Arbor Day: Envisioning a comprehensive future for forests

On Friday, the 79th Arbor Day, communities nationwide planted around 7,000 trees. While Arbor Day was officially established in 1946, some trace its origins to 1493. It is said that on March 10 of that year (April 5 in the Julian calendar), the king and his officials personally engaged in tilling the land outside Dongdaemun, highlighting that early April was considered an optimal time for planting.

There's been a growing call to change Arbor Day's date in recent years. Forestry experts note that the ideal temperature for tree planting is around 6.5 degrees Celsius, typical of early April's past climate. However, due to climate change, average temperatures during Arbor Day in the last decade have increased by 1.5 to 4 degrees Celsius compared to the 1940s. In noting this shift, environmental groups have advocated for moving Arbor Day to March and have organized tree-planting events since then.

The conversation extends beyond just shifting Arbor Day; it calls for a reevaluation of tree planting in light of climate change. Trees are crucial in absorbing carbon dioxide, a primary greenhouse gas. A single tree can absorb approximately 8 kilograms of carbon annually, while one hectare of forest can eliminate more than 10 tons of carbon each year—equivalent to the emissions of six cars in the same timeframe.

Wood serves as a carbon storage medium as well. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found that wood can store carbon for about 30 years. Using wood in construction can reduce carbon emissions by 110 to 470 kilograms per square meter. This efficiency is why advanced countries are enhancing wood usage. Japan, for instance, updated its timber laws to the 'Decarbonization Wood Utilization Promotion Law' in 2021. Similarly, France has implemented a law requiring at least 50% of public buildings to be constructed with wood.

Experts advocate for a cycle of planting new, carbon-absorbing trees and strategically harvesting to reduce density and utilize the wood, emphasizing sustainability. However, there's a solid social perception that cutting down trees equates to environmental damage, which makes discussions about forest management and utilization somewhat taboo. Environmental organizations also express concerns that improper logging could lead to deforestation and unchecked development.

Nonetheless, there is a growing agreement that we must evolve from merely planting more trees to adopting strategies that involve planting them intelligently, maintaining them properly, and utilizing them responsibly to mitigate climate change and cultivate sustainable forests. Wood and its derivatives, such as paper, are omnipresent in our lives, and advocating for conservation while massively importing wood isn't seen as a viable approach. From a global standpoint, it's imperative to cherish our domestic forests as valuable natural assets and not to exploit foreign forests indiscriminately.