Incheon Citizens' '30 Million Tree Planting' 8 Years On... 83% of Target Achieved

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City’s 'New Green City 30 Million Tree Planting' project, which has been underway since 2016, has surpassed 83% of its target. At this rate, the project is expected to be completed by 2025.

As of the end of last year, the city had planted 24.84 million trees, and on the 24th announced that it has started the tree planting project this year with a goal of 3 million trees in cooperation with 10 districts and counties.

Tree planting is recognized internationally as a key measure to respond to the climate crisis. Since the announcement of the Paris Agreement in 2016, the international community and major countries have launched full-scale activities to address the climate crisis and achieve carbon neutrality.

The European Union has set a goal of planting 3 billion trees over 10 years, and Canada aims to plant 2 billion trees over 10 years.

Incheon City has also been promoting the 'New Green City 30 Million Tree Planting' project since 2016 to create a sustainable green urban forest.

At that time in 2016, Incheon’s population was 2.98 million, close to 3 million, and the project was launched with the goal of planting one tree per person over 10 years, totaling 30 million trees.

Public and private sectors joined forces to expand street greenery and neighborhood park green spaces, create resting areas, afforestation, landscaping within land plots, and secure sufficient green space in development projects.

In the 2022 Arbor Day event, citizens of Incheon are planting trees together.
[Photo by Incheon City]

Furthermore, the tree planting project has evolved into distinctive initiatives such as creating child-safe green forests and school forests to protect children and adolescents sensitive to fine dust, establishing community-based forests to provide indoor green spaces, and installing smart gardens.

An official from Incheon City stated, "Tree planting not only reduces fine dust but also has many positive effects such as improving urban aesthetics and mitigating the heat island effect. We are preparing various forms of urban forest projects so that the created forests can blend harmoniously into citizens’ lives, beyond simply increasing the number of trees planted."