Why Did Global Forest Healing Experts Visit Nowon-gu's 'Bulamsan Healing Town'?

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Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon District, is explaining Nowon District's healing policy to the forum delegation.

Nowon-gu, Seoul (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced that it introduced the Nowon-style healing policy while welcoming the delegation of the '2024 World Forest Healing Forum' at Bulamsan Healing Town.

The '2024 World Forest Healing Forum' (hereinafter referred to as the Forum), co-hosted by the Korea Forest Healing Forum and Chungbuk National University and supported by the Korea Forest Service, was organized to spread Korean-style forest welfare and forest healing and to establish a cooperative foundation for solidarity.

For the main forum to be held from the 28th, policy makers, forest healing leaders, scholars, and related experts from more than 20 countries including the United States, Canada, Japan, and Europe visited and explored major domestic forest policy sites as a preliminary schedule. Bulamsan Healing Town in Nowon-gu was selected as the starting point of the itinerary, which includes visits to Daegwallyeong and the National Arboretum.

The delegation started at the Bulamsan Observatory, which won the Minister’s Award at the 2021 Korea Spatial Culture Awards, experienced the healing programs at the Bulamsan Forest Healing Center, and toured the recently opened Bulamsan Picnic Area and the overall healing town, discussing the field of urban forest leisure policies.

Opened in 2020 as Seoul’s first urban forest healing center, the 'Bulamsan Forest Healing Center' has quickly established itself with about 12,000 visitors annually. It has diversified its programs, including atopy programs for children, emotional support for infertile couples, and stress relief programs for firefighters and police officers, receiving great responses.

In particular, the forum visit was extended from confirming the value of forest healing beyond borders through Korean cultural experiences by Jamboree participants who visited Korea last year and students from Fujimura Girls’ High School in Japan this year.

Welcoming the delegation, Mayor Oh Seung-rok and Kim Ju-yeon, director of the Bulamsan Forest Healing Center, introduced the goals of the healing policies that the district has been diligently promoting for over ten years and engaged in communication with the participants.

Forum visitors experiencing the barefoot trail next to the Forest Healing Center

Dr. Tamberly Conway, a member of the delegation, expressed through conversations with district officials, “The effort to bring nature and urban life closer is impressive,” and added, “Considering the positive effects that nature’s energy provides to citizens, there is a need for a greater role in the public sector.”

Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, said, “Healing policies based on the natural environment are key tasks that we are focusing on as they comprehensively enhance health, welfare, leisure, and culture,” and added, “We will actively exchange and cooperate widely with advanced domestic and international cases to spread the culture of forest healing.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.