Deputy Minister Tae-hun Nam of the Korea Forest Service (KFS) participated in the 14th ROK-Central Asia Cooperation Forum held on November 30, 2021, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Deputy Minister Nam introduced Korean forest sector’s ODA projects in Central Asia and asked for active participation in the XV World Forestry Congress (WFC) to be held on May 2-6, 2022, in Seoul, Korea.

The ROK-Central Asia Cooperation Forum is a foreign ministerial-level forum launched in 2007. This year, the forum discussed over future cooperation direction between Korea and five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) in forest, health, and digital sectors to aim economic recovery in the post-COVID era.

During the forest session, the KFS and forest governmental agencies of the five Central Asian countries and the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) participated and reconfirmed the importance of forest restoration in drylands of Central Asia and enhancing forest cooperation.

Also, Deputy Minister Tae-hun Nam held a bilateral meeting with Mr. Naim Nabizoda, Deputy Head of the Forestry Agency under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan. Both sides agreed to strengthen cooperation to continuously promote ROK-Tajikistan forest cooperative projects.

The KFS is currently carrying out an ODA project in Tajikistan, which provides about 2 billion won for the period of 2019-2022 to support nurseries, saxual forestation, and pistachio plantation to generate income of the local communities in Tajikistan.

Deputy Minister Nam stated that the 14th ROK-Central Asia Cooperation Forum became an opportunity to reinforce forest cooperation with all five Central Asian countries, and hopes to further discuss forest restoration in drylands during the XV World Forestry Congress (WFC) to be held in May 2022.