South Korea boasts many areas of natural beauty as mountains and forests take up nearly 64 percent of the land.

Yet, not so long ago the country was left devastated following the 1950-53 Korean War. Since 1970, the country has planted more than 11 billion trees and implemented environmental protection policies in order to restore bald mountains and denuded forests.

With its successful reforestation efforts, the country is now exporting its forest development model, giving insights to government officials from developing countries and helping them embrace green ideas in policymaking.

A group of 12 government officials from Laos, Indonesia, Benin and Myanmar are currently visiting the country for a weeklong training session in forestry research at the invitation of the Korea Forest Service.

The training is a part of the state-run agency’s support for developing countries.

The agency started the training program in 1984 to assist developing countries in forest management, and more than 780 people from 61 countries have taken part as of the end of 2013, it said.

The agency has also signed a cooperative agreement with 28 countries, including Indonesia, China, Mongolia and Tunisia, to help develop sustainable forest systems.

The KFS has recently been focusing on developing forest-related programs, such as developing forests as a tool for advancing the welfare of citizens. Recreational forests nationwide, which offer a variety of recreational facilities to citizens, including camping and barbeque facilities, are one of the successes.

“There are a number of recreational forests across the nation and unique programs using woodlands, such as eco-tourism and healing forests. Now, we’re looking at exporting those forest-related programs to other (countries),” said an official at KFS’s Global Forest Resources and Trade Division.

“We’ll keep helping other countries develop ideas to give back to society with green (forests),” she added.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)