The Korea Forest Service this week held an international symposium in Seoul to enhance public understanding of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), and a meeting of high-level officials on cooperation on the issue in Jeju.

REDD+ schemes are drawing attention worldwide as they support global efforts to combat climate change.

The Korea Herald interviewed Ryu Kwang-su, director general of the International Affairs Bureau of the Korea Forest Service, ahead of these two meetings to hear about Korea’s REDD+ projects overseas.

Following are the questions and answers from the interview.

Q: What is REDD+?

A: REDD+ is a U.N.-led scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving forest management and land use.

REDD is an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. “REDD+” goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

Forest degradation is severe in tropical forests in Southeast Asia, Africa and the equatorial region in South America. Most countries in those areas are developing nations and REDD+ aims to counter climate change, curbing forest degradation and deforestation in those areas.

Q: Do you think the REDD+ efforts can contribute to the mitigation of climate change?

A: About 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are caused by deforestation and forest degradation, through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development, destructive logging, fires and so on. This amount is higher than that from the burning of fossil fuels for transportation.

The forest ecosystem is like a sponge for carbon. So if it is converted into land for housing or factories, or is degraded, the stockpiled carbon will be emitted, increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

In this sense, increasing carbon storage while curbing deforestation will eventually contribute to activities seeking to mitigate climate change.

Q: What is the relationship between REDD+ activities and carbon emission trading?

A: If the amount of carbon secured through REDD+ activities is registered in the market in accordance with international standards calling for monitoring, reporting and verification, carbon credits could be traded in the market at some point.

Q: What are the prospects of approving REDD+ carbon credits at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change conference?

A: In 2012, the 18th UNFCCC conference of parties held in Doha, Qatar, failed to include REDD+ activities in the carbon trading market under the Kyoto Protocol. Accordingly, there is no chance that REDD+ carbon credits will be traded in the market until 2020.

But at the previous conference, the participants agreed on a new regime where all parties must join to reduce greenhouse emissions after 2021. This means REDD+ carbon credits can be included on the list for trading in the new market after that year.

Q: What efforts are the U.N. making to implement REDD+?

A: The U.N.―REDD+ Program Fund broadly supports various projects to prevent deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. This program also supports countries’ efforts to develop their capabilities and verify their fund-raising evaluations, national strategies and forest disappearance.

U.N.-REDD+ supports a total of nine countries: Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia.

Q: What REDD+ projects are the Korean government promoting overseas?

A: The Korea Forest Service is implementing its REDD+ project in the Lombok and Kampar regions of Indonesia. They are pilot projects and eventually aim to trade carbon credits to be secured through the schemes in the market.

This will help the nation increase its carbon stocks and offer a chance to its private companies to advance into the countries where the projects are being pushed.

We hope that the projects will play an important role in helping our country, with a lack of natural resources, to stockpile forest and carbon overseas.

Through the REDD+ project in Lombok, we found that about 27 percent of forests in the region have gotten smaller during the past 13 years.

In Kampar, we are working to mitigate forest carbon emissions by fostering the region’s forest management capabilities in about 14,000 hectares of peat land.

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