The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification said on Sunday it will hold an official ceremony on Monday, an event that comes seven days after the opening ceremony of its 10th Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD.

Under the theme “Care for Land, Land for Life,” senior officials from governments and international organizations will gather in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province to hold meetings mainly focused on discussing DLDD (drought, land degradation and desertification) and food security.

UN General Assembly president Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser and UNCCD secretary-general Luc Gnacadja will join the forum and are expected to propose ways to help raise corporate awareness on DLDD.

Other high-level officials planning to take part in the meeting include Ahmed Djoghlaf from UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Achim Steiner from the UN Environment Programme and Michael Jarraud from the World Meteorological Organization.

South Korea is the first country to hold the UNCCD event in the Asian region.

The officials from Korea Forest Service, a state organization which works in collaboration with the UNCCD for the conference, said hosting the international event is deeply meaningful at a time when 37 percent of the land in Asia faces the threat of desertification.

Moving in line with the forum, KFS will introduce its long-waited Changwon Initiative, a series of restoration plans that cover Asia and Africa.

Minister of KFS, Lee Don-koo, said he will strongly push the action plan by working closely with UNCCD and UNEP.

Lee also emphasized the importance of cooperation between governments and land users for any agendas at the meetings to be carried out.

“Not a single country is safe from this serious land degradation and desertification process,” he added at the opening ceremony on Wednesday.

Regarding the government cooperation, the minister earlier said he would call for North Korea’s participation but the North refused to join at the last minute, KFS officials told the Korea Herald.

With 170,000 hectares of its forest area having been cut in the last 10 years, North Korea has been asking for assistance on restoring its forests.

The North had been hinting at their interest to sign up for the forum since August but it eventually declined despite the continued efforts by KFS.

Around 3,000 experts and high-level government officials from 194 nations are joining the UNCCD forum. Other business forums along with side events are scheduled to be held through Oct. 21.

Over the past years, the UNCCD has made efforts to seek hands-on measures against desertification problems. This year’s forum came 14 years after the first forum in 1997 in Rome.

By Monica Suk (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)