SK Innovation to restore Vietnam’s mangrove forests in ESG initiative

SK Innovation Co. has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Tra Vinh, a province in southern Vietnam and MangLub, a local social enterprise, to restore degraded mangrove forests as part of the South Korean energy group's efforts to combat climate change.

Under the agreement, SK Innovation plans to rehabilitate 300 hectares of mangrove ecosystem – an area roughly the size of 420 soccer fields – by 2030.

The company said the project would involve local residents in planting and maintaining the mangrove seedlings to create jobs and support the regional economy.

MangLub is SK Innovation’s joint venture with Dream Sharing, a Korean social cooperative. It was established in 2019 as the first social enterprise in Tra Vinh focused on mangrove conservation.

Mangroves, often described as the “lungs of Asia,” play a critical role in coastal protection and biodiversity, absorbing up to five times more carbon than tropical rainforests.

But more than half of the Mangrove habitats in Southeast Asia have been lost over the past 50 years due to tourism development and aquaculture expansion.

SK Innovation has planted about 910,000 mangroves across 236 hectares in Vietnam, Malaysia and Myanmar since 2018.

Write to Yeonhee Kim at yhkim@hankyung.com