Structural policy coordination for forest ecosystem services management in the legal accountability system

Forests play a pivotal role in delivering diverse ecosystem services, underscoring the need for effective care and management. Ecosystem service management recognizes the importance of integrating forestry within a broader framework that encompasses rural development, agriculture, landscape management, and environmental protection. This study focuses on structural policy coordination for forest management in the legal system requiring multiple actors' obligations with the case of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) by examining the relevant laws. We examined the selected 223 forest-related articles from 56 laws. Forest-related articles were categorized into three ecosystem services—provisioning, supporting and regulating, and cultural services— and analyzed focusing on deontic and actor-oriented meaning based on the concept of legal accountability. The results demonstrated structural policy coordination between the forest and agricultural sectors dominantly to enhance provisioning services for optimizing agricultural productivity while preserving productive forest resources. Policy coordination between the forest and urban sectors was developed dominantly to enhance cultural services of forests through collaborative endeavors for forest and green space planning and management in urban areas. Policy coordination between the forest and environmental sectors was developed dominantly to enhance supporting and regulating services through undertaking collaborative actions for habitat preservation, wildlife protection and soil conservation. This research revealed that structural policy coordination occurred to manage multiple ecosystem services between forest and non-forest sectors in the DPRK. The findings enrich our understanding of coordinated legislation based on the design of legal accountability in forest ecosystem services management.