Armed with clipboards and cameras, the scientists from the Baekdudaegan National Arboretum climbed slowly up a steep hillside in Uljin, a county in the mountainous east of the Republic of Korea, inspecting and assessing small green trees that stood out amid a landscape charred by fire.
“Right here, the tree growing best is kalopanax,” team leader, Tae-Im Heo said, referring to Kalopanax septemlobus, a fast-growing species native to the Republic of Korea also known as the prickly castor oil tree.
“The reason we planted kalopanax is because the young shoots are harvested by residents as a wild edible plant,” she said. “Even in seemingly barren land, it grows well, helping restore the vegetation and also contributing to residents’ livelihoods.”
Achieving social and environmental goals simultaneously is at the heart of the ambitious effort underway to restore the forests of Uljin, which in 2022 suffered the country’s second-worst wildfire on record.
The holistic approach and future-proofing methods are at the heart of the Republic of Korea’s efforts to revitalize forests after fire. This has earned the country the status of a World Restoration Flagship, an award bestowed by the United Nations to inspire large-scale action to revive critical ecosystems around the globe.
“Devastating forest fires around the world are one of the most shocking demonstrations of how our climate is changing,” said Natalia Alekseeva, Coordinator of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). “Creative initiatives like this show that, by anticipating the future, restoration can give nature the resilience to keep delivering its priceless benefits for generations to come.”
A resilient approach
Fanned by drought and strong winds, the month-long blaze in Uljin destroyed an estimated 20,000 hectares of forest along with dozens of homes and farms before firefighters backed by soldiers and helicopters could bring it under control.
While no lives were lost, there was anguish over the harm done to the region’s famed red pine forests, especially in protected areas holding centuries-old specimens, and the matsutake mushrooms that grow among them – a national delicacy and an important source of income for many rural households.
The fire also triggered a debate about how to carry out restoration in a way that respects traditions and the needs of local people while making forests more resilient. While residents in Uljin wanted to re-plant the familiar and easily available but fire-prone pines, civil society groups pressed for a more ecological approach that addressed growing climate-driven risks.
“We started to see calls to move beyond a standard tree-planting approach to a more rational restoration method that takes the surrounding ecosystem into account,” said Shin Jaesoo, Deputy Director at the Korea Forest Service.
Meeting local needs
To find a solution, experts, civil society groups and residents joined government officials in a novel governance arrangement to design and steer the project. After completing a detailed assessment of the forest ecosystem and the damage it had suffered, the stakeholders jointly developed a five-year masterplan to revive about 4,700 hectares of forest with high conservation value by 2027.
A priority was re-vegetating areas left vulnerable to soil erosion and landslides, especially near residential areas, including with species favoured by residents including gingko and fir – work that was completed in 2023.
To protect the wider forest from future conflagrations, the plan also includes planting belts of fire-resistant native broad-leaved tree species. However, most of the land is being left to regenerate naturally, with scientists closely monitoring progress, reflecting how forest restoration in the country is shifting from single-species plantations toward more resilient approaches.
“Where recovery is slow or disaster risk is high, we plan to intervene ecologically and manage those spots,” Shin said.
The decision-making model adopted in Uljin has since been replicated in other fire-affected locations, including the Jirisan National Park in the south of the country, and Inwangsan Mountain Urban National Park in the capital, Seoul.
Sustaining impact
To generate enough seedlings for Uljin and other restoration areas, the Korea Forest Service has established two Native Plant Supply Centres, with four more planned. The centres produce saplings of resilient native species such as oak using seed gathered near the affected areas, meaning they are well adapted to local conditions. Local growers have been contracted to supplement production, creating jobs and income.
Authorities also aim to establish a National Uljin Forest Ecological Institute to support education, research and tourism related to restoration of forest fire–damaged areas and to raise awareness about fire prevention.
To further support local livelihoods, officials are also exploring and promoting alternative forest products, including tuckahoe, a fungus used in traditional medicine, as well as kalopanax.
Predicting the future
As the impact of climate change on forests and other ecosystems grows, Heo of the Baekdudaegan National Arboretum said it was vital to foster the fire-resistant forests of the future.
In Uljin, the institute has been tasked with monitoring the recovery of the vegetation and the survival rates of planted trees until at least 2037 – 10 years after the end of the active restoration phase – so that the approach can be adjusted, if necessary, and to deepen scientific understanding of what works best.
“Restoring this damaged land means we must walk a path no-one has gone before,” Heo said. “There’s no right answer. So, we need to try it in practice, evaluate it, and then be able to forecast what lies ahead.”
