Korea and Indonesia concluded a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the fields of recreational forests and ecotourism on Oct. 11.
The agreement was made between Korea Forest Service Minister Shin Won-sop and his Indonesian counterpart Zulkifli Hasan in Jakarta on the sidelines of the summit between the two countries. Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also attended the signing ceremony.
Seoul officials said the agreement was meaningful in that it would expand bilateral cooperation on forest development to secure energy resources into the service sector including recreation in forests and ecotourism.
Before concluding the agreement, the two countries had signed two MOUs, including Indonesia’s promise to provide a total of 700,000 hectares of land to Korea for forest plantations.
Such a forested area would be equivalent to about 2 million tons of wood pellets and 1 million tons of hard wood.
The two countries have held biennial meetings on forest cooperation since they launched the talks in 1979.
Since then, the two countries established forests in the area of Ache that was devastated by a tsunami in 2004 and a tree nursery near Jakarta to help Indonesia conduct research on seedlings. The two also conducted greenhouse emission rights business to cope with climate change.
This year, Korea and Indonesia opened an eco-edu forest in Sentul near Jakarta to provide Indonesian people with recreational services in forests and education on the importance of forestry.
The Indonesian government has been aggressively promoting the ecotourism projects in Rombok and Bali as part of its economic development master plan called MP3EI.
The Rombok region is hoping for Korean companies’ participation in the ecotourism project. Ecotourism is Rombok’s major industry.
Through the MOU concluded this month, the Korean government plans to deliver its know-how on recreational forests and ecotourism to Indonesia, so that it can spur the growth of the Indonesian economy.
“We expect this MOU to serve as a foundation for Korean companies to launch business in connection with Indonesia’s move to expand its recreational forests and ecotourism,” said Korea Forest Service Minister Shin Won-sop.
By Lee Kwon-hyung ()
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
