Korea Forest Service hosted ceremonies to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of Mountain Day and to open the Korea Forest Expo 2024 at Geyongju Expo Park on Oct. 18.
Among about 400 people on hand at the ceremonies were KFS Minister Lim Sang-seop, Geyongsangbuk-do Gov. Lee Cheol-woo and heads of 22 cities and counties and forest organization officials.
Korea Green Ranger read the Forest Chapter, and government awards were presented to 20 people who contributed to promoting public values of mountains.
The Korea Forest Expo 2024, held until Oct. 21, featured 175 experience and exhibition booths, such as those related to forest leisure sports, forest welfare services, mountain literature, forest advanced technologies and companion plant clinics and woodworking.
As the United Nations declared 2002 the “International Year of Mountains,” KFS designated Oct. 18 as Mountain Day to raise public awareness of forests.
KFS Minister Lim said, “The green forests that have been raised along with people in the past 50 years will be made the ones that bring benefits to all the people, and I hope beauty and values forests bring about during the Korea Forest Expo can be felt and shared.”
Importance of Forests Amid Climate Change Crisis
In a column contributed to a daily newspaper by Minister Lim Sang-seop of Korea Forest Service, he said “The people have joined forces to plant 12 billion trees over the past 50 years, and the forests have now become a success model of afforestation as a report, issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1982,” says.
A survey of the forest industry, conducted by KFS last year, showed that economic values of forests are estimated at 146 trillion won.
As of 2020, the estimated public value of forests stood at 259 trillion won, forest recreation functions amounted to 28.4 trillion won, and forest healing function were measured at 6.6 trillion won. Literature and social values of forests are also the subject of attention.
Mountain Day falls on Oct. 18. The United Nations designated 2002 as the “International Year of the Mountains” to prevent the disappearance of mountains due to indiscreet deforestation and environmental pollution.
Korea designated one day in October, noteworthy as the most beautiful time of year for mountains, as Mountain Day.
This year, the nation celebrates the 23rd anniversary.
About 20 years have now passed since the International Year of Mountains was designated, and forests’ roles and significance have been emphasized to cope with climate change and “extinction of provincial areas.”
KFS Teams Up with KCCI to Facilitate Carbon Trade
Korea Forest Service struck an MOU on Oct. 23 with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry to connect forest carbon offset projects and carbon reduction certification centers to contribute to carbon neutrality.
The forest carbon offset project, being implemented by KFS, is designed to trade on the market absorption amounts certified through activities to promote carbon sinks, such as afforestation by mountain owners, companies and local government bodies, forest management, creation of urban woods, and utilization of lumbers and forest bio-mass as energies and utilize them for social contribution.
Under the deal, carbon absorption amounts, being secured through the forest carbon offset project, will be traded through the “Carbon Reduction Certification Center,” managed and run by KCCI.
Companies will transact carbon absorption amounts in a safe and transparent fashion through a function of preventing duplicated deals, being operated by Carbon Reduction Certification Center and utilize them to put into practice carbon neutrality and ESG management.
KFS is to implement a pilot project targeting companies until the end of this year, and the forest carbon offset project will be operated in a full-swing manner to expand its scope to mountain owners next year.
_제23회 산의 날 기념식.JPG)
