A society-inclusive campaign launched by South Korea’s Hanwha Group to combat desertification has been introduced as an exemplar case for sustainable development at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Hanwha Group on Wednesday (local time) presented the Hanwha Solar Forest Campaign at an event hosted by Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the sidelines of High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The conglomerate introduced the project as an exemplary case to carry out United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The Hanwha Solar Forest Campaign - which was launched in 2011 in partnership with social enterprise Tree Planet - is an innovative campaign in which smartphone users plant virtual trees using their mobile devices and Hanwha in return create real forest to prevent desertification.

Over the years, Hanwha planted 490,000 trees to create a forest in an area equal to the size of about 180 football stadiums in Mongol, China, and Korea. This year, Hanwha Group plans to create a forest in Incheon to help prevent severe fine dust.

At the United Nations forum, Hanwha Group said that the campaign has been evaluated as having raised consumers’ environmental awareness and provided practical contributions in generating economic value from water and air purification, insect pest control, and soil erosion prevention. In particular, Hanwha Group planted seedlings using an 80 kilowatt solar power facility while creating a forest in the deserted area of Ningxia in China, marking the first time in the world to use solar power to prevent desertification. The case has been already introduced as an exemplary case at the general meeting of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

Hanwha Group said that it will continue to promote the Solar Forest Campaign to take initiative in resolving growing environmental issues and climate change.

By Hwang Soon-min and Lee Eun-joo

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