William Bryant, who is known as the ‘father of U.S. poetry,’ said, “The groves were God's first temples,” while campaigning to build Central Park in Manhattan in 1844. City forests, such as Central Park in New York and Hyde Park in London, serve as a ‘mecca for relaxation’ by providing fresh air to today’s stressed-out people. This is an era when the value of urban forests comes into the spotlight. A new city park, similar to Central Park, is emerging on Jeju Island, a prime location for people to escape from gray concrete buildings and enjoy the peace and beauty of nature. It is called ‘Jeju Gotjawal Provincial Park.’
Gotjawal refers to a forest founded on volcanic terrain formed by lava flows. It is a naturally formed, sub-tropical forest that is rare in the world. Gotjawal covers 109.87 square kilometers, about six percent of Jeju Island. It also is a source of underground water and home to a wide variety of plants and animals. For example, Gotjawal includes Lava Tubes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Dong Baek Dong San (Camelia Forest) wetland, which is on the Ramsar Wetland list. In addition, Gotjawal provides a habitat for 36 species of plants and pitta that are listed as endangered by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). All this suggests that Gotjawal is the lungs of Jeju’s ecosystem.
Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC), in collaboration with Jeju Province and Gotjawal Trust of Jeju, is building ‘Jeju Gotjawal Provincial Park’ to protect Gotjawal, a repository of natural treasures. A total of KRW6.5 billion will be spent on the park project with the aim to complete it by 2013. The public park will be built on a 1.55 million m2 site in Daejung-eup, Seogwipo City, Jeju, with information centers and forest trails. It is expected to be used as an educational opportunity for students of international schools located in Jeju Global Education City (JGEC), as well as a refuge for the general public. JDC said that construction of forest trails is now completed and the first phase of the park project is expected to be ready this December.
Meanwhile, JDC plans to provide free access to some of the forest trails to show global environmental leaders the excellence of natural habitats in Gotjawal during the 2012 World Conservation Congress (WCC), called world’s environmental Olympics, which will run from September 6 to 15. In addition, JDC will operate free shuttle buses between the International Convention Center Jeju and the park, while guiding visitors to the forest trails.
