South Korea forged a formal agreement with the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization to provide support to the international body’s headquarters in Seoul, officials said Wednesday.

The headquarters agreement, signed by South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa and AFoCO Executive Director Chencho Norbu, calls on the Korean government facilitating the organization’s operations here and mission of responding to climate change and realizing sustainable forest management. It also recognizes the legal personality, inviolability of the headquarters, and privileges and immunities on legal procedures and its properties as an intergovernmental organization based in Korea.

“AFoCO’s activities and members are in line with the Korean government’s foreign policy with the neighboring countries in Asia. AFoCO is expected to bring Korea’s good practices particularly in forest rehabilitation to another dimension and further strengthen the role of the Republic of Korea in the international communities,”

AFoCO was established on April 27, 2018, to jointly respond to climate change and to realize sustainable development in the forest sector in Asia. It has 13 Asian nations as members.

Based in Yeouido, Seoul, the organization carries out activities for the rehabilitation of degraded forests, protection of forest ecosystems, livelihood improvement in local communities, and capacity building.

Earlier this month, it was granted observer status in the UN General Assembly, further strengthening its status as an international organization.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)