Yuhan-Kimberly quantifies Mongolia reforestation results for first time using AI, satellite data

Yuhan-Kimberly has for the first time quantified the ecological impact of its more than two-decade reforestation campaign in Mongolia, using AI and satellite data to measure whether the forest has in practice been absorbing carbon and restoring ecosystem function — not merely adding trees.

The company announced Friday that it had produced measurable ecological findings from the "Yuhan-Kimberly Forest Mongolia" restoration project, which it has carried out in the Tujiin Nars region of Mongolia since 2003 in partnership with the Mongolian government, the Peace Forest Foundation and local communities.

The Tujiin Nars region had been experiencing rapid desertification following a large-scale wildfire. Yuhan-Kimberly has planted and tended more than 10 million trees there over the years. The restored area covers 3,250 hectares — roughly the size of Seoul's Songpa-gu district, or about 11 times the area of Yeouido.

The analysis was conducted in collaboration with climate-tech startup MetaEarthLab. Previous assessments had largely been limited to input-based indicators such as planted area and tree count, leaving the forest's actual ecological impact difficult to measure. Using AI-driven satellite data analysis, Yuhan-Kimberly tracked and quantified changes in the forest over 21 years, from 2003 to 2024.

The key metric is gross primary productivity, or GPP — the total organic matter plants produce through photosynthesis. Expressed in kgC/m²/yr, it represents the carbon fixed per unit area per year and serves as a standard ecological indicator of how actively a forest is absorbing carbon and growing.

The analysis found that GPP in the Yuhan-Kimberly Forest rose from 0.33 kgC/m²/yr in 2003 to 0.70 kgC/m²/yr in 2024, roughly 2.1 times the starting level over 21 years. The rate of GPP growth in the planted area was approximately 1.6 times faster than in comparable areas left to recover naturally.

Yuhan-Kimberly said the results indicate that the restored site "has established itself as an ecosystem capable of sustaining its own photosynthesis and growth, beyond simply being a space where trees have increased in number." The company noted that a sustained rise in productivity at a wildfire-damaged site in an environment as arid and harsh as Mongolia's provides concrete evidence of the reforestation project's effectiveness.

The company said it also plans to use the findings to inform strategies for restoring wildfire-damaged forests, treating the data as a baseline for predicting how ecosystems may evolve following forest rehabilitation.

Building on the research, Yuhan-Kimberly and MetaEarthLab are developing follow-on projects including AI-based immersive content and an information platform, with the aim of spreading awareness of forest restoration's value through public-interest content.

"We have now been able to confirm how much carbon the Yuhan-Kimberly Forest — built up over many years in Mongolia's wildfire-damaged Tujiin Nars region — has absorbed and what changes it has brought to the ecosystem," said Park Yun-jae, head of Yuhan-Kimberly's open innovation team. "We hope the findings will serve as a reliable baseline for evaluating the carbon absorption effects of future reforestation projects and as an education tool for communicating the value of forest conservation."

Yuhan-Kimberly has pursued domestic and international forest restoration and biodiversity conservation through its "Keep Korea Green" campaign, launched in 1984. Flagship initiatives include forests dedicated to wildfire recovery, biodiversity conservation and the Yuhan-Kimberly Forest in Mongolia. The company said the campaign has resulted in more than 58 million trees planted and tended at home and abroad to date.