Mapo-gu Wins Grand Prize at Korea Healthy City Awards... Evaluation of the '5 Million Tree Planting' Project

Protecting Residents' Health from Fine Dust with '5 Million Tree Planting' Wins Grand Prize in Joint Policy Sector... Over 2.16 Million Trees Planted Locally by End of July 2021, Achieving 43% of Target

Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo District, is planting trees with residents at Seongmisan.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Mapo-gu (Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun) won the Grand Prize in the Joint Policy category at the '2021 6th Korea Healthy City Awards' contest hosted by the Korea Healthy Cities Partnership (KHCP) for its '5 Million Tree Planting' project.

The 'Korea Healthy City Awards' is the only domestic healthy city contest that seeks outstanding healthy city cases among 102 member cities of metropolitan and local governments affiliated with the Korea Healthy Cities Partnership.

The '5 Million Tree Planting' project by Mapo-gu, which won the grand prize this time, is one of the key initiatives of the 7th local government administration, launched in July 2018 as the first among Seoul's autonomous districts to create a clean air healthy city throughout the district.

Divided into four areas?community tree planting, street green space expansion, living area green space expansion, and private-led tree planting?the project aims for public-private cooperation to plant 5 million trees across Mapo-gu by 2027.

Through this, the district plans to proactively respond to climate issues, protect residents' health from fine dust and urban heat island effects, and improve quality of life.

A district official stated, “The 5 Million Tree Planting project received high evaluations in governance and performance management aspects such as clarity and feasibility of goals, creativity of tree planting strategies, and voluntary resident participation, which led to the award.”

As of July 31, the district has planted approximately 2.16 million trees, achieving 43% of the target. This is equivalent to stopping the operation of about 46,000 old diesel vehicles for one year, resulting in an estimated reduction of about 77 tons of fine dust.

As a result of this greening project, recently in Seongmisan (Seongsan-dong), the endangered wild bird Saehorigi (a raptor of the Accipitridae family), which only inhabits clean forests, was observed nesting and raising its young.

Since 2019, the district has planted over 21,000 trees in Seongmisan, transforming the barren hill, once devastated by firewood logging, into a lush green forest. Currently, more than 50 species of wildlife, including the natural monument Solbuungi (Blakiston's fish owl), inhabit Seongmisan, making it a representative example of an urban clean air forest.

Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, “As we experience disasters caused by abnormal weather, 'carbon neutrality' is emerging as a global agenda. Through the '5 Million Tree Planting' project with residents, we will create a model case of a local government proactively responding to climate change.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.