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KB Financial launches campaign to save bees

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By Yi Whan-woo

KB Financial Group has launched a campaign to save bees, which are vital pollinators for food crops, yet are dwindling in their numbers due to air pollution and other human causes of climate change.

The campaign comes on the occasion of World Bee Day on May 20 and the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22, both observed by the United Nations, and also as a part of the banking group's environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) practices.

The children of KB Financial Group employees tour an apiary run on the rooftop of the headquarters of KB Kookmin Bank, the banking group's flagship affiliate, in central Seoul on the occasion of World Bee Day and the International Day for Biological Diversity in May. Courtesy of KB Financial Group
The children of KB Financial Group employees tour an apiary run on the rooftop of the headquarters of KB Kookmin Bank, the banking group's flagship affiliate, in central Seoul on the occasion of World Bee Day and the International Day for Biological Diversity in May. Courtesy of KB Financial Group
"KB Financial Group will play its role as a leader in ESG management and will continue expanding its influence on the environment and ecosystem," it said in a press release, Thursday.

The country's largest banking group will plant various kinds of trees ― including oriental raisin trees and tulip poplar trees ― that are popular sources of pollen and nectar for bees.

Such trees will be planted over the next four years in a forest in Hongcheon County, Gangwon Province and Uljin County, North Gyeongsang Province, with the aggregate number anticipated to be more than 100,000.

The project in Hongcheon will be carried out jointly with Tree Planet, a company with a social and environmental mission.

Uljin was picked as the target destination considering that the forest in the region was devastated by recent wildfires.

On May 24, KB Financial Group will open a space named "K-Bee Zone" on the global metaverse platform Roblox, in connection with the tree planting project in Hongcheon.

The company will plant a tree in the forest there under the name of each of the Roblox users who visit the "K-Bee Zone" and plant cyber trees.

The firm will encourage its customers to join the group-wide campaign as well, giving them flower seeds at the branches of its flagship affiliate, KB Kookmin Bank, and have them upload photos on social media to raise awareness of the campaign.

The banking group opened an apiary on the rooftop of KB Kookmin Bank headquarters in Seoul, in cooperation with Urban Bees Seoul, a company dedicated to fostering bee farms in urban areas.

Additionally, nests exclusively for species of solitary bees ― which, unlike honeybees, do not live in hives but live on their own ― will be built within Seoul Botanic Park.


Yi Whan-woo yistory@koreatimes.co.kr


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