Hyundai to restore forest ecosystems in wildfire-affected areas

Hyundai Motor Company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korea Arboretum and Garden Management Institute and Tree Planet on Monday (10 October) at the National Sejong Arboretum in Seoul, Korea, in the presence of Doo-Ha Choi, head of Hyundai's Business Strategy Division, Kwang-Soo Ryu, chairman of the Korea Arboretum and Garden Management Institute, and Hyung-Soo Kim, CEO of Tree Planet.

Hyundai will implement the agreement with Korea Forest Service's Korea Arboretum Garden Management Institute and Tree Planet, a social venture specialising in tree planting, with the aim of restoring the health of forest ecosystems and preserving biodiversity through the restoration of damaged forests. Through the agreement, Hyundai will work with relevant organisations and companies over the next five years to restore forests and create new eco-friendly forests, focusing on the east coast of Korea, the country's most affected by forest fires.

The new forest is part of the IONIQ Forest project, Hyundai's flagship sustainable CSV initiative, which has been running since 2016 with the participation of customers and local communities.

Hyundai will also use the 'Ioniq Drone Station', an eco-friendly mobility for forest restoration and monitoring, to conduct research collaboration with the parties to the agreement on ecosystem restoration. The 'IONIQ Drone Station' is a special vehicle for forest management based on Hyundai's electric vehicle IONIQ 5, which has a drone station in the trunk space and a battery charging deck for drones using V2L (Vehicle to Load) technology in the front frunk space.

Through this agreement, Hyundai and the parties will conduct various research collaborations, such as periodic monitoring and data collection of planting and forest growth processes using drones in inaccessible forested areas, to contribute to advanced forest management.

"Through this MOU, we aimed to promote forest restoration in Korea's largest forest fire-affected areas from a climate change response perspective," said a Hyundai representative. "Hyundai will continue to make genuine efforts to go green with various partners under our global CSV initiative, Hyundai Continue."

Meanwhile, Hyundai's eco-friendly social contribution programme 'Ionic Forest', which has been running for nine years, started with a project to create a forest to prevent fine dust at a landfill site in the Incheon metropolitan area and has continued to create forests by selecting themes that respond to social issues of each era.

In addition to Korea, the company has planted around 500,000 trees by 2023 through its global Ionic Forest project in Brazil, India, the United States, Mexico, Canada, and other countries, and aims to plant one million trees globally by 2025.

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Photo Hyundai Motor Company