South Korea · Jecheon · See the South Korea profile
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Since opening its first therapeutic forest in 2009, South Korea's Forest Service has certified 64 'Healing Forests' with trained instructors; a 2021 review of 75 programmes found consistent blood-pressure and depression benefits, though cortisol effects were mixed.
South Korea's Forestry Culture and Recreation Act was revised in 2010 to create the legal category of 'Healing Forest' (chiyu-ui-sup), and a Forest Therapy Instructor certification system followed in 2011. The country's first therapeutic forest, San-eum, opened in 2009; the Korea Forest Welfare Institute was established in 2016 to run a National Center for Forest Therapy in Jecheon, applying elements of traditional Korean medicine alongside forest-immersion activities for physical and mental recovery.
The number of certified therapeutic forests grew from 5 in 2015 to 32 by 2020, and the Korea Forest Service's own registry now lists 64 designated Healing Forests nationwide, run under national, public and local-government management. Visitor numbers to these sites were reported at 1.7 million in 2015, rising to 1.8 million in 2019 before falling to 1.5 million in 2020.
A 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis (Park et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health) examined 75 certified forest-healing programmes, reduced to 268 discrete activities after removing overlaps. Blood pressure showed the most consistent therapeutic effect (32 of the reviewed studies) followed by psychological depression (24 studies), with anxiety and anger showing moderate support; walking sessions over an hour showed positive outcomes in 90.9% of cases for psychological measures. The review is honest about limits, however: cortisol results were mixed, with 10 studies finding reductions against 5 finding no effect, and 90.7% of programmes were designed for people without diagnosed disease, so evidence for clinical populations remains thinner than for general wellness use. The programme is a public-health and ecotourism initiative rather than a habitat- or carbon-focused ecosystem-service scheme, so it scores accordingly on ecological dimensions unrelated to its stated aims.
Read the full analysis: https://www.forest.go.kr/kfsweb/kfi/kfs/cms/cmsView.do?cmsId=FC_001570&mn=AR02_01_03_04
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