Working with World Bank
Deputy Director Choi Byung-am of the Korea Forest Service signed the Agreement on Joint Forest Cooperation with the World Bank during the Korean Innovation Week at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC, the United States, on Feb. 19.
In this agreement, the two sides strengthened cooperation in forest restoration in developing countries, community forestry conservation and support for the independence of local residents, ecotourism and landscape restoration.
The Korea Forest Service and the World Bank are planning to support community forest preservation and capacity building activities in southern countries such as Myanmar as the first cooperation project. The project will utilize the Korea Green Growth Trust Fund (KGGTF), which the Korean government contributed to the World Bank.
In addition, the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) will take the lead in developing programs through the Regional Education and Training Center (RETC) by taking part in this project.
In the meantime, the Korea Forest Service and the World Bank held the “Innovation & Technology in Forest” Workshop after signing the agreement on the same day.
World Bank officials expressed their keen interest in Korea's successful forest restoration and forest utilization cases presented by the deputy director, saying that Korean forest technology could be applied to forest restoration in developing countries.
In addition, the Korea Forest Service introduced the Peace Forest Initiative (PFI) with it proposed with the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September last year with United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCCD) in order to induce interest and participation in the initiative.