Background
Asia is Earth’s largest and most populous continent, covers
an area of 44,579,000㎢, about 30% of Earth's total land
area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. The continent,
which has long been home to the majority of the human
population, was the site of many of the first civilizations.
Asia is notable for not only its overall large size and
population, but also dense and large settlements, as well
as vast barely populated regions. Its 4.5 billion people
constitute roughly 60% of the world's population.
Recently,
its economy is growing rapidly led by a rising middle
class but it faces major policy challenges: inequality,
uncertain land tenure, unsustainable land use, a loss
of biodiversity, food insecurity and climate change. In
addition, agricultural expansion in Southeast Asia threatens
the world’s third-largest tropical forest and the many
ecosystem services they provide. And unsustainable land-use
change including fires in peatland has made the region
one of the world’s largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
Those
deforestation and forest degradation have resulted in
both environmental damages of soil erosion, land degradation
and biodiversity loss and socio-economic damages of insecure
food, water and health, as well as the loss of cultural
identity/dignity to the people. In order to mitigate and
combat those emerging challenges, especially, public research
institutes and universities among various stakeholders
have been proceeded significant efforts. Universities
and other kinds of publicly funded research institutions
constitute important sources of knowledge for innovation
activities in forestry and forest related sectors.
Researchers
working in publicly funded institutions and universities
usually share the knowledge they generate with other researchers
via publications or presentations and discussions at the
international meetings. And in many cases, public research
establishments closely cooperate and create knowledge
jointly. However, little is known until currently about
cooperation within the forest academic and R/D sectors
in Asian regions. To achieve the targets of Sustainable
Development Goals, it is underlined to collaborate with
many stakeholders including academia, non-government organizations
and local community.
To
develop the network among forest related institutions
(e.g. research institutes, universities, non-government
organizations) in Asian region, related organizations
were invited and shared their ideas. The aim of this program
was the Asia Forest Research Network will be launched
in the 15th World Forestry Congress in Seoul, Korea in
2021.
Objectives
The
objectives of this program were:
