Hyundai Motor seeks 6,500 runners to plant trees in West Africa

Hyundai Motor announced Thursday it is accepting registrations for Forest Run 2026, a running campaign aimed at building a sustainable future.

Since 2016, Hyundai Motor has run the eco-friendly social contribution campaign to raise awareness of fine dust pollution and promote cleaner skies, with participants donating trees to help create forests.

Originally called the Longest Run, the campaign was renamed Forest Run last year — its 10th showing — to place greater emphasis on tree planting.

The campaign has drawn a cumulative total of about 250,000 participants, who have collectively run 7.47 million kilometers and planted 30,850 trees.

Forest Run 2026 will follow a 10-kilometer course starting at the Culture Madang area of Yeouido Park on Sept. 12, crossing Sogang Bridge and looping back to the starting point.

Marking its 11th year, the campaign will partner with the UN World Food Programme — the world's largest humanitarian aid organization — as its official donation recipient and join the Half Moon Project.

The Half Moon Project, run in collaboration with the WFP, aims to achieve long-term ecological restoration of the Sahel region of West Africa, which has been devastated by desertification, through soil rehabilitation, water source protection and agricultural support.

Hyundai Motor plans to significantly expand the per-participant donation amount this year, with the goal of planting about 100,000 trees in Niger, in the Sahel region, together with the 6,500 participants.

Customers wishing to take part in Forest Run 2026 can purchase a donation entry on the Hyundai Shop website starting Thursday.

"Forest Run is a running campaign where we run alongside our customers, plant trees and work toward a world free of fine dust," a Hyundai Motor official said. "This year, as we expand the scale of tree planting and collaborate with the WFP, we hope more participants will join us on this meaningful journey toward a sustainable future."

Under its global CSV initiative Hyundai Continue, Hyundai Motor has been carrying out the Ioniq Forest project since 2016, planting eco-friendly forests around the world to absorb carbon and preserve biodiversity.

Through the global Ioniq Forest project, the company had planted about 500,000 trees by 2023 in countries including Brazil, India, the United States, Mexico and Canada. Following donations from Forest Run 2025 last year, it also transplanted 5,000 tulip tree saplings — a species valued for its environmental benefits — to Ioniq Forest Uljin to help restore areas damaged by wildfires.

Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor has continued to fulfill its corporate social responsibility through various initiatives, including signing an MOU on forest damage recovery support with the Korea Forest Service and Tree Planet, a tree-planting social venture, at the National Institute of Forest Science in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, in May.