President Moon Jae-in pledged Monday to work together with the international community to conserve forests.

Moon made the remark in a keynote speech at the opening of the 15th World Forestry Congress in Seoul, saying South Korea experienced forest destruction during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea and the 1950-53 Korean War.

"Based on our experience of restoring forests through solidarity and cooperation, we will actively participate in the international community's efforts to conserve and grow forests," he said.

Moon said the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of coexisting with nature and lamented that the world is losing some 4.7 million hectares of forest a year, an area equivalent to 80 times the size of Seoul.

He underlined the importance of cooperation between advanced and developing nations, saying South Korea plans to more than double its official development assistance by 2030 and provide financial assistance to developing nations to help them restore their forests.

He also said South Korea will do its best to grow its own forests as part of its push to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Moon noted South Korea is home to one of only two "seed vaults" in the world and compared it to a "modern-day Noah's Ark," where the genetic resources of all plants are preserved in case of a natural or nuclear disaster on a global scale.

"(The seed vault) represents the hearts of all of us who think of future generations and love the Earth," he said. (Yonhap)