Certified by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Ministry of Environment, and UNESCO

DMZ experiential programs such as the DMZ Eco-culture Classroom obtained certifications from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Ministry of Environment, and UNESCO under the unified theme of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). ⓒ Gyeonggi G-News

Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization announced on December 27, 2013, that DMZ experiential programs such as the DMZ Eco-culture Classroom received certifications from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Ministry of Environment, and UNESCO under the unified theme of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). 

First developed in 2010 under the theme of “life, history and peace” and operated by the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, the DMZ Ecological Experiential Programs obtained national certification for environmental education from the Ministry of Environment in 2011 for the Visiting DMZ Eco-culture Classroom and DMZ Breathing with Life.

In 2012, the DMZ VIP (Volun-tourism in Park), which is a DMZ volunteer program, obtained national certification for ecological tours from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, followed by official certification in 2013 from UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for the DMZ Eco-culture Classroom and DMZ Youth Leadership Program, thus earning a triple crown.

Of particular note, the DMZ Eco-culture Classroom is a program in which lecturers visit schools and educate students on the topic of security and the unique ecological characteristics of the DMZ, such as it wetlands and migratory birds. The number of participants increased eightfold from 746 in 2011, the year the program was launched, to 6,182 in 2013, and the entire year until December was fully booked within a week of reservations in March.

  “We will plan and manage creative tour programs with a whole new concept in the convergence of security, ecology, history and culture in 2014 by linking the Camp Greaves DMZ Experience Center, Dorasan Peace Park, Haemaru Village and the Unification Village,” said Kim Hyun, DMZ Ecological Culture Team Leader at the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization.

In 2013, a cumulative total of 29,130 people participated in the DMZ ecological programs. For more details about the programs, please visit the Pyeonghoa-Nuri website at http://peace.ggtour.or.kr

ⓒGyeonggi G-News | Chun Kyeong-nam ckn0403@kg21.net 

http://gnews.gg.go.kr/news/news_detail.asp?number=201312271005477055C049&s_code=C049