KFS hosted an international symposium on combating desertification in the northeast Asian region

The Korea Forest Service (KFS) announced on the 3rd that the KFS held the ‘International Symposium on Combating Desertification and Sand and Dust Storms (SDS) in the Northeast Asian Region’ at the National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS).

In the symposium, policy decision makers from China and Mongolia, and the experts from United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC) and Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) attended and discussed the policy trends and research accomplishments regarding desertification prevention and SDS reduction.

Furthermore, the Northeast Asia Network for Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought (DLDD-NEAN) Steering Committee Meeting will be held tomorrow to come up with measures to promote cooperation in desertification prevention and SDS reduction based on the discussions held today.

DLDD-NEAN is an organization that was launched at the 10th Conference of Parties (COP10) of UNCCD in 2011 based on the proposal of Korea to China and Mongolia in order to strengthen cooperation on combating desertification and SDS in the Northeast Asian region.

Currently, Korea, China, Mongolia, and Russia are members of the network, and the Steering Committee meeting is held every year in rotation among the member states to identify regional cooperation projects and monitor desertification trends in the Northeast Asian region.

Deputy Minister the KFS said, “I hope that this international symposium will further promote the cooperation in combating desertification and SDS, through activities such as joint research and new cooperation projects among the Northeast Asian countries.”