5117 Citizens Complete Planting of 105,000 Trees and 84,000 Flowering Plants
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 11th that through the '2021 Citizen-led Urban Greening Resident Proposal Project,' 5,117 citizens participated in planting 105,000 trees and 84,000 flowering plants at 300 locations across 25 autonomous districts.
The Citizen-led Urban Greening Resident Proposal Project is a neighborhood greening initiative where citizens organize groups of five or more people to voluntarily participate in the entire process from site discovery, application, greening, to post-management.
When selected as a final site, up to 2 million KRW per location is provided to support trees, flowering plants, and fertilizers. Since 2000, the project has been continuously promoted with the goal of establishing a garden culture where citizens directly plant and care for flowers and trees.
The sites were selected through a public contest for the Citizen-led Urban Greening Resident Proposal Project earlier this year. Nearly twice the number of applicants as the target, 553 groups (communities), showed strong interest. On March 15, Seoul City selected 300 sites, including Dongseong High School (Jongno-gu), through on-site inspections and evaluations by autonomous districts and review by the subsidy review committee. Last year, 426 sites in 25 autonomous districts saw participation from 11,141 citizens, resulting in the planting of 156,000 trees and 104,000 flowering plants. The finally selected groups received the requested greening materials and completed planting at the planned locations according to each autonomous district’s schedule.
A group from Mapo-gu participating in this project said, “Although it was a small space, we felt great fulfillment in transforming the abandoned area under the overpass into a vibrant green space by planting flowers and trees. The warm words and encouragement from nearby merchants and residents relieved our fatigue,” and pledged to pay even more attention to post-management to ensure the planted trees take root.
Choi Yoon-jong, Director of the Green City Bureau, said, “The small acts of citizens communicating with neighbors and improving their living environment through greening activities are creating the driving force for a greener Seoul,” and added, “We will continue to promote citizen-led urban greening projects to spread garden culture in daily life.”
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