'Pet trees' helping to save the land
Participants at an Arbor Day celebration at the confluence of Cheonggyecheon Stream and Jungnangcheon Stream in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, plant Japanese cornilian cherry trees on March 31. / Yonhap
By Ko Dong-hwan
South Korean companies encourage people to plant “pet trees” not only to instill a sense of ownership, but also as part of an ambitious goal to prevent more land from turning into desert.
Tree Planet introduced “pet trees” in December 2017, a business model that encourages people to buy, or “adopt,” trees and uses the profit to buy more trees to establish a forest.
About 5,000 people have adopted 6,000 pet trees so far. The profits were used to build a forest at Sudokwon Landfill in Incheon to prevent air pollution caused by fine particulate matters and in Samcheok in Gangwon Province to revive areas burnt by mountain fires last year and this year.
Established in 2010, the Seoul-based company has enabled the planting of more than 770,000 trees in 190 forests across 12 countries including China, India, Indonesia and the United States. The company has earned B Corporation certification, a global certification for non-profit organizations with an outstanding social and environmental performance.
Tree Planet said the planting events “have so far requested people to plant trees and nothing more” but pet trees motivated people to “adopt trees, grow them, and get to know the importance in the act.”
Daejeon National Cemetery employees plant trees on a hill at the rear entrance on March 29. / Yonhap
The company's events on Arbor Day on April 5 and on April 28 at Seoullo overpass and Samcheok, respectively, will use pet trees.
Bedding manufacturer Evezary hosted a tree-planting event at Gangseo Han River Park in Gangseo-gu, western Seoul. The planting aims to establish a forest to reduce carbon emissions in the region. More than 1,000 people will plant trees and hang their name tags on them.
The company last year signed an agreement with Seoul Metropolitan Government, Korea Forest Research Institute and Korea Forestry Promotion Institute to plant a 100,000-squar meters forest at the park by 2021. The project started last year, when the company planted 1,600 trees.
The company began anti-carbon emission forest projects in Seoul in 2014. It has completed plantings in Amsa-dong and Dunchon-dong districts in Gangdong-gu and Naegok-dong in Seocho-gu.
April motivates many people to plant trees across the country, including pine trees, Japanese cornelian cherry trees, fir trees and wild cherry trees.
A brief period of cherry blossom trees in full bloom, which attracts crowds across the country, also falls in April.