The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and its Korean counterpart are committed to strengthening cooperation in the forestry sector via a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in the near future.
This commitment was made during a working meeting between Minister Veng Sakhon and Korean Minister Nam Sung-Hyun at the Forest Vision Centre in Seoul, Korea on August 2.
Sung-Hyun said currently South Korea had 63 per cent of forest land, with two thirds managed by the private sector and one third by the state.
Over the past 50 years, the Korean government implemented policies to cultivate, manage and maintain forests.
To date, the ministry has been cooperating with 37 countries, including Cambodia, which Sung-Hyun plans to visit at the end of this month to strengthen relations and cooperation.
Meanwhile, Sakhon shared information about Cambodia’s forest cover, reforestation policy, forest management, maintaining and conservation, forest business and forest benefits, and non-timber forest products, especially community forests.
Sakhon urged the Cambodian Forestry Administration to continue paying attention to cooperations with the Ministry of Forestry of Korea on technical work and human resource training.
He also instructed Keo Omalis, the government delegate in charge of the ministry’s Forestry Administration, to prepare documents for bilateral discussions as well as support from the Korean forestry ministry for the future development of Cambodia's forests.
Sakhon expressed appreciation for the cooperation and support from the Korean side for the development of Cambodia's forests in the past.
In response, Sung-Hyun said, "In fact, our two countries have already signed an MoU in 2008, but [was affected] due to the trend of economic and social development throughout the world, including our country. We should update the main content of the 2008 MoU."
The content of the agreement speaks about the continuation of help to develop greenhouse gas reduction projects from deforestation and forest deficit REDD+ and studies on forest resources and forest land, and Mekong-Korea Forest project review and training for Cambodian forestry officials at the Korea National Open University.
