By Ha Young-hyo
A recent documentary titled the “21st Century's Displaced Populations, Desertification Refugees,” produced by a local broadcaster, was aired on TV. Vivid pictures in the documentary depict people living in the most deplorable conditions due to severe impacts of desertification and land degradation.
It revealed that land on which lives have been built is degrading and that human-induced activities have led to sand disasters, which are counterattacking us. Multifaceted and trans-boundary impacts of desertification include but not limited to regional poverty, threatening the survival of humankind at an alarming rate.
Having said that, what is desertification? It is commonly thought that this is simply a change of land surface to sand. However, it is not as simple as it seems. Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas due to various factors including climatic variations and human activities. It leads to the loss of arable land, thereby posing a threat to food security and aggravating the poverty of local communities.
Deserts create more deserts. Indiscrete land development deteriorates the productivity of the land and threatens the livelihood of the local people. Again, the local people leave in search for new land. This paradigm of abusive land use and land use change leads to increasing the spread of desertification.
This vicious cycle has placed the earth into a state of emergency desertification. Drought-affected countries in Latin America and Africa are suffering from hunger, and Guatemala ended up declaring a state of emergency. Sandy areas have already blanketed 1 billion hectares in Africa and 1.3 billion hectares in Asia.
What is the key to ending this vicious cycle of desertification? A lot of experts highlight that it is required to promote economic growth, and enhance the vitality of the ecosystem at the same time. In fact, the Korean Peninsula was extremely degraded during and in the aftermath of Japanese colonization and the Korean War. Denuded land entails soil loss and frequent floods caused damage to local livelihoods.
The Korean government has strived to reverse degraded forests through large-scale plantation in a bid to prevent flood impacts and to create green jobs. Its endeavors were respected as a sweaty battle against nature. Most of the elderly in their 60s, 70s and 80s can remember going up to treeless hills and planting with their bare hands. Forests recovered these days are now playing an essential role in pursuing green growth.
The year 2011 was declared the International Year of Forests (IYF) by the United Nations. This observance has stemmed from increasing international recognition that forests hold a key solution for global environment and human lives.
Under the theme of IYF, “Forests for People,” the U.N. is encouraging all countries to publicize tangible benefits of forests and raise awareness on the significance of sustainable forest management. It is rewarding in a way that the international community has brought up the topic of forests which have not received enough attention at the global level.
The UNCCD as one of three Rio Conventions together with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted in 1994 to combat desertification and eradicate poverty. The UNCCD highlights that desertification is not a regional issue but rather a global concern, which calls for multi-layered efforts at national, regional and global levels.
The Korean government, in an attempt to promote the green growth paradigm, is implementing a number of planting projects in East Asia, namely in China, Mongolia and Myanmar. By raising awareness of the local people and encouraging their participation, regional cooperation among affected and neighboring countries may help break the continued chain of adverse effects and bring about a gradual switch from this adverse chain to a favorable one.
The international community has highly recognized Korea's remarkable success in forest rehabilitation as well as its recent efforts to shift toward the green growth paradigm and to implement overseas projects for restoring degraded forests and combating desertification.
The UNCCD Conference of Parties (COP) 10 will be hosted by the Korea Forest Service and South Gyeongsang provincial government from October 10 to 21 for the first time in Asia. It will be a lot more significant, taking into consideration the fact that the Asian region has the largest affected area and greatest number of affected populations. It will provide a platform to channel desertification issues into mainstream as a global issue and strengthen Korea's capacity in terms of international relations, as well as to further promote the green growth for sustainable development.
Human activities have given rise to desertification and it is only humans that can solve and prevent it. As little drops of water make a mighty ocean, Korea's effort to combat desertification and to host the 10th session of the COP shall chart the pathway to relieve the developing nations that are suffering from desertification and hunger.
Ha Young-hyo is deputy minister of Korea Forest Service.