The Park Geun-hye administration opened the 2016 Government 3.0 Fair for a three-day run in Coex in southern Seoul on Monday, as part of its efforts to enhance communication between government agencies and the public.

With the slogan “Government at Your Fingertips,” the fair is displaying 100 booths in seven different categories, exhibiting various services provided by government ministries and agencies to widen public access to administrative data to improve people’s daily lives, officials said.

The Korea Forest Service, which is in charge of forest policies, is participating in the fair. And the KFS’ booth was selected as one of the exemplary 10 out of the installed 100 booths, where President Park Geun-hye visited to praise officials in the day.

President Park showed keen interest in the KFS’ efforts to bring citizen and corporate participation together for the urban forestation movement. The urban forestation project was recognized as an exemplary case for the Government 3.0 campaign in March, said an official. 

KFS officials said their booth is exhibiting constructed urban forests and allowing visitors to experience wooden products and create bird houses.

In his briefing to President Park, KFS director Lee Yong-seok said “the public is paying more attention to urban forests’ effectiveness on improving air quality due to fine dusts.”

The KFS bolstered efforts from 2014 to foster the urban forestation movement among citizens, private corporations and the government. The agency and local governments provided information to companies, which funded the costs incurred for the creation of forests as part of its corporate social responsibility programs, and citizens, who managed the forests and designed some of the forests through contests. Through the collaboration of the government, private companies and citizens, 686 forests similar in size to 127 soccer fields were created in 2015 alone.

The agency has so far created 856 new forests, including 170 forests in 2014, with the help of a total of 513,000 citizens and companies. In 2014, 169,000 citizens and companies came together a total of 853 times, while 344,000 citizens and companies participated 1,509 times in 2015 to prune trees and scatter fertilizers.

Currently 40 urban forestation organizations -- comprised of local governments, corporations, nongovernmental organizations and citizens -- exist, which is an increase from 30 organizations in 2014. This collaborative effort has saved 22.5 billion won ($19.3 million) in government expenses.

Importance of urban forests

Expansion in urban forestation is vital for Korea, as 91 percent of the Korean population live in urban areas with insufficient greenery.

For every person in Korea, there are 8.32 square meters of green land, which falls short of the 9 square meters per person standard set by the World Health Organization.

With revelations of various health and environmental benefits that come along with green fields, more citizens and companies have been actively participating in the nation’s urban forestation movement.

Korea scored last month a mere 45.5 points out of 100 points in terms of air quality, ranking No. 173 out of 180 countries, according to the Environmental Performance Index 2016 last month. Moreover, with recent studies linking a correlation between the increasing number of birth defects and higher average blood pressure of the population to the worsening air quality, efforts to improve the air has never been so critical.

This is where urban forestation comes as a solution for improving air quality.

A single tree annually absorbs 35.7 grams of fine dust in the air. However, with the current capacity of Korea’s forests, up to 292,000 tons of fine dust and other pollutants in the air are annually absorbed, which is still insufficient to counter the poor and worsening air quality.

Furthermore, with nearly half of Korea’s population of 48.2 percent living in the Seoul metropolitan area, loud city noises increase unhealthy levels of stress. However, with the creation of forests, overall city noise can be reduced.

For instance, a tree with a height of 15 meters decreases the surrounding area noise by 10 decibels. Even trees planted on sidewalks or in between roads decrease car noise levels by 75 percent.

Moreover, stress levels can be decreased by just looking at a forest. Looking at a forest for just 15 minutes decreases the primary stress hormone cortisol levels by 15.8 percent and decreases blood pressure by 2.1 percent.

Urban forests also help with climate modification, which is crucial for blazing city temperatures in the summer and freezing temperatures in the winter. Forests can block direct sun rays to cool the earth temperature by 3 to 7 degrees Celsius during the summer. Furthermore, forests can trap much needed heat and increase air humidity from 9 to 23 percent during the cold and dry winter months.

Urban forests do more than making a pleasing sight for the eye, also creating a healthier and stress-free environment.

Of the other nine government agencies selected for demonstrating exemplary cases for the Government 3.0 campaign, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport was selected for providing a smart water care service. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family as well as the Korea Meteorological Administration were also selected for respective child support services and weather data services.

By Lee Seo-young (seoyounglee@heraldcorp.com) and Lee Kwon-hyoung (kwonhl@heraldcorp.com)