Wando County Wins Special Award for Public PR with Climate Crisis Response Campaign

The Potential of Seaweed
Recognized by NASA and the World Bank

Wando County in Jeonnam announced on September 22 that it received a special award at the '2025 Korea Public PR Awards' ceremony in recognition of its promotional activities focused on climate change response.

The county was highly praised at the awards ceremony, which took place on September 12 at Gwangju Gonjiam Resort, for supporting the production of a documentary on the theme of Blue Carbon. The documentary played a significant role in raising awareness about the severity of the climate crisis and the role of seaweed.

The 'Korea Public PR Awards' is an event hosted by the Korean Society for Advertising and Public Relations and sponsored by the Korea Press Foundation. The award is given to institutions and organizations that have demonstrated outstanding achievements in the field of public communication.

Wando County, Jeonnam, received a special award at the '2025 Korea Public PR Awards' ceremony for its climate change response campaign. Photo by Wando County

The documentary supported by the county was centered on the theme, 'There is a key to overcoming the climate crisis. What is blue carbon, the lifeline the world is betting on?' It focused on the importance of blue carbon-the carbon absorbed and stored by marine ecosystems-and the role of seaweed in responding to climate change. Blue carbon refers to carbon sinks found in mangrove forests, salt marshes, and seagrasses, and is known to absorb carbon up to 50 times faster than terrestrial vegetation (green carbon).

Recently, seaweed has also emerged as a new candidate for blue carbon. Through photosynthesis, seaweed absorbs and stores carbon, and after growing, it sinks to the deep sea without decomposing, thereby naturally sequestering carbon over the long term.

Wando is the largest seaweed production area in Korea. In 2021, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced the waters of Wando as the optimal location for seaweed farming and an eco-friendly region through satellite images, drawing international attention. In addition, global experts from organizations such as the U.S. Department of Energy, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the World Bank (WB) have visited Wando to discuss climate change response strategies utilizing seaweed.

A county official stated, "As the largest seaweed production area in Korea, Wando is establishing a foundation for blue carbon certification and carbon credits. We will do our utmost to generate basic income for residents by expanding offshore aquaculture and revitalizing the seaweed industry."

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