By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Both South and North Korea will benefit from forestation projects in the North, a lawmaker said Monday.
With the vision for a green North Korea, Rep. Chung Doo-un insisted local businesses would spend less on carbon credits likely to be enforced here from 2013.
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker said forestation would also better protect North Korean residents from damage caused by torrential flooding that hits the region annually.
``Approximately 1.63 million hectares of forest in the North has been destroyed over the past decades partly due to the lack of an effective policy response. Residents suffer as a result of the poor forestation as their lives are directly exposed to the natural disaster,'' Chung said.
He said deluge destroyed farmland, roads and bridges, and this would consequently increase the cost of unification which South Korea would shoulder in the future.
Chung will discuss the matter at a seminar Tuesday, along with government officials and experts from the private and civic sectors.
Jung Tae-yong, a senior economist at the Asian Development Bank, will present the so-called Afforestation and Reforestation in the Clean Development Mechanism (A/R CDM)-based forestry project at the seminar.
Rep. Chung said South Korean businesses would be better off, saying ``businesses can obtain carbon credits, also known as Certified Emission Reductions, through the forestry plantation project.''
Under the Kyoto Protocol, South Korea is expected to be one of the countries required to meet obligatory greenhouse gas reduction from 2013.
From that time, South Korean businesses emitting Co2 will be able to buy and sell carbon credits, both on the national and international markets.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol runs an exception clause for green businesses in the developed world.
The CDM allows advanced countries to meet a part of their greenhouse gas reduction obligations through offset projects such as forestation in developing countries.
Therefore, if South Korean businesses plant trees in the North, they will be eligible for credits, which would cut costs for purchasing credits.
Under the CDM, a forest refers to an area covering 0.05-1 hectares of trees with a height of at least between 2-5m, and a crown density of 10-30 percent.
Rep. Chung called for all sectors ― government, businesses and civil society ― to act right away to set leafy green forests in place in the northern neighbor before 2013.
Despite the years old effort, experts said barriers such as North Korean leader's lukewarm attitude had held back the green North Korea projects in the past.
The Kyoto Protocol requires the host country, South Korea, to establish a designated national authority to oversee the CDM.
South Korean officials should sit down with their North Korean counterparts to reach an agreement on the details of the institution, officials said.
Skeptics said worsened inter-Korean relations would make it difficult for the South to have its northern counterpart participate in the joint efforts.