Commemoration
Tree Planting Day in North Korea and World Forestry/Wildlife Day
The International Day of Forests and Tree Planting Day in North Korea
March 21st is the International Day of Forests proclaimed by the United Nations to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of forests and to promote the need for forest conservation. March 2nd is Tree Planting Day in North Korea. It is around one month earlier that South Korean Tree Planting Day (Singmogil). According to Rodong Sinmun, the party-run official newspaper in North Korea, citizens plant millions of saplings this year as a part of the ‘war with Nature’ to transform ‘Bare Mountain’ into ‘Gold Mountain.’ Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea cooperate with North Korea on sustainable forestry since 2008. Also, from 2014 to 2017, HSF carried out an EU-financed project on afforestation in North Korea, which included capacity building, the establishment of a model tree nursery, and afforestation area for the severely deforested Western lowlands in Sangsori, Taedong-gun, Pyongan-Namdo. For the upcoming international day of forests on the 21st of March, the FAO has planned an online seminar event on ‘Sustainable wood for people and the planet’. For details, please check the following link (www.fao.org/3/cb9038en/cb9038en.pdf).
March 3rd: World Wildlife Day
March 3rd is to internationally celebrate World Wildlife Day, which is to remember the signing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and flora on the 3rd of March 1973. This year, the main theme was ‘Recovering Key Species for Ecosystem Restoration.’ The major work of Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea is entailing regional development and cooperation in the border region (DMZ) in matters concerning the environment. As a part of the work, on May 28th, HSF Korea hosted a seminar on the ‘Current Status of Research and Conservation of North Korean Wildlife’ with Seoul National university Genome Resource Bank for Korean Wildlife. This event gave the latest and most reliable updates on the current status and issues of North Korean wildlife to South Korean researchers and experts.