For some people, K-Pop can be synonymous with beautiful and handsome Korean artists, fun music, cool wardrobe, and concerts whose tickets are always sold out. Behind the glamor of K-Pop, there are many activities related to environmental preservation issues carried out by idols and fandoms.
Nurul Sarifah, organizer of Kpop4planet, observes that many fandom members are actively involved in environmental preservation activities. “Fandoms have often participated in tree planting activities, some have even gone so far as to build a forest. For example, RM Forest No. 1 in Seoul, a forest that a fan of leader BTS built for his birthday. Not only in the country where K-Pop was born, this activity also appears in other countries, such as Brazil and Romania. From here I see that K-Pop fans already have a high awareness of the importance of trees, forests and nature."
This made Nurul and her team think that it was time for Kpop4planet to raise a new issue. So far they have discussed zero waste concerts, albums without plastic, and data centers from music streaming platforms that produce a lot of carbon.
Nazara from Wings of Bangtan (WoB, a donation information portal related to BTS ARMY) said, ARMY is moved by environmental issues because of the many influences from BTS themselves. "Because of that, ARMY tries to match the movements made by BTS and its members. This is one of the keys to inviting fandom to care more about environmental sustainability by bringing BTS as a real example of this movement."
Meanwhile, Jevon Christian from Blink Official Indonesia (BOI) considers that BLINK is an extension of BLACKPINK who is an ambassador for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). So, as BLACKPINK fans they also have to voice the issue of climate change and get involved. "At least to build good awareness and understanding, so that then they can take care of the earth in their own way."
Based on data compiled by Kpop4planet, Indonesia even has the most trees planted by fans, namely 52,636 trees, followed by South Korea with 35,377 trees, and India with 13,483 trees.
Seeing the large number of tree planting and adoption activities around the world, Kpop4planet initiated mapping of these activities, as well as redesigning the kpop4planet.com website so that it can accommodate more forest-related information. Nurul said, this mapping is an entry point for deeper discussions on forest issues that are closely related to climate change, which so far has involved 80 K-Pop fandoms from 21 countries in 212 projects with 113,824 trees, and succeeded in reducing CO2 by up to 28,000 tons.
K-Popers between forests and climate crisis
Nurul believes that forests do not only act as the lungs of the world, but also play an important role for the people around them. He could see how the forest was a source of life for them, so they took care of it in such a way that it would not disappear. In addition, forests also have a major role in maintaining biodiversity, for example as a source of natural medicines and food sources.
“Reduced forest area due to forest fires and illegal logging has triggered the climate crisis. If we don't take care of the forest together, the impact will be felt by the people who live around the forest, by the forest itself, also by those of us who live in cities. So, forest conservation will help prevent the climate crisis from getting worse," said Nurul.
In line with Nurul, Nazara said that the existence of forests is very important, because humans need oxygen to live. "Land and water ecosystems are also greatly influenced by the presence of forests, as well as the quality of life of people who live near or far from forests."
Jevon is of the opinion that many companies are exploiting forests for their own interests, so that the impact of climate change is increasingly being felt. "Because most of the BLINK members are still relatively young, we want to start raising their awareness about the importance of protecting nature."
The culture of celebration is shifting
The average fandom and fanbase have celebration agendas related to their respective K-Pop idols. Among other things, member birthdays, group anniversaries, their comebacks, as well as the anniversaries of the fandom itself. And, these big fans don't hesitate to spend a lot of money to buy gifts for their favorite idols. There are those who give gold bars, giant bouquets, and even name a star after an idol group!
Nurul observes that in recent years the culture of buying expensive things or parties has begun to shift. “This culture is starting to be replaced with a culture of giving gifts related to the environment. For example, they are busy collecting donations to buy plant seeds, plant the seeds in the forest, and dedicate the planting area to certain idols."
Jevon said that last year BOI collaborated with the EcoNusa Foundation to hold a mangrove planting activity at Angke Kapuk Mangrove Nature Tourism Park, Jakarta. The event was held in order to support BLACKPINK's election as COP 26 ambassador. “Our goal is to create contemporary activities that are popular and hype, while also providing education in a fun way. The show is really fun. I was so enthusiastic, because we jumped into the water.”
Meanwhile, in one month Indonesian ARMY can hold activities related to the environment several times. One of the latest WoB projects is planting mangroves in Cilacap as a celebration of the 9th anniversary of BTS.
The first K-pop fandom jungle mapping
Giving gifts of forests to K-pop idols is actually not very new. Seven years ago, on her 22nd birthday, IU received a gift in the form of a forest on Yeouido, a large island on the Han River, Seoul. The forest is planted with 250 types of trees, including cherry trees. To build the forest, his fans raised donations of up to 61,000 US dollars.
Previously, in 2014 and 2016, Big Bang fans made two forests for one of the group's members, namely G-Dragon. One is located in Seoul, the other is located on Jeju Island. It's just that, when it was gifting the forest it wasn't yet a massive movement.
“Usually this tree planting project is only heard among fandoms, or within one fandom. As this kind of activity is being done more and more, we thought it would be great if there was one place to aggregate all the data. Not only projects in Indonesia, but also around the world. After the data collection process was running, we realized that this movement was very broad, even to Egypt, Portugal and Brazil," said Nurul.
In his view, this is all a big project. Unfortunately, not much has been exposed and known to the public. "K-popers don't necessarily know, let alone people who are outside the K-pop fan circle or bubble. So, we want to show people what K-pop fans around the world have done," said Nurul, who So far, 80 projects have been recorded from 21 countries.
Travel around the world's forests virtually
Kpop4planet has the tagline 'Find Your Tree, Add Your Tree, Count Your Tree'. You can move the map on the Kpop4planet website and look for the tree you planted. If you don't find it, it could be that the project you are following has not been recorded. Well, you can then add the data yourself. Next time you can count the number of trees your fandom has planted and feel proud of what you've done.
Only by opening a map of the location of tree planting and adoption, you can see that this movement is now quite massive in various countries. On the map you'll see a coded tree image with different colors and lines, indicating the type of fandom activity (planting is purple or adoption is green), and whether it's completed or ongoing.
"At each location of planting or adoption there is a simple tree image code, which when clicked will show the number and type of trees planted (partly complete with Latin names), the fandom that is holding the activity, the type of celebration, the date of the activity, and the final status of the project," Nurul's story.
When clicking 'learn more', you will be taken to social media pages or donation pages, related to the project. "This landing page serves as validation that the project shown is not fictitious, it is actually being held," said Nurul.
Interestingly, the tree planting area was given a new forest name. Like there is a forest within a forest. “Most of the 'new' forest names feature idol names. For example, Jeno's Forest and No Global Warming with Jin n V BTS. However, some are not. For example, the Epiphany Forest in Jurung Tiga Nature Park (South Kalimantan).”
Encourage inter-fandom ‘competition’
In the Fandom 4 Forest menu on the website there is a table that provides detailed information about the projects worked on by the fandom. The table is sorted by the number of trees planted by the fandom.
"What makes us proud is that in Indonesia there are lots of tree planting activities that are recorded. The problem is, most of them work together with protecthutan.com, so it's easier to track them down. In fact, some planted 15,000 mangroves in just one area, namely in Pinrang, Sulawesi, to celebrate Jimin BTS's birthday," said Nurul, who was amazed at the large number of trees planted.
He said, at the bottom of the map there is a chart showing which fandom has planted the most trees. The chart features trophy images in gold, silver, and bronze colors. So far the top spot is ARMY, who have planted more than 44,000 trees in various countries, including Indonesia, South Korea, Israel and India. Followed by EXO-L with more than 9,600 trees and NCTzen with more than 8,600 trees.
"We hope that this chart will generate good competition between fandoms so that they continue to plant or adopt trees to beat the number of trees planted by other fandoms. In addition, we hope that this tree planting activity will be the first step to do something much bigger with a bigger impact, such as protecting indigenous peoples. Not only done by one fandom, but a combination of many fandoms," said Nurul, optimistic. (www.kpopchart.net)
