A look back at the inter-Korean Gaepung Tree Nursery Project of 2007 ~2010
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관리자
작성일/Date
2020-02-03 16:14
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765
In December 2019 the Korean Sharing Movement gained a sanctions exemption from the United Nations 1718 Committee to provide materials for the recommencement of a tree nursery project which had ten years prior been a landmark of inter-Korean cooperation. Here we take a brief look back at the project in Gaepung which KSM are hoping to relaunch.
Organised by the Korean Sharing Movement (KSM) and the provincial government of Gyeonggi-do, the Gaepung tree nursery project was initially launched back in 2007 to cooperate with North Korea in gradually reconstructing its devastated forest resources. The project targeted the Gaepung area located in the North Korean western border town of Kaesong to start off the restoration process.
The Korean War and ensuing poverty took a heavy toll on forestry resources across the Korean peninsula. In the ensuing decades South Korea slowly came to make efforts and thereby gain relative expertise in reforestation methodology. A lack of fuel inputs in the North and subsequent over logging around the country, particularly in the 1990s, aggravated environmental problems and notably increased the risk of flooding. Tree nurseries aim to produce saplings appropriate to local conditions which can be transported to where there is a need to replenish woodland.
During the discussion phase before the projects inception, due to Gaepung province being located extremely close to the military demarcation line, the North Korean officials were not initially welcoming of the proposal. They raised possible military sabotage, by providing access to South Koreans to such a sensitive area, as a concerning aspect of the project. In response, however, KSM and Gyeonggi-do government sped up the shipping of the first load of equipment necessary for installing the nursery to Kaesong. It was an active decision made by the South Korean side to show the South’s strong urge to run the project for the purpose of contributing to sustainable environmental preservation across the Korean peninsula. The contradiction of operating cooperative projects while considering state security concerns was bypassed on this occasion.
On a 6-hectare lot, a part of the new nursery was used for cultivating saplings and the remaining area was composed of greenhouses and other facilities such as management offices, garages, and storage. All materials necessary for the construction of the facilities were shipped via the Kaesong land route. This was symbolically important as it meant not relying on any third country in the implication of South – North cooperation. Additionally, taking into consideration the scarcity of power and water in North Korea, a solar thermal power plant and tube wells were also installed to provide a stable supply of electricity and water throughout the duration of nursery construction.
The installation stage of the project involved a vast amount of material, knowledge and skills transfer between the two sides. Groups of South Korean technicians and officials regularly visited the site to cooperate with the local workforce through the processes of construction and installation of the nursery. The construction of the nursery with seedling greenhouses was completed in May 2008. Even after finishing the construction stage of the project, the provincial government officials of Gyeonggi-do and KSM did not stop the regular site visits and checkups for additional materials necessary for the maintenance part of the project.
The four-year-long project resulted in the cultivation of over 160,000 saplings (2008 & 2009 combined, no figures for 2010 as project halted unexpectedly). There were 17 shipping deliveries and 22 site visits of 268 South Korean technicians and officials. The project site was merely a two hour drive from Seoul. Both sides have agreed to the outcome of the project being successful at the time, for installing a modern tree nursery which was planned to have the capacity to produce 1.5 million seedlings per annum. In the long term, the newly planted trees were also planned to be transplanted to North Korean mountains to prevent flood damage in monsoon seasons and increase the North’s agricultural production, which would help alleviate the North’s persisting problem of food shortages. The project was a beacon of South-North cooperation at the time, a collaborative effort with knowledge transfer through training and the development of relationships between participants over the three years of the project. During the cooperative process differences were acknowledged and worked around and understanding and trust were built between the project participants. The project represents a fine example of a nexus where assistance becomes development cooperation which becomes peacebuilding.
This year marks the tenth year since the project came to a halt back in May 2010, when the South Korean government suspended all cooperative projects amid escalated inter-Korean tension. Since then strained inter-Korean relations and stricter U.N sanctions have inhibited the resumption of the project. However, the improvement of inter-Korean relations in 2018 and KSM’s visit to Pyeongyang in December of that year saw KSM embark on a process in 2019 to achieve a sanctions exemption from the U.N for the project so as to reinvigorate negotiations with their counterparts in the North.
