Students from Southeast Asia and Korea participated in a weeklong workshop in mid-August to build long-lasting connections in forest conservation and sustainable development.

The 2015 ASEAN-Korea Youth Network Workshop, held in Korea and Indonesia from Aug. 10-18, provided opportunities for 100 undergraduate and graduate students to engage and learn from each other, as they are expected to lead environment-conscious development in the next generation.

With ASEAN and Korea becoming progressively intertwined through diplomacy, commerce and culture, cooperation in green growth and responsible forestry is likely to present new challenges and opportunities on both sides. 

“The venue will allow you future leaders to learn about your different cultures, experiences and thinking regarding forests,” said the ASEAN-ROK Forest Cooperation executive director Hadisusanto Pasaribu in a speech at Soopchewon training center in Gangwon Province on Aug. 10.

The organization was launched in November 2011 to facilitate cooperation between ASEAN member states and Korea in the rehabilitation of deforested areas, climate adaptation, biodiversity conservation, institutional capacity building and technology transfer.

Pasaribu added, “Protecting forests requires actions beyond borders, but the regional and global cooperation should also reflect the realities and needs of local communities.”

The workshop was launched in 2012 by the ASEAN-Korea Center to promote two-way exchange of communication and education.

Part of the program included a visit to the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta on Aug. 14, where ASEAN Secretariat Secretary-General Le Luong Minh and ASEAN-Korea Center Secretary-General Kim Young-sun spoke on the importance of bilateral cooperation. 

The ASEAN region has 20 percent of the world’s forest and 40 percent of its biological species, from which many low-income people obtain food, water, medicine and energy for basic living.

Although the region is growing rapidly as the world’s seventh-largest economy, with a GDP of $3.6 trillion, its development model is unsustainable, as it relies on exploiting natural resources at great environmental and social cost. Southeast Asia has lately lost more than 1 million hectares of forest annually through mining, illegal logging, farmland clearances and oil palm expansion.

ASEAN has looked for new solutions to deliver growth with reduced carbon emissions and poverty and improved energy efficiency. 

Korea, whose mountains and landscapes were stripped bare during the 20th century, is currently modeled after for ASEAN’s green growth initiatives.

Korea’s “Saemaul Undong” rural development model, which had diligence, self-help and cooperation as its main mantras, contributed significantly to the country’s green transformation. As a broad-based social movement, the Saemaul Undong demonstrated the need to incorporate the public in a nationwide program ― an experience ASEAN is keen to replicate back home. 

According to the ASEAN-ROK Forest Cooperation, strengthening “natural capital” ― which is critical to long-term economic viability ― requires a holistic partnership between government, business and society, employing policies, regulations, investment and civic participation.

Pasaribu, in a lecture on Aug. 11 in Korea, noted the historic resolution targeting sustainable forest management adopted at the 11th United Nations Forum on Forests in May, which was attended by 125 member states, including 30 forest ministers and vice ministers.

A ministerial declaration from the forum recognized the need to include forest issues in international meetings, such as the Addis Ababa Conference on Financing for Development, the U.N. summit for the post-2015 development agenda and the Paris Climate Change Conference.

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)