office of Dr. Shin, who is the minister of the Korean Forest Agency.
Shin greeted me with a handshake and a delicate cup of tea. He is
boyish and buoyant, as if he can’t quite believe his good fortune to
land the corner office. He did not rise to the top of the agency by the
usual route in timber management, but rather because of his
psychology research on such topics as “the influence of interaction
with the forest on cognitive function” and “the influence of forest
experience on self-actualization.” For that paper, which he published
while based at the University of Toronto, he studied how participants
changed after a five-week wilderness course sponsored by the
National Outdoor Leadership School and found the results inspiring.
He’d been influenced by Stephen and Rachel Kaplan’s work at the
University of Michigan. Shin became a professor of “social forestry”
at Chungbuk National University, which offers the world’s only
degree program in forest healing. In the early days of research, “we
discussed a lot of the issues for how we can objectively measure the
benefits and what are the best biomarkers,” he said.
Apparently, the effort paid off. Shin’s ascendancy and the
country’s new programs reflect just how seriously South Korea takes
the emerging evidence on nature and health. The goal of the current
National Forest Plan is “to realize a green welfare state, where the
entire nation enjoys well-being.” As Shin pointed out, happiness is
now part of the national index. And the results of this campaign are
evident: visits to the country’s forests increased from 9.4 million in
2010 to 12.7 million in 2013, or one-sixth of the country’s population
(around the same time, visits to national forests in the U.S. dropped
by 25 percent). The agency now offers everything from prenatal
classes in the woods to forest kindergartens to forest burial options.
It’s a cradle-to-grave operation. There is even a “Happy Train” that
delivers school bullies to a national forest for two days so they can
learn to be nicer. To unwind in the United States, men in groups
might hunt and drink Jack Daniels. Here they do downward dog and