Forestry expert seeks to make Asia greener

Lee Yeong-joo

By Choi Kyong-ae

Lee Yeong-joo, 50, has built his career in forest restoration and protection for the past three decades and now pushes forward an ambitious project to make Asia greener.

He has served as coordinator for the ASEAN-Korea Forest Cooperation Secretariat (AFoCo) since August 2012 when the Seoul-headquartered international organization began operations with an aim to help rehabilitate and protect destroyed forests of the countries in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“In the past four years, we (AFoCo) focused on two things. One is we have offered education and field study programs in Korea to some 200 forestry experts and government officials from 11 ASEAN member states,” said Lee.

“In the other, we have sent teams of experts to some of the Southeast Asian countries to perform reforestation and rehabilitation jobs in forests devastated by fires, construction or climate changes.”

The funds needed for these efforts are largely financed by the Korean government with the 11 ASEAN states sharing a small portion of the expenses, the coordinator said.

For his ambitious life-time goal, Lee hopes to expand restoration and protection projects across the whole of Asia and to add countries such as China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Bhutan as AFoCo members in the long term.

“Desertification is going on in some parts of Asia. Asia’s emerging countries are struggling with the after effect of forest fires and yellow dust. We want to spend our energy and funds for sustainable forest management in Asia,” he said.

His interest in forest restoration and protection dates back to his teenage years in the 1980s. His father was a professor who taught stock breeding at a local university and he came to know friends of his father who were also involved in agricultural studies and industries.

“My exposure to the environment inspired me apply for the department of forestry at Sunchon National University. I earned a PhD in forest science at Seoul National University in 2007,” he said. “During my SNU graduate school years, I found that Korea will have an increasing role in the fields of forest recreation and protection based on its expertise in forest rehabilitation.”

Korea is renowned for its successful rehabilitation work of forest for the shortest period of 25 years up to 1987 across the country since the 1950-53 Korean War that tore the country apart.

In short-term projects, AFoCo plans to build the $15 billion regional education and training center in Myanmar by December to foster forestry experts. It also plans a comprehensive restoration project on destroyed forests in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, he said.

Forestry seem to dominate much of his time but he tries to balance his life between work and family.

“At home, I enjoy playing the violin with my wife and daughter, who play the piano and another violin, respectively. My son sings to the melodies we make with our instruments,” he said.