'Little Forests in Daily Life' - Creating Pocket Parks and School Forests at 49 Community Spaces

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 15th that it will expand community green spaces by creating 49 locations this year, including pocket parks at 36 sites across 16 cities and counties such as Yeoju City's Ganam-eup Yondae-ri, and school forests at 13 sites across 12 cities and counties including Singal Elementary School in Yongin City, providing green spaces that residents can access near their daily lives.

Pocket parks are small-scale green rest areas where trees and flowers are planted and rest facilities are installed in underutilized or vacant spaces in residential areas and urban centers. This project utilizes spaces where it is difficult to create large-scale parks, allowing residents to rest and enjoy green spaces near their homes or workplaces. The province plans to plant trees and flowers suited to local conditions, install rest facilities, and use these as resident rest areas while improving urban landscapes and enhancing community green space.

School forests are spaces created by planting trees and various plants in available areas within schools, allowing students to regularly access nature in their daily lives. They serve as natural learning spaces where students can observe and experience plants while also functioning as rest areas that can be used during breaks and lunch time.

Pocket parks and school forests share the common characteristic of expanding green space by utilizing existing idle or underutilized spaces within communities and schools rather than securing new large-scale land. The purpose of the project is to increase accessibility to green spaces by creating such spaces—even though small in scale—in communities and schools that residents and students use daily.

Lee Tae-seon, director of the Gyeonggi Province Garden Industry Division, said, "Creating green spaces near residential areas allows residents and students to more easily access nature in their daily lives," and added, "We will continuously expand community green spaces that residents can experience by transforming available spaces throughout the region into green rest areas."