International DMZ Forum on Ecosystem services
Dr Rudolf de Groot, Chairperson of ESP and Dr Hyun-Ah Choi, Senior Researcher of the Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea.
On 14th June 2017 the first “International Forum on Ecosystem services – Connecting People and Nature for Peace” took place at DMZ Eco-Tour centre in Paju city, ROK organized by ESP ARO and Gyeonggi Province.
The children from Gunnae Elementary School in the border village of Tongil, Paju played recorder to celebrate the forum. Dr. Rudolf de Groot, the Chairperson of ESP, Prof. Osamu Sito, United Nations University, Dr. Lan Li, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Several Korean experts from different national institutes, universities, central and local governors together with stakeholders participated in the forum. Dr. Hyun-Ah Choi, Senior researcher of Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) Korea also participated in the panel discussion at the forum.
Dr. de Groot talked about the trends in policy and practice of ecosystem system services assessment and natural capital management. He introduced new policies and institution, capacity building programme for Ecosystem Service (ES). He also mentioned databases on ES indicators, assessment agency, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), and case studies. Dr. Li presented the ES framework in China and Sponge city construction based on ES at national level. Dr. Saito explained IPBES framework and strategies and Dr. Taekgu Kang, Korea Environment Institute, talked about North-South Korea nature conservation through international conservation.
The speakers, experts and participants discussed for future steps and proposed cooperative projects; i) ES assessment in DMZ focus on cultural services, and ii) Yu-Do (island) project – Nature for Peace. ESP ARO will organize the new projects with several partner organizations. HSF will support and take part for the cooperative projects in transboundary area.