Korea National Arboretum (Korea Forest Service)

Korea National Arboretum (KNA) is situated in Gwangneung forest, between Namyangju-si and Pocheon-si, in Gyeonggi province. Gwangneung was a royal forest, which surrounded a mausoleum of King Sejo of Chosun dynasty. Thus, over the last 500 years it has been strictly managed in order to minimize human disturbance. The Gwangneung arboretum, which belongs to the Korea Forest Research Institute, was established in 1987 and has been open to the public since then. In May 24. 1999, it became the Korea National Arboretum. In KNA, there are 15 specilaized plant gardens, forest museum, forest zoo, herbarium and seed bank. The missions of Arboretum are to conserve and develop plant resources through comprehensive research, and to promote the public's understanding of the forests. The methods to carry out our missions are as follow: To develop our regional reference collections and make them more accessible to a large number of users. To conduct research in systematics, biological interactions, conservation gene resource and horticulture. To support the conservation and sustainable use of plant resources in Korea and abroad. To inform the wider public the importance of forest and nature for human being. To conserve the bio-diversity in Gwangneung forest.