Ryu Kwang-su, director general of the international affairs bureau at the Korea Forest Service, talked about the global community’s efforts for anti-desertification and Korea’s related activities during an interview with The Korea Herald this week.

The government official stressed the importance of global efforts to prevent deserts, saying it is more effective than restoring them ex post facto.

The following are questions and answers from the interview.

Q: The 10th U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification was held in Korea in 2011. What is the UNCCD?

A: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is one of three major environment-related agreements of the U.N., along with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. The very first negotiation was initiated at the Rio summit in 1992 to provide a frame for regional and international cooperation to prevent desertification. The UNCCD was established two years later in June, 1994 and Korea joined in 1999 in a bid to ease drought damages by providing international financial and technical support to affected areas.

Q: What are the benefits of hosting the UNCCD conference in Korea?

A: This was a great opportunity for Korea to inform the international community about its forestation policy. After Korea held the conference, the international community including the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization started to express interest in Korea’s experience in forestation plans and to demand that such cases be shared with other developing countries.

After Korea hosted the conference and set several model examples in forestation, Korea gained a higher status in the international environmental forum. We now have a rising number of requests, calling for our opinion on environmental issues including forest. I also feel that our suggestions are being appreciated in the global community.

Q: Korea is apparently involved in various activities in the UNCCD, other than hosting the conference. Could you tell us about them?

A: At the 10th conference of the UNCCD in 2011, Korea announced the Changwon Initiative, which included three parts such as creating a solid scientific foundation, enriching partnership and presenting the “Land for Life” Award.

Through the Changwon Initiative and the Land for Life Award, Korea has supported sustainable land management and a set of soil health promotion campaigns. This came in line with projects to prevent desertification in Central and South America and to combat yellow dust in Northeast Asia.

The reason that the international community is taking such a keen interest in afforestation is because of the crucial role of land in human society. Unless land problems are properly addressed, they will trigger other problems such as food security and health and poverty issues.

Korea is expected to work as a regional hub in Asia and create strong collaborative partnerships such as those with Northeast Asia DLDD Network and Greening Drylands Partnership in a bid to restore degraded lands.

Q: A number of international cooperative projects are currently being implemented. Are there any more activities led by the Korea Forest Service?

A: The Korea Forest Service has long been paying attention to the international desertification problems and has taken actions to solve the issue since 1997. For instance, the KFS kicked off the “Green Belt Project in Korea and Mongolia” in 2007, hoping to protect 3,000 hectares of desert areas in Mongolia by year 2016.

Q: I heard that there are several events scheduled for this week, related to the UNCCD.

A: The Consultative Panel on Land Degradation Neutral World is to be held in Korea from June 26 to 27. This event is to monitor land degradation and seek sustainable development. During the upcoming event, panels will call for the international community to take actions on imminent land problems.

The interim report of Economics on Land Degradation initiative is also scheduled to be released in June 27 at Seoul National University and the UNCCD member state meeting will be held June 28 and 29.

Q: How should the Korean people respond to this issue?

A: Forests, which cover 64 percent of our land, are relatively well protected and the Korean people are not highly aware of the seriousness of desertification. However, Korean forests have also suffered from serious droughts and floods.

Desertification has become a serious environmental issue as the range of damage is expanding by the year. In the 1980s, the average number of days that Korea was hit with yellow dust was 3.9 days but the figure increased to 7.7 days in the 1990s and to 12.4 days in the 2000s. As shown in the data, the number of days hit with yellow dust are on the rise and this is mainly due to desertification in China and Mongolia.

Compared to other natural disasters such as earthquake, tsunami and heavy rain, desertification is predictable as well as preventable. And preventing desertification is more cost- and technology-effective than restoring deserts afterwards. We need to plant more trees to improve land productivity for making our environment better for every life on earth.

By Lee Kwon-hyung (kwonhl@heraldcorp.com)

Intern reporter Choi In-jeong contributed to this report. ― Ed.