Incheon's 19-year quest to halt desertification slowly transforms Mongolia's steppes

Participants celebrate the launch of the Incheon Hope Forest site in Songino Khairkhan, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, May 22, 2025. Courtesy of Incheon Metropolitan Government

Nearly two decades ago, residents of Incheon — an industrial port city on Korea’s west coast — were growing increasingly weary of the toxic yellow dust storms sweeping in each spring from the Gobi Desert. Rather than simply issuing air quality alerts, local civic groups decided to trace the transboundary pollution to its roots hundreds of miles away. In 2008, citizens raised 335 million won ($250,000) to plant saplings on Mongolia’s severely degraded steppes.

What began as a grassroots fundraising campaign has since evolved into one of East Asia’s most ambitious transnational environmental partnerships. Incheon officials announced Tuesday that the "Incheon Forest of Hope" initiative will be presented as a global benchmark for municipal climate action at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Over the past 19 years, the initiative has transformed 157 hectares of barren land into a flourishing green belt — an area equivalent to 220 soccer fields. More than 250,000 drought-resistant trees such as Scots pine, Siberian larch and elm have been planted across the region, including Bayannuur, Dashinchilen and Songino Khairkhan.

Crucially, the project’s success hinges on infrastructure designed for long-term survival of the plants. Incheon secured 15-year land-use rights from Ulaanbaatar, built local nurseries, drilled wells and constructed protective fencing to keep livestock from grazing on young saplings. As a result, there has been an exceptionally high sapling survival rate of 78 percent, and the trees are estimated to have absorbed over 1,600 tons of carbon dioxide to date.

Large-scale forestation efforts have often struggled with low survival rates and top-down friction.

China’s massive "Great Green Wall" was launched in 1978 to hold back the Gobi Desert, and the African Union’s ambitious 8,000-kilometer "Great Green Wall" across the Sahel both demonstrate the immense scale of work required to halt desertification. However, Incheon’s initiative offers a smaller-scale alternative: a city-to-city, community-driven model where municipal governments, local residents, and youth directly partner to maintain ecological stewardship.

Nearly 800 volunteers and municipal officials from both nations have traveled to the site over the years to plant trees with local residents. As Incheon prepares to wrap up its second phase in 2027, leaders are evaluating and preparing for the third phase.

"The Incheon Forest of Hope shows how a single tree planted by a citizen can mature into a municipal policy and ultimately grow into a model for international climate diplomacy," said Yoon Eun-joo, head of Incheon's Environmental Safety Division. "Cities do not have to wait for national governments to lead the fight against global climate disruption."

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.