March 07, 2009

The yellow dust storms that plague Korea every spring originate in the Kubuqi Desert in the Mongolian autonomous district of Neimenggu in northern China. About 40 percent of the sandy dust is from deserts in Neimenggu, including the Kubuqi – double the amount from the Gobi Desert.

Yellow dust from the region affects around 300 million people on the Korean Peninsula and in eastern China. Residents in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province are particularly affected.

In a bid to fight the dust storms, Gyeonggi Province is moving to build a forest in the Kubuqi.

A delegation from the provincial government led by Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Ahn Yang-ho left for Beijing yesterday to discuss a plan to create a “Gyeonggi Green Eco-park” in concert with the All China Youth Federation. Gyeonggi plans to start construction of the park after holding a ground-breaking ceremony in April.

The plan was initially suggested by the Korean province when Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo visited Beijing in March of last year. According to the plan, the Gyeonggi Green Eco-park will be built over the next five years, at 50 hectares a year.

The Gyeonggi government has promised to provide a total of 1 billion won ($645,000) through Future Forest, a private organization that has carried out a tree-planting campaign in Chinese deserts since 2002. The group dispatches students called “Green Corps” to plant trees and combat desertification. Future Forest has teamed up with public and private enterprises for its tree-planting campaign since 2006, and built a tree belt in collaboration with the Korea Forest Service, Korean Air and SK. The organization plans to plant 5 million trees in the region by 2011.

“Korea suffers from economic and environmental damage estimated at 7 trillion won annually from the yellow dust storms,” said Deputy Governor Ahn.

The Korea Forest Service and private domestic firms have so far built up 446 hectares of green space within the Kubuqi Desert.

“Less than 50 years ago, the Kubuqi Desert had grasslands where sheep grazed. We should slow down desertification there by planting trees and revive the ecosystem through forestation,” said Kwon Byong-hyon, the head of Future Forest.

By Chung Young-jin JoongAng Ilbo [spark0320@joongang.co.kr]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2901935