Korea and Indonesia have focused their cooperation in three fields ― investing in forest plantations, growing forests for wood pellets, and REDD+ activities to prevent deforestation and degradation.

The Korean government began regular meetings with its Indonesian counterpart on forestry cooperation in 1979 to spur forest resources development and secure the supply line of lumber from the Southeast Asian country.

Since 1993, 12 Korean companies have advanced into Indonesia’s forest plantation business to create 190,400 hectares of forest.

Through an MOU in 2006, the Korean government was also given an additional 500,000 hectares to secure a stable and long-term supply of timber.

In 2009, the two governments also concluded another MOU to develop the forest biomass industry.

The agreement was made as Korean power plants’ demand for wood pellets is expected to soar from 174,000 tons last year to more than 1 million tons in 2017.

Recently, the Korean government has been actively pushing the REDD+ business for Indonesia’s tropical forests.

REDD+ refers to global activities aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by preventing forest degradation and deforestation in developing countries.

The Korea Forest Service, in cooperation with Indonesia’s Forest Ministry, has been promoting the REDD+ project in 14,000 hectares of peatland in Sumatra since 2012. In April this year, the two countries jointly formed a promotion team on REDD+.

In the meantime, Korea International Cooperation Agency, or KOICA, has conducted the pilot REDD+ project in Rombok, Nusa Thengara in eastern Indonesia, since 2009.

The Korea Forest Research Institute is also conducting a feasibility study on the REDD+ project in other forest regions in Rombok.

By Lee Kwon-hyung (kwonhl@heraldcorp.com)