Making a Difference: Korean Air and Delta Air Lines Staff Fight Desertification in Mongolia

Korean Air recently sent a team of employees to help fight desertification in Mongolia.

This year was especially meaningful as employees from Delta Air Lines joined the effort as part of the one-year anniversary of the joint venture between the two airlines.

About 120 Korean Air employees and 30 Delta Air Lines employees worked with local residents and students to plant trees in Baganuur, Mongolia, a region undergoing rapid desertification.

Korean Air has been growing the “Korean Air Forest” in the area by planting trees every year since 2004, with the aim of stopping desertification and protecting the environment.

“We are very proud to contribute to ecological restoration efforts in Mongolia. For the last 16 years, the Korean Air Forest has grown to cover 44 hectare or 440,000 m² of land. After we planted 5,000 maple trees this year, the Korean Air Forest now has a total of 125,000 trees,” said Kwang Ho Ko, Head of Regional Headquarters, China. “We were also excited that our partner Delta Air Lines joined us this year. I hope together we can find more ways to give back to the environment and society in the future.”

Korean Air is managing the forest through diverse, systematic efforts, by hiring local forestation experts and educating local residents on environmental awareness.

“We were honored to be invited as part of the celebration of our joint venture’s one-year anniversary with Korean Air to participate with them for the first time in their annual tree planting event in Mongolia,” said Lisa H. Duval, Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Delta Air Lines, who participated in the project. “We had 30 employees from over a dozen locations in Asia and the Americas, including members of our internal employee organization ‘Green Up’, who came together with Korean Air employees for this important event. We strongly believe that what is good for the planet, is good for Delta and our partners worldwide.”

Korean Air also regularly donates computers to public schools in Baganuur, Mongolia, contributing to relations between Korea and Mongolia. The airline plans to donate computers, desks and gym equipment to local schools this year as well.

As a part of the Global Planting Project, Korean Air has also been growing a “Korean Air Forest” in Kubuqi desert since 2007, in the Inner Mongolia region of China, where the yellow dust storm originates.

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