One-third of the earth’s ecosystem consists of forests. And in order to maintain sustainable and harmonious growth, humankind should learn how not to intrude upon their share of the earth, said an official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

“It is the function of the FAO Forestry to lead sustainable forest management both for the current and the future generations,” said Eduardo Mansur, director of the Forest Assessment, Management and Conservation Division of FAO.

“It is now widely understood that forests play a key role in tackling climate change as well as many other environment issues related to land, water and biodiversity.”

It was, however, only in November last year that the U.N. General Assembly proclaimed March 21 as the International Day of Forests.

“Other environment-related commemoration days, such as the World Water Day on March 22, have been in practice for a long time,” he said.

“In the case of forests, however, the given discussion has existed since the 1970s but only took shape over the past few years.”

The role of forests has recently been re-highlighted for their contribution to many other dimensions of human development, such as poverty alleviation, food security, income generation, job creation and sustainable livelihoods.

“This is why the IDF logo is designed in the shape of a heart, representing the interdependent relationship between forests and humankind,” the director said.

One of the key topics at the world forest forum is the Forest Landscape Restoration project, which is also the main issue adopted by Korea Forest Service’s workshop this week.

At a ministerial conference in Germany in 2011, Bonn Challenge was launched as an international forum targeting the restoration of 150 million hectares of degraded land by 2020.

It is significant for Korea to focus on forest restoration as it has been a model example over the past decades, the FAO official said.

“Korea had a relatively small stock of forests and most of it was seriously degraded, especially amid the aftermath of the Korean War,” he said.

“The country has nevertheless proven that economic development and forest restoration may mutually coexist.”

Further, the complex idea of “Green Welfare” promoted by the KFS may possibly suggest a new model for sustainable human development, the director added.

“Forests should be viewed on a socio-economic level. They are part of the territory and thus intimately related to the people who live in it.”

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)