Fishing Village Policy and Coastal Quality of Life Weekly Briefing — 2026-09-28

1. Key Policies and Institutional Changes This Week

Latest News Trends (at least 3 items)

• Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and FIPA Host '2026 Fishing Village Revitalization Best Practices Contest' — The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Fisheries Resources Agency announced on the 23rd that they are holding a best practices contest focusing on revitalizing fishing village tourism, win-win cooperation, and settling returning fishermen. The initiative was designed to discover villages, figures, and cooperative organizations that drove on-the-ground changes and spread their success to other fishing communities.

• Reports on the 'Population Dilution' Phenomenon in Agricultural and Fishing Villages — With the spread of second homes and stay-type housing, a phenomenon has emerged where the population in agricultural and fishing areas decreases slightly while the number of households actually increases. The proportion of surveyed villages with second homes increased from 38.2% to 51.5%, shifting from places just for permanent settlement to spaces for temporary stays. Expanding living infrastructure such as healthcare, care services, and transportation was pointed out as a key task.

• Hampyeong-gun Promotes Overcoming Regional Extinction via Basic Income in Rural Areas — It was reported on the 25th (3 days ago) that Hampyeong-gun is concentrating its administrative capabilities on the 2027 pilot project contest, stating they will "overcome regional extinction with a rural basic income." This is drawing attention as a new local government response model to address the extinction of fishing and farming regions.

• Presidential Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Life Elaborates on Self-Government and Integrated Care Policy Tasks — The Presidential Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Life (Chairman Kim Ho) held its 31st rural subcommittee meeting on the 16th and began elaborating on policy tasks to address rural issues such as local autonomy and integrated care.

Recent Reports and Papers Underlying Policy Formulation

• As it was difficult to directly verify new research reports or papers published within the past 7 days, this section is omitted in this issue. However, the survey on second homes and stay-type housing reported this week contains statistical findings that can be used as baseline data for future fishing village resident population and living infrastructure policies.

5 sources

mof.go.kr

보도자료 지속가능한 수산업·어촌의 미래, 국민과 함께 만든다 해양수산부

mof.go.kr

보도자료 풍요롭게 살 수 있고, 즐겁게 찾고 싶은 ‘바다생활권’ 만들어 민생·경제 활력 불어넣는다 해양수산부

mof.go.kr

보도자료 민생안정, 규제혁파, 어촌활력, 녹색·스마트물류 등 해양수산 변혁을 통해 대한민국 경제를 뒷받침하겠습니다 해양수산부

mof.go.kr

mof.go.kr

mof.go.kr

보도자료 첫 대상지 65개소 선정.. 어촌신활력증진사업 속도 낸다 해양수산부

2. Best Practices and Overseas Benchmarking

• 2026 Fishing Village Revitalization Best Practices Contest (Domestic) — The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and FIPA aim to discover outstanding villages, figures, and cooperative organizations in fishing village tourism, win-win cooperation, and returning-to-fishing settlements, sharing their achievements to spread them to other villages.

• Stay-Type Settlement Model (Domestic) — As second homes and stay-type housing spread in agricultural and fishing villages, a new settlement pattern is emerging where permanent residents and stay-type visitors use the village together, with the proportion of second homes in surveyed villages increasing from 38.2% to 51.5%.

• Local Government Basic Income Experiment (Domestic) — Hampyeong-gun is focusing its administrative capabilities to apply for the 2027 rural basic income pilot project contest, making it a benchmark-worthy local government-led model for responding to regional extinction.

• The Role of Regional Festivals in the Era of Population Decline (Opinion/Domestic) — An opinion piece on regional festivals in the era of population decline was published on the 23rd, arguing that in areas with shrinking populations, festivals must first address more fundamental questions (why gather people in the first place). This offers implications for designing fishing village festival and tourism policies.

No new overseas cases available within the last 7 days were identified, so they are omitted from this issue.

1 sources

korea.kr

전국 31개 어촌지역에 총 1조 1,800억 원 투입, 어촌 소멸 막는다 - 보도자료 | 브리핑룸 | 대한민국 정책브리핑

3. IPA Analysis-Based Problem Diagnosis and Response Directions

Selection of Priority Tasks (5 items)

1. Lack of Stay-Type Settlement Infrastructure in Fishing Villages — While the stay-type population is growing, expanding living infrastructure such as healthcare, care services, and transportation is explicitly noted as a challenge.
2. Inadequate Systems for Spreading and Replicating Best Practices — A contest was planned to address the issue where excellent on-the-ground experiences and achievements fail to spread to other villages.
3. Absence of Funding and Institutional Experiments to Combat Regional Extinction — Local government-level attempts at new institutional tools (such as basic income) to overcome extinction are only now entering the contest stage.
4. Delayed Response in Welfare Infrastructure like Local Autonomy and Integrated Care — The special committee is still at the stage of "elaborating" policy tasks to address current issues, creating a gap before execution.
5. Sustainability Risks in Festivals and Tourism — Discussions highlighted the fundamental limitations of running festivals centered solely on attracting short-term tourists in depopulated areas.

IPA Analysis Response Directions

4. Comprehensive Recommendations

• Institutionalize "Spreading to Neighboring Villages" — The goal of "spreading the experiences and achievements of on-the-ground change agents to other fishing villages" specified by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and FIPA means that follow-up institutional designs are needed to reflect best practices into replication and dissemination systems rather than letting them end as one-off events.

• Shift Perspectives to "Simultaneous Management" of Permanent and Stay-Type Residents — Reports on the population dilution in agricultural and fishing villages show a new settlement ecology in the era of bifurcated populations and households. To leverage the increase in stay-type population, the prior expansion of living infrastructure like healthcare, care, and transportation must come first.

• Approach Extinction Response Through "Diversification of Institutional Tools" — Hampyeong-gun's pursuit of a basic income pilot project shows that responses to the extinction crisis are expanding beyond physical infrastructure projects into local government-level institutional experiments, requiring a review of their applicability to fishing villages.

• Align Festival and Tourism Policies with Permanent Settlement — The opinion piece on regional festivals in the population decline era points out the limitations of designs centered on tourist headcount metrics, indicating a need to redesign fishing village festivals into transitional devices that lead to returning-to-fishing settlements and permanent residency.

※ Editorial Note: To discuss the spread of fishing village best practices, all contents in this issue are based on reports and opinion pieces verified within the past 7 days (since 2021-09-21). No new official reports or papers were published this week, so that section has been omitted.