Full-scale efforts for inner-city arboretum underway this year

- 47-billion-won investment creating 62ha first-class arboretum by 2013,
in Yang-gwa neighbourhood, Gwangju South District
- First-stage plans made in consultation with national experts
- 150ha forestry service area, 212ha natural arboretum

Gwangju Metropolitan City is pushing forward with plans to create an arboretum in the city. The arboretum will cover 62ha and be located in Yang-gwa neighbourhood, in the city’s South District. Plans are expected to be finalized in the early part of this year.

Gwangju intends to create an international-class luxury arboretum covering a total of 62ha, on 35ha are currently private land and 27ha public land. It will be located in Yang-gwa, Deok-nam, and Haeng-am neighbourhoods, in Gwangju’s South District. The proposal will cost 47 billion won, taken from national and local government budgets, and will contribute towards the country’s stated low-carbon green-growth policy.

Gwangju publically announced its decision to create a 62ha-arboretum last November, based on the opinions of residents, and after the scheme had received approval from the Korea Forest Service.

■ Arboretum Process

The Korea Forest Service has been examining the appropriateness of the arboretum plan and its financial details, from June 2008. Gwangju has since secured a 50-million budget from national and local governments, and so is now pushing ahead with plans to buy the relevant land and fully develop arboretum blueprints.

In May last year, Gwangju unveiled the winning design for the arboretum. The city ran a contest for design entries, with the theme based on “repetition and spread”, a concept inspired by the natural landscape around Gwangju: beautiful scenery unfolding showing repeated mountainous peaks and valleys.

A consultative committee was formed, comprising nine experts from across Korea, such as Park Gwang-woo, Head of Resource and Conservation, Korea National Arboretum, and Kim Yeong-sik, a professor at Yeong-nam University who researched at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, England, along with other local professors. The committee worked with Gwangju City through a series of workshops and consultations to first produce guidelines for the contest, and also visited the site, and gave conferences. They then selected the winning entry, modified it for suitability and finalized the overall basic design. The committee will be in place throughout the whole of the project’s lifespan, from the initial design until final completion.

■ Arboretum Content

The basic design of the arboretum will feature five themed areas, namely “Welcome Forest”, “Learning Forest” “Forests of South Jeolla Province”, “Natural Forest”, and “Forest of Health”. There are further plans for a “Forest of the Future”, based on an urban waste landfill site, at a later date.

At the heart of the arboretum will be a visitors’ centre, greenhouse and tree museum, as well as an underground parking lot. In the surrounding areas, wild plants indigenous to the southern part of the Korean peninsula will be planted, to preserve both the landscape and the species of plants themselves. These plants are only found in the nearby Mudeung and Jogye mountains, such as the native spicebush.

It will also include various forest trails, and a “native forest”, showcasing native Korean species of trees and plants, such as Korean holly. The arboretum will reflect both the feeling of a garden of South Jeolla province, themed around the Se-yeon Pavilion and Bo-gil island, and a sky garden where we can perceive the various changing shapes and forms as we look from the ground level moving up through the tops of the trees and mountains. The arboretum will also feature water attractions, such as a ‘water-deck’, where we can view water plants, in addition to musical fountains and shadows and shapes with water. During the process of basic design, the consultative committee offered many opinions which Gwangju was able to review and reflect on.

■ Arboretum Use

The arboretum is located close to the centre of city, and near to the Gwangju-Mokpo highway, making it is easily accessible.

It is linked to Bit-Goeul Senior Health Town - one of Korea’s largest and best equipped seniors’ facility - and so the arboretum can additionally offer a rest and recreation area for elderly residents, containing a terrapin garden, medicinal plant garden, herb garden, and so on.

The key benefits offered by the arboretum will be to contribute to the national low-carbon, green-growth policy, extend the city’s forest areas thus helping to naturally convert carbon-dioxide to oxygen, utilize unused farmland, and provide a nature-based eco-friendly facility for residents to enjoy walking trails through forests and gardens and learn about our natural environment.

Further possible developments concern Gwangju’s 584,000m2 urban waste disposal site - an area currently detested by local residents. Long-term plans are proposing to transform it into a “Forest of the Future”, by regenerating the land through landfill, renovating the banks, planting trees, and installing a walkway and deck for visitors.

■ 212ha Forested Area adjacent to Arboretum

Gwangju City requested assistance from the Korea Forest Service in order to purchase around 150ha near the site of the planned arboretum. This came through the Korea Forest Service land-purchasing arm, which facilities large businesses to buy land as a way to extend the country’s National Forests.

In this way, 46ha of land was purchased last year through Korea Forest Service contracts and the remaining land is expected to be purchased quickly. In the end, a large-scale 212ha forested area, containing ecology trails, wild plants etc, will be connected to the main arboretum.

Korea Forest Service has been operating a scheme since 2008, facilitating the purchase of privately-owned land in order to expand the forest area, and has an annual budget for this. Gwangju thus applied to buy the forest and land around the arboretum.

“Through the arboretum, Gwangju will not only offer local residents a new place to rest, but also be in vogue with the new national green-growth low-carbon policy, and extend the local forest areas, so creating more oxygen,”, said a city official. “We will make a nature-friendly high-class arboretum, to effectively manage and preserve natural resources.”