Half of Korea's native fir trees lost in a century — Yuhan-Kimberly moves to restore them

Yuhan-Kimberly has joined forces with the National Baekdudaegan Arboretum to establish a conservation forest for the Korean fir, a native species pushed toward extinction by climate change.

The company announced Friday that it held a planting ceremony Thursday at the arboretum in Bonghwa, North Gyeongsang Province, to create an ex-situ conservation site for the tree.

The Korean fir is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province World Heritage Management Office, the Korean fir forest on Hallasan shrank from 1,168.4 hectares in 1918 to 606 hectares in 2021 — a decline of 48.1 percent.

The ceremony marked the first planting activity under a conservation project the two organizations have pursued since 2021. About 30 company employees and arboretum staff planted 500 10-year-old saplings grown from Hallasan Korean fir seeds.

An ex-situ conservation site preserves endangered plant species in suitable environments outside their natural habitat. The National Institute of Forest Science published research last year showing that careful site selection and planting management that accounts for genetic diversity can improve the Korean fir's survival rate.

The two organizations plan to monitor the saplings' growth and manage the conservation site on an ongoing basis. Under an MOU signed in 2021, they will continue conservation efforts for endangered alpine conifers through 2030.

"We will keep working together to protect the endangered Korean fir and contribute to building a healthy forest ecosystem in Korea," said Jeon Yang-suk, head of Yuhan-Kimberly's Sustainability Management Center.