ITTO strengthens partnerships on sustainable tropical forest management in Korea

ITTO Executive Director Sheam Satkuru and Korea Forest Service Deputy Minister Sangsup Lim signed a cooperation arrangement between the two organizations. Photo: Korea Forest Service

14 August 2023: ITTO Executive Director Sheam Satkuru met with leaders of the Korea Forest Service (KFS), the National Institute of Forest Science (NIFS) and the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) in a series of meetings in late July with the aim of strengthening cooperation on sustainable tropical forest management, forest landscape restoration and community development.

In a meeting with the KFS Deputy Minister, Mr Sangsup Lim, in Seoul on 26 July, Ms Satkuru conveyed her condolences to the victims of the recent landslides and flooding in the Republic of Korea. She also expressed appreciation for the successful implementation of the secondment programme established six years ago between ITTO and the KFS, which has helped strengthen ties between the two organizations. Acknowledging the Republic of Korea’s remarkable success in reforestation, Ms Satkuru expressed enthusiasm for further collaboration with the KFS to enhance ITTO’s forest landscape restoration programme, and she welcomed the recent NIFS secondment of Dr Soomin Lee to ITTO in this important area of work.

Mr Lim said he appreciated the close cooperation between the KFS and ITTO since the establishment of a memorandum of understanding between the two organizations in 2016. He recognized the pivotal role that ITTO plays in global forest policy development and emphasized the importance of international cooperation on conservation and development. Mr Lim said the KFS is committed to contributing to international cooperation in restoration, drawing on the country’s 50 years of experience in this field. He said he was confident about reaching agreement on further collaborative work in the near future.

KFS Director General of International Cooperation, Dr Eunsik Park, shared the Republic of Korea’s plans to increase its official development assistance (ODA), in line with the target set by the country’s president. He outlined the general procedure for ODA project development, with the 2024 cycle paving the way for project support to begin in 2025. Dr Park suggested that a new ITTO programme could follow a similar trajectory to the KFS’s successful programmes with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

Ms Satkuru expressed her appreciation for the continued commitment of the KFS to ITTO and said she looked forward to the development of a solid secondment programme in support of sustainable forest management (SFM) in tropical forests in the next two to three years.

In her meeting with NIFS president Dr Jaesoo Bae at NIFS headquarters in Seoul on 25 July, Ms Satkuru acknowledged the vital role that research institutes like the NIFS play in supporting science-based decision-making. She introduced ITTO’s programme lines and priorities and underscored the significance of donor contributions in building capacity for carbon assessment in ITTO producer member countries. Such capacity building is needed, she said, to support the integration of forest contributions into nationally determined contributions and thereby reinforce national efforts to promote SFM.

Dr Bae outlined NIFS’s rich 101-year history of research and collaboration. He expressed optimism about Dr Soomin Lee’s secondment to ITTO to support cooperation between the Republic of Korea and ITTO. He also shared the NIFS’s plans for a national forest resource survey that would leverage a new agriculture-based satellite to be launched by the Republic of Korea in February 2025. He said that NIFS’s research and development can contribute to ITTO’s capacity-building efforts, particularly in forest resource inventory and carbon assessment.

During a meeting at the AFoCO Secretariat in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on 26 July 2023, Ms Satkuru said the extended memorandum of understanding between both organizations has enabled active cooperation, such as on the convening of forest landscape restoration capacity-building workshops. She emphasized the importance of forests in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and highlighted the need for sustainable investment and engagement of the private sector. She spoke about the status of ITTO’s accreditation application proposal for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and expressed interest in exploring carbon-credit-sharing mechanisms to support carbon forestry initiatives.

AFoCO Executive Director Dr Chongho Park stressed the significance of strong partnerships in advancing SFM. He revealed AFoCO’s commitment to providing livelihood solutions for forest-dependent communities and emphasized the importance of diversifying funding sources for sustained support. He asked to stay updated on ITTO’s accreditation application proposal for the GCF.

“The partnerships between ITTO and the KFS, the NIFS and AFoCO in the Republic of Korea presents new opportunities for fostering international cooperation in restoration and community development,” said Ms Satkuru after the meetings. “We are all determined to collaborate and achieve our shared goals in conserving and sustainably managing forests and contributing to global efforts to address climate change and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”