Busy as he was leading the building of a new country after national liberation, the great leader climbed Moran Hill on March 2, 1946; seeing the mountains and rivers of the country damaged by Japanese imperialist colonial rule, he unfolded a far-reaching plan to turn all the mountains into thickly wooded places of people's resort by having trees planted in large numbers.
Forests are precious resources of the country and a wealth to be handed down to posterity. Our country has been called a land of golden tapestry for the mountains thick with forests and the fields covered with beautiful flowers. However, as people have felled trees at random since the days of the Arduous March on the plea of obtaining cereals and firewood and, worse still, as no proper measures have been taken to prevent forest fire, the precious forest resources of the country have decreased to a great extent. As the mountains are sparsely wooded, even a slightly heavy rain in the rainy season causes flooding and landslides and rivers dry up in the dry season; this greatly hinders conducting economic construction and improving people's standard of living. Despite this, our officials have confined themselves to reconstructing roads or buildings damaged by flooding, failing to take measures for eliminating the cause of flood damage by planting a large number of trees on the mountains.
At present, the forests of the country can be said to have reached a crossroads–whether to perish for ever or to be restored. We can no longer back off from the issue related with the forests. As long as the forests are left as they are, no one can claim that he is a master of the country nor can he speak about patriotism.
Grieved for the decreasing forests of the country, the great General
It is the unshakable determination and will of our Party to turn all the mountains into thickly-wooded "treasure mountains," into "gold mountains," within the coming ten years true to the intentions of the great President and General.
The entire Party, the whole army and all the people should conduct a vigorous forest restoration campaign to make the mountains of the country thick with forests.
Forest restoration is a challenging and complex undertaking of raising young trees, transplanting them and then cultivating them year in, year out in the face of harsh challenges of nature; it is a gigantic nature transformation project to turn all the mountains of the country into "treasure mountains," into "gold mountains." The forest restoration campaign is a war to ameliorate nature.
What is important in conducting this campaign is to push ahead with forest planting and conservation simultaneously.
We should bring about a sweeping revolution in forest planting.
Forest planting should not be done in such a way as planting some trees ceremoniously on tree-planting days or transplanting fully-grown trees, as was done in the past. It should be done in the way of raising young trees in large numbers and enlisting all the people in transplanting and cultivating them.
For effective forest planting, first of all young trees should be raised and supplied in sufficient numbers.
Raising young trees is the first process of forest planting; success of the forest restoration campaign depends on how nurseries provide young trees. Nurseries are to a forest restoration campaign what munitions factories are to a war just as one cannot emerge victorious in a battle if he is not provided with ammunitions, so we cannot conduct the forest restoration campaign successfully if nurseries fail to grow young trees in sufficient numbers.
The Central Nursery and other nurseries should mass-produce various young trees of good species.
At the time when the country was in a very difficult condition, the General, with a far-sighted plan, had the Central Nursery built as a modernly-equipped producer of young trees, and bequeathed it to us as part of his legacy. The Central Nursery should raise the level of scientification, industrialization and intensification in growing young trees and overfulfil its production plan, thus taking a significant share in the forest restoration campaign.
The nurseries in provinces should be renovated as well.
They should be modernly equipped like the Central Nursery. Whatever the amount of investment, we should provide ample conditions for laying out the young tree production bases. Now at the provincial nurseries, greenhouses for raising young trees are not in good shape; they should be renovated. Modern greenhouses are essential to putting young tree production on a scientific, industrial and intensive footing. Each province should build a model greenhouse in conformity with the characteristics of growing young trees and their uses, and generalize it. The provincial nurseries should be provided with diverse material and technical conditions necessary for producing young trees in sufficient numbers.
Nurseries should obtain seeds of good species, improve the fertility of young tree fields, introduce advanced growing methods in a positive manner and take all possible precautions against damage from blights and insect pests. The officials and employees there, fully aware of the important duty they assume in the forest restoration campaign, should strive to boost production in the same manner as they would display when making bullets and shells for those on the battlefield.
Trees should be planted with care.
Otherwise, the precious young trees that have been raised with so much effort will wither away, and forests cannot be restored as early as possible. Every year trees are planted on such occasions as the Period of General Mobilization for Land Administration and the Tree-Planting Month in Spring. But the forests of the country show little signs of amelioration; it is because the survival rate of the transplanted trees is low as a consequence of their careless planting. It is important to plant many trees, and it is all the more important to plant them with care and increase their survival rate.
A lot of people in several sectors are to be enlisted in tree-planting, so they should be given proper guidance to work according to technical regulations. It is necessary to inform the officials, service personnel, workers, students and other young people thus enlisted, of the specific planting methods, and make exacting demands on them so that they will plant trees according to technical regulations.
After planting trees, it is important to manure and cultivate them properly.
Young trees require much effort and care to grow into big ones. Technical regulations should be strictly observed in the processes of growing them such as watering, maturing and removing weeds and shrubs. It is necessary to regularly conduct the work of weeding out ailing and useless trees in time and planting other trees instead. A rigid system should be established whereby organs and enterprises take responsibility for the survival of the trees they have planted.
It is important in the forest restoration campaign to lay out forests of economic value, forest reserves and scenic forests in a rational way. Afforestation should be done on the principles of planting the right trees in the right soil and in the right season and planting ten after felling one. Mixed forest and agroforestry should be actively introduced, and afforestation should be done by combining transplanting and natural regeneration appropriately to meet actual conditions.
We should make great efforts to conserve the forests of the country.
We should push forward this undertaking with a viewpoint that forest conservation precisely means protection of land, ecological environment and the economy. Just as the public health sector takes prophylactic measures to protect people against diseases, so we should conserve the forests on a regular basis to prevent damage to them.
Random felling of trees in mountains must be prohibited.
Now some people climb mountains and cut down trees to obtain firewood or timber without permission as they do not care a bit about the country's forests. Unauthorized felling of trees is tantamount to treachery. All the people on this land should treasure and protect even a blade of grass and a tree of their country. They should be encouraged to take part in forest conservation efforts in a manner befitting masters with a lofty sense of civic duty and law observance, so as to eliminate any practice of damaging forests.
Pest control is important in conserving forests.
To this end it is essential to intensify preventive observation of insect pests so as to detect their appearance and take measures in good time to preclude them from spreading. A mass-based pest control drive should be conducted from March to May every year. Damage by insect pests should be prevented by various methods such as applying biological and chemical pesticides or protecting and increasing the numbers of their natural enemies.
Thoroughgoing measures should be taken to prevent damage from forest fire.
Forest fire reduces to ashes in an instant forest resources created through long, painstaking efforts. The state should establish a system of watching forest fire, raising an alarm and mobilizing people, make necessary material and technical preparations for promptly putting out forest fire once it breaks out, and build fire belts as required by the regulations and maintain them on a regular basis. People may climb mountains in spring and autumn for collecting medicinal herbs or various other purposes; they should be educated to strictly observe the set order. In particular, scrupulous measures should be adopted against forest fire during the seasons when it may break out easily.
In order to conserve forest resources, we should solve the people's problem of fuel.
Positive measures should be taken to solve this problem, including creating forests for firewood in every place and increasing the production and supply of coal for the people's living. There are several units which have solved the fuel problem with biogas, fly ash or ultraanthracite. By actively popularizing their experience, we should ensure that all regions solve the fuel problem on any account by their own effort.
Various sectors should take measures to use a smaller amount of timber so as to lower the degree of reliance on forest.
We should direct close attention to developing forest science and technology.
We can also successfully promote forest planting and conservation when we rely on science and technology.
Forest science and technology institutes should study and solve scientific and technological problems arising in tree breeding and in forest planting and conservation. They should focus on breeding and widely proliferating good species of trees that are of economic value and suitable to the climatic and soil conditions of our country. Along with this, they should conduct scientific research for perfecting the methods of planting and tending trees as suited to the geographical features and actual conditions of our country. They should develop the method of planting trees all the year round. They should also solve the problems arising in creating forests in a prospective way and conserving and maintaining them.
We should take measures to introduce and widely disseminate the global achievements of the advanced science and technology related to forest planting and conservation. As there are not many good species of trees in our country, we should bring in such trees from foreign countries and widely proliferate them after acclimatizing them. We should grow large numbers of the trees like P. strobes, which the General spoke highly of, and spread them across the country.
We should be effective in disseminating forest science and technology among officials and working people. As all the people are enlisted in forest planting and conservation, they should know the methods of planting and tending trees of different species. Centres for disseminating science and technology have been laid out in various parts of the country; based on these centres, a brisk drive for disseminating forest science and technology should be waged to keep people abreast of the world trend of development of forest science and technology.
In order to develop forest science and technology, we should build up the Academy of Forest Science. Some officials are now neglecting the work of building up the academy, claiming that the effort to develop forest science and technology does not pay off in a year or two. They should not do so. We should refurbish the Academy of Forest Science into a world-class academy. And we should build up the forest science institutes in provinces.
We should tighten supervision and control over forest planting and conservation.
Since a powerful national forest supervision organ has been organized in accordance with a measure taken by the Party, it should effectively conduct forest supervision and control in a unified way.
We should intensify legal control over forest planting and conservation. If legal control is weak, violation of law may not be discontinued. The state should tighten legal controls over forest planting and conservation so that negative elements cannot appear. Random felling should be made a serious issue of whatever the unit concerned is and whoever the person concerned is. Units should be properly rewarded or punished according to their deserts with regard to forest planting and conservation. We should build up the ranks of forest rangers and enhance their sense of responsibility and role.
As forest restoration is a long-term undertaking that is carried on with an eye for ten years hence, we should carry it through to the end with perseverance.
We cannot achieve success in our effort for forest restoration if we work like a flash in the pan. Officials should cherish deep in their minds the General's aphorism that one should live not merely for today but for tomorrow, and persevere with forest planting and conservation regarding it as their constant task.
The plan for forest restoration should not remain in figures or charts on a piece of paper. We should turn all the mountains into "gold mountains" covered with thick woods and thus show through reality that Korea does what it is determined to do.
We should set forest restoration as a major task for the Party, the state and the army and forcefully push ahead with it by enlisting all forces and means.
Forest restoration is an important political work for implementing the instructions of the President and the General and one of the greatest patriotic undertakings for the development of our country, our nation, and the prosperity of posterity. Because forest restoration is a very important undertaking, the Party ensured that its Central Committee, the DPRK National Defence Commission and the KPA Supreme Headquarters issued a joint resolution calling on the entire Party, the whole army and all the people to turn out in a dynamic forest restoration campaign, and strong headquarters for the campaign were organized.
The entire Party, the whole army and all the people should be enlisted in the forest restoration campaign.
Only when the whole country and all the people are involved, can the forest restoration campaign bear fruit. The whole Party, the entire army and all the people should turn out in the campaign as they conducted reconstruction after the war. "Let the entire Party, the whole army and all the people be enlisted in a vigorous forest restoration campaign!"–this is the militant slogan our Party puts forward today.
The People's Army should take the lead in the campaign to restore forests.
As in all other undertakings, it should play the vanguard role in this campaign. Political commissars of the army units at all levels should take direct charge of forest planting and conservation and push ahead with them.
In the campaign the army and people should make concerted efforts to fully display the might of the great army-people unity.
Mass-based movements should be launched to ensure the campaign a success.
It is our Party's traditional method of work to propel the revolution and construction by means of mass-based movements. As they launched the Chollima Movement after the war, Party and working people's organizations should conduct vigorously the movement to create Forest of Socialist Patriotism and to win the title of Model County in Afforestation. Youth league organizations, in particular, should wage a movement to create Youth Forest and Children's Union Forest and tend them properly so as to lead all the youth and students to contribute to covering their home villages and mountains with forests.
Information and motivation work should be launched vigorously to arouse the entire Party, the whole army and all the people in the forest restoration campaign.
If we kindle all the service personnel and people with patriotism and enlist their spiritual strength through effective information and motivation work, there is nothing in the world we cannot perform. The biggest reserve in every undertaking is the spiritual strength of the masses. We should conduct an energetic information and motivation offensive to give fullest play to the spiritual strength of officials and working people.
All sectors and all units should conduct frontline-style information and motivation work to ensure that the whole country brims over with revolutionary ardour and vigour as it did in the days of postwar reconstruction. Party and working people's organizations should conduct intensively and ceaselessly the information and motivation work related with forest restoration. Newspapers, broadcasts and all other means of information and motivation work should be enlisted.
The forest restoration headquarters should improve their role. Whether or not the forest restoration campaign is carried on successfully in line with the Party's intention depends largely on their role. They should work out long-term, stage-by-stage and yearly plans properly, and make scrupulous arrangements and exercise effective command to carry out the plans. No deviations should be revealed during the campaign.
Officials should stand in the vanguard of the forest restoration campaign. They should not just check statistics hanging around in their offices, but go out to the pulsating fields like the commanding officers of the People's Army and lead the masses in the campaign, shouting the order, "Forward after me!"
As we have achieved one victory after another in the confrontation with the hostile forces including the US imperialists not firing a single shot, we should achieve a brilliant victory without fail in the forest restoration campaign to eliminate the aftermath of the Arduous March and hand down lasting wealth to posterity.
I believe that our officials, service personnel, working people and youth and students, who have always been faithful to the calling of the Party, will turn out as one in the forest restoration campaign, a noble patriotic cause, in hearty response to the call of the Party Central Committee. -0-
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