Minister vows to spread globally Korea's forestation success

Korea Forest Service Minister Lee Don-koo (fourth from left) and chief delegates from ASEAN member states attend a hand-printing ceremony during the Special ASEAN-Korea Ministerial Meeting on Forestry in Seoul at the end of August. (KFS)

KFS Minister Lee says AFoCO will be locomotive in global green growth

Having gained worldwide recognition through hosting the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification last year, Korea is hoping to make Korea Forest Service a future global hub for green growth.

For KFS Minister Lee Don-koo, a key milestone in the drive for green growth was the establishment of the Asian Forestry Cooperation Organization early this month. The organization is the result of an agreement on forestry cooperation made during the summit between ASEAN and Korea in Bali last November.

AFoCo is the first international organization to deal with cooperation in forestry and the product of Minister Lee's philosophy, officials said.

A former professor of Seoul National University and the former head of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, Lee has gained international recognition in the field of forestry over the past few decades.

In an interview with The Korea Herald on Sept. 21, Lee said that AFoCO can share with the world "the Korean forestry legend of creating something from nothing."

KFS Minister Lee Don-koo

Lee said: "The FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) and many other international organizations depict Korea's image as the world's only country that succeeded in restoring completely destroyed territory into cultivated green areas in the shortest period of time."

Korea has been executing official development assistance projects with Southeast Asian countries for years.

"AFoCO is the emblem of my dream come true. It is ASEAN's first attempt to launch a universal organization on forestry," the commissioner said. "It will certainly be a driving force to achieve renewable growth that matches our country's high reputation in forestry."

Lee stressed that the convening of forest ministers from all ASEAN member countries was unprecedented before Aug. 29, when the two-day "Special Korea and Association of Southeast Asian Nations Ministerial Meeting" on forestry was held in Korea.

The declaration of mutual cooperation among Korea and ASEAN member countries and the inauguration of AFoCO were the biggest achievements of the ministerial convention, he said.

"AFoCO is the embodiment of our perpetual cooperative ties in forestry. We had some practical results from the meeting. The declaration of mutual cooperation officially came into effect on Aug. 5, and the participating countries vowed to adopt the (tentative titled) Seoul Forest Initiative for long-term cooperation."

AFoCO's establishment was first suggested by President Lee Myung-bak in 2009 and brought up again in November last year at the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Meeting hosted in Bali, Indonesia.

Minister Lee said that the Seoul-based international organization is preparing to expand its membership to the entire Asian continent in two years, to include Central and Northeast Asia.

"We are eager to transmit Korea's forestry technology that we have long accumulated," Lee said.

"Asian states, the ASEAN members in particular, hold a high regard for Korea's successful cases of seeding economic development from national forestation. Indonesia, for instance, looks highly on the 'Korean dream in forestry.'"

The minister emphasized that the strong international ties among nations in the forest sector will be even more crucial in the future, especially in securing overseas forestry resources.

"We will also spread this cooperative frontier to Latin America and Africa as well to secure more resources and increase investment among the members.

"We are collaborating on projects to boost domestic investment for forest cultivation in foreign countries. We are looking at stronger organizational support for funding, more extensive corporate consulting service and investment information."

The minister said that Korea will play a leading role in implementing the Changwon Initiative and expanding the range of support for developing countries through AFoCO.

The Korea Forest Service launched a new overseas resources support division in January 2012, for more effective global coordination with its counterparts from other countries.

"We need the new division to nurture more experts and draft major initiatives in the future and hence lead global cooperation," Lee said.

AFoCO consists of the general assembly, the board of directors and the executive office. Upon the completion of the rectification process by all 10 member countries by the first half of 2013, the organization will begin discussing the procedure for finalizing the official structure of its component groups.

According to the KFS head, restoration projects for damaged forests, action against climate change and fostering specialists in forestry will be the immediate issues on the agenda. Some Asian countries such as Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan and Kyrgyzstan will be joining the discussion table in the future, he said.

"The damage to tropical forests is the most severe in Southeast Asia. The KFS is making tremendous efforts to prevent the damage and bring back the green forest," Lee said.

In the ministerial meeting back on Aug. 18, ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan expressed concerns about diminishing tropical forests, noting that 23 million hectares, or about 20 percent of the world's entire forest area, is located in ASEAN territory.

"We must remind ourselves that the ASEAN nations have depended on the forest ― socially, culturally, environmentally and economically," Pitsuwan said. "We also anticipate that AFoCO, an organization created by the Republic of Korea, will become milestone for better preservation and future development of ASEAN's forestry sector."

By Chung Joo-won ( joowonc@heraldcorp.com)< ⓒKoreaHerald(www.koreaherald.com)무단전재 및 재배포 금지 >