Gwangju Mayor Bang Se-hwan: "Gwangju is the Best Place to Widely Promote Forest Culture"

Proposal to Host the Forest Expo in Gwangju
Attendance at the '2025 Forest and Forestry Outlook Conference'
Discussion on Development and Cooperation in the Forestry Sector

Mayor Bang Se-hwan of Gwangju City attended the ‘2025 Forest and Forestry Outlook Conference’ held on the 15th at the Federation of Korean Industries building in Yeouido, Seoul, where he discussed the development and cooperation in the forestry sector with Lim Sang-seop, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, Bae Jae-su, Director of the Korea Forest Research Institute, and heads of forestry organizations nationwide.

Gwangju Mayor Bang Se-hwan is taking a commemorative photo with participants at the '2025 Forest and Forestry Outlook Conference' held on the 15th at the Federation of Korean Industries building in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Gyeonggi Gwangju City

According to Gwangju City in Gyeonggi Province on the 17th, this year’s 8th Forest and Forestry Outlook Conference was organized to comprehensively analyze domestic and international environmental changes and trends in the forestry and forestry sectors and to discuss future policy directions based on these analyses.

At the reception held before the event began, Mayor Bang actively proposed Gwangju City as the host for the ‘2025 Korea Forest Expo.’

Mayor Bang Se-hwan emphasized, “It has been 16 years since the Korea Forest Expo was last held in the metropolitan area, in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, in 2009. Gwangju City in Gyeonggi Province is the optimal location to widely promote forest culture to metropolitan residents.”

Additionally, Mayor Bang invited Lim Sang-seop, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, to the ‘Forest Road Walking Festival’ scheduled for May, utilizing forest roads within the city’s national forests. This event was initiated based on discussions between Mayor Bang and former Korea Forest Service Administrator Nam Sung-hyun at a forest road construction site last year and is expected to become a model case of cooperation between the Korea Forest Service and local governments. Through this, citizens are anticipated to have opportunities to experience the diverse values of forests and understand the importance of sustainable forest management.

This reception was held at the invitation of Bae Jae-su, Director of the Korea Forest Research Institute, and Mayor Bang was the only local government head to attend.

Gwangju City is establishing itself as a leading city in the forestry sector by focusing on expanding forestry cultural facilities, including signing an MOU with the Korea Forest Research Institute to revitalize wood culture, the nation’s first comprehensive carbon-neutral wood education center project, and the development of the Neoreungo-eul Recreation Forest project.

Mayor Bang Se-hwan stated, “Gwangju City is advancing as a city that leads sustainable forest utilization and citizen-centered forest culture. We will continue to actively promote forest policies that the public can enjoy together in cooperation with the Korea Forest Service.”

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