As a result of deforestation, large parts of forests in North Korea are degraded which made the country vulnerable for natural disasters. Thus, in terms of ongoing international environmental cooperation, HSF Korea’s goal is the reintegration of North Korea into international networks and an increasing exchange with international organizations. Such cooperation shall contribute to the modernization of the forestry sector on an institutional and professional level and create benefits for a healthy environment and the livelihood of the rural population in North Korea. Moreover, HSF Korea sees a chance to (further) promote an integration of the DPRK into international environment networks.
Therefore, between 2014 und 2017, a project afforestation site in North Korean Sangseo-ri was implemented by HSF and partner organizations. Its main goal was the establishment of a self-sufficient structure that practices sustainable forest management in the DPRK and thus ultimately improves the living conditions of the local population, mainly by increasing food security. Within the project, a training center for sustainable forest management and a model afforestation side was set up. Additionally, various training workshops were launched to increase the local technical as well management capacity. Furthermore, several seminars with international experts of sustainable forestry were launched. Within this frame, the North Korean partners were able to exchange knowledge with experts and international organizations and lay basis for continued cooperation.
Through the activities implemented by HSF Korea and its partners, the technical knowledge of the local North Korean partners was increased and contacts especially with relevant technical and scientific counterparts in China and Mongolia could be established. Ultimately, in the aftermath of the project, more than 100 Hectare have been reforested at the afforestation site in Sangseo-ri.
This former HSF-EU project model site was mentioned in two articles of the North Korean forest research paper sanlim guahak (산림과학). Whereas HSF refers to the side as Sangseo-Ri tree nursery, its official North Korea name is Daedong Research Forest (대동학술림). In 2019, together with other researchers, Ms. Park Ok Sil, manager of Sangseo-ri tree nursery published a paper on “The transplanting methods as soon as picking up tall trees in Summer”. Their research is on the impact of pine trees’ mass on their distribution to find out how to successfully plant trees all year round. It was carried out at the Institute of Forest Management of Korea Forest Research Institute in 2014 and 2015, the time in which the EU project was implemented. The research indicated that the size of the root-soil determines the survival rate of pine trees.
Furthermore, a study published in 2015 on “The characteristics of plant mass distribution in wild pine” by Ri Hyon Su talked about possible methods of replanting summer trees to resolve North Korea’s scientific-technical problem in reforestation. The researched trees were 9-10 years old Zelkova tree, nut pine tree, birch tree, redwood, etc. The research analyzed the effect of the moving time of a tree and its soil mass on tree survival rate. The research period for this study also falls into the timeframe, HSF Korea’s EU-project was implemented.
Please learn more about our EU project here.
You can also find a more detailed article on the project, written by our Senior researcher Dr. Hyun-Ah Choi as an article or pdf-version.