 Lee Don-koo, Korea Forest Service (KFS) Minister |
The Korean government is to build large-sized seedling facilities to help North Korea fight against deforestation, which has accelerated over the past two decades.
Korea Forest Service (KFS) Minister Lee Don-koo made the remarks during a recent interview with The Korea Times to mark the 100th day ahead of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) session to be held here in October.
``By 1996, North Korea lost 1.69 million hectares of forests. Since then, the country has seen additional 1.2 million hectares gone due to reckless logging to sow corn. If we don’t take instant action, the cost to restore the areas would amount to as high as $30 billion,’’ Lee said.
``We will establish large-sized facilities for saplings in the mountains of Gangwon Province. It will take at least three or four years before we will be able to offer young trees to be planted in the North.’’
Currently, the size of North Korean forests is estimated to be 5.7 million hectares, down more than 30 percent from around 8.2 million hectares in 1990. Every year, up to 127,000 hectares of forests disappear there.
The North’s 5.7 million hectares is even smaller than the South’s forest areas of 6.22 million hectares. In consideration of the fact that the former is larger by more than 20 percent, things are serious, according to Lee.
In particular, the 64-year-old professor-turned-bureaucrat said that the KFS will plant chestnut trees and nut pines in the Gangwon mountains.
``If we provide something like pine trees, the chances are that the energy-hungry Northern residents will cut them down for firewood. We need to supply trees that bear fruits like chestnuts or nuts,’’ Lee said.
``I understand that the provision of young trees would involve some political issues. But there are no ideologies or politics as far as forestation is concerned. I hope the two Koreas will deal with the issue urgently.’’
Pyongyang is well aware of how serious its deforestation is and wants to take part in the UNCCD, which will take place in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Oct. 10 to 21.
``The Changwon gathering is the 10th edition of the biennial convention and North Korea has participated in the meeting just once. But it expressed its willingness to be part of this year’s event to UNCCD officials,’’ Lee said.
``I hope that the UNCCD meeting will play the role of enabling close collaboration of the two Koreas in tree-planting campaigns in the North. That is one good way to cut reunification costs.’’
Observers have come up with various estimates on the reunification costs and some have predicted that the figure could reach up to $2 trillion.
