Forests are essential to climate change mitigation and adaptation, serving as carbon sinks, regulating water systems, and acting as buffers against extreme climatic events.
In this regard, AFoCO is launching a new Living Lab for climate change adaptation, adopting a landscape-level, real-world experimentation approach through multi-stakeholder engagement. This initiative is supported by the National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS) of the Republic of Korea under the AFoCO-NIFoS long-term partnership since 2015. As the first step, AFoCO is pleased to announce the “Climate Change Adaptation Working Group Establishment,” scheduled to take place from 29 to 30 September 2025 in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
The Meeting will invite 15 AFoCO Member Countries actively involved in climate change adaptation in the forestry and land-use sectors, including Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Republic of Korea (represented by NIFoS), Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Viet Nam. Other Member Countries are welcome to participate voluntarily at their own cost. Each country is kindly requested to nominate one (1) official.
Selection preference will be given to nominees who:
- Demonstrate a clear commitment to advancing climate adaptation planning, research, or implementation in their home country;
- Are affiliated with institutions involved in policy formulation, research, or field-level project execution related to climate change and forest management; and
- Are actively involved in the activities of the Climate Change Adaptation Working Group or contribute to strengthening regional collaboration under the Asian Forest Living Lab Initiative.
For any inquiries, please contact Ms. Soozin Ryang (Email: [email protected]), Team Leader, Capacity-Building and Evaluation Team.