How 10 billion trees transformed South Korea's post-war forests

Image: Korea JoongAng Daily South Korea's forests were in an exceptionally poor condition after decades of exploitation and the destruction caused by the Korean War. By 1960, the average growing stock had fallen to just 10.6 cubic metres per hectare, compared with about 100 cubic metres per hectare in the early 1900s. Large areas had been stripped of trees, leaving the country's mountains vulnerable to erosion and communities short of fuelwood.The response was one of the most ambitious reforestation efforts of the twentieth century. Beginning on a large scale in 1959, the South Korean government introduced programmes to restore degraded hillsides, control erosion and increase supplies of wood. Over the following decades, more than 12 billion trees were planted, while more than 4.5 million hectares were reforested between 1962 and 1992. The result was a dramatic transformation. What had once been heavily degraded mountains gradually became some of the country's defining green landscapes.The enormous planting campaign that changed South Korea's hillsidesRebuilding the forests required more than simply putting seedlings into the ground. The government selected fast-growing species tha...