country’s mountains and forests.