Revitalization plans for mountain ecological villages in South Korea

This research was conducted on mountain ecological villages (MEVs) which were established in South Korea since 1995 to identify problems and find ways to revitalize the MEVs. To this end, the construction and operation status of MEVs were investigated. Besides, the structure of major facilities and income sources was analyzed by dividing the types of MEVs into those of living environment improvement (LEI), simple income (SI), and self-reliance base (SRB) types. As a result, the LEI type lacked the number of people to work in the village and the average household income was 59.6% of the total average of MEVs. Also, it was difficult to maintain and manage the village facilities due to the aging of the facilities and insufficient joint revenue generation. And it was difficult to manage the village facilities due to the aging of the facilities and insufficient joint revenue generation. The SI type was generating the number of farming households and non-farming income above the average of the entire MEVs, although the proportion of the laborable population was relatively low. However, seasonal limitations of accommodation facilities, experience programs, and urban and mountain village interchanges were insufficient. The SRB type had a high proportion of the laborable population, a relatively large proportion of the return-to-the-rural population, and the income structure was also diversified. However, it was suffering from a lack of budget for the promotion of the village and the securing of personnel to be in charge continuously. To revitalize the MEVs, income sources will have to be diversified to cover the expenses required to run the village on their own as reinforcement of internal capabilities. Besides, it will need a strategy that can actively utilize the capital and manpower from outside.