SK, PVEP restore mangrove forests in Vietnam
Volunteers, comprised of SK Innovation employees, PVEP employees and students and professors from Tra Vinh University, take part in a mangrove forest restoration project in Tra Vinh, Vietnam, Wednesday. / Courtesy of SK Innovation
By Baek Byung-yeul
SK Innovation employees carried out volunteer work in Vietnam to restore mangrove forests together with employees from its Vietnamese partner PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP), the energy and chemical affiliate of SK Group said Thursday.
The volunteering took place in Tra Vinh, southern Vietnam, Wednesday, involving 50 volunteers comprised of SK Innovation employees, PVEP employees and students and professors from the Tra Vinh University.
The participating members planted about 1,000 mangrove seedlings at a five-hectare site in the morning and provided education programs to raise students' awareness on environment preservation at a nearby elementary school in the afternoon.
The firm said the volunteer activity is in line with the two firms signing a memorandum of understanding to restore mangrove forests in Vietnam in September 2018. SK Innovation and PVEP have been strengthening their partnership since 1998 as the two have jointly run petroleum development businesses including the development of the 15-1 oil block.
SK Innovation has been actively taking part in the mangrove forest restoration project, which kicked off in 2018. They planted 35,000 mangrove seedlings on an 11-hectare site in 2018 and plan to double the size by planting 70,000 seedlings on a 22-hectare site this year.
A mangrove forest absorbs five times more carbon dioxide compared with a rainforest of the same area. However, about 70 percent of the mangrove forests there have been damaged because of reckless development projects over the past few decades.
Nguyen Viet Dung, chief of PVEP's Ho Chi Minh branch, said he “feels gratitude to SK Innovation employees as they came over here to make the world cleaner.”
He added, “With their efforts as motivation, I hope more people from across the world would actively take part in environment preservation activities.”
Kim Yong-ju, a new recruit at SK Innovation, said “The volunteering activity was a meaningful chance to contribute to the global community,” adding he is willing to join this kind of volunteering program in the future.
The volunteering activities were conducted thanks to a fund donated by SK Innovation employees. Since October 2017, SK Innovation employees have donated 1 percent of their monthly basic salary for the fund.
“The mangrove forest restoration and development project is a national project of the Vietnamese government. It was meaningful to perform the volunteering activities together with our business partner PVEP,” said Lim Soo-gil, head of the PR office at the firm. “We will continue to take the initiatives in creating social value.”