The Korea Forest Service will host the 15th World Forestry Congress at Coex in Seoul for five days from May 24 to 28 next year, under the theme of “Building a green, healthy and resilient future with forests.”

It is the first time in 40-some years for the congress to take place in the Asia-Pacific region. Indonesia was the last Asian country to bring the international conference to the Asian region in 1978.

The WFC is the world’s largest conference on forestry, where stakeholders from the private and public sectors, non-governmental organizations, civic groups, academic circles and the general public gather together to discuss and make decisions on forest-related issues. International plans and declarations on forest-related issues are made at the conference.

The event is held every six years under the auspices of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization since the first congress in 1926.

The upcoming global event, which will be organized by the KFS in cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, will invite around 10,000 experts and representatives from 160 nations. The participants to the international congress will continue to address forest issues, including effects of the ongoing climate emergency, biodiversity, forest restoration and many others.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals, UN Forest Strategy, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the Paris Agreement, and the post-2020 global biodiversity framework are also expected to be on the table for discussion.

The upcoming event will include plenary sessions where all participants would come together to discuss pressing issues in the forestry sector.

The conference will also include high-level meetings of international leaders to discuss forestry issues that require international coordination.

During the ministerial dialogues, government officials will share their forest-related policies and their after-effects.

There will also be parallel sessions where experts from more than hundreds of nation around the globe come to discuss six different topics in the forestry sector.

The six different topics include, “Turning the tide: reversing deforestation and forest degradation”; “Nature-based solutions for climate-change adaptation and mitigation and biodiversity conservation”; “The green pathway to growth and sustainability”; “Forests and human health: revisiting the connections”; “Managing and communicating forest information and knowledge”; and “Forests without boundaries: enhancing management and cooperation.”

Participants to the conference can also go to exhibitions that will showcase forest-related policies and research conducted by governments of different nations, international organizations and private sector bodies. State-of-the-art equipment and technologies related to the forestry sector will be also introduced in exhibitions during the conference.

On May 26, there will be field trips through which participants to the conference can visit nearby forests and facilities.

Those who want to join the congress can purchase tickets on the official website: www.wfc2021korea.org.

By Shim Woo-hyun and Lee Kwon-hyoung (ws@heraldcorp.com) (kwonhl@heraldcorp.com)