Since 2018, AFoCO has been facilitating donation activities to support capacity building in the forestry sector of AFoCO member countries, especially the transfer of proven technology. Towards this endeavor, various types of forestry equipment and machines have been generously contributed to the AFoCO RETC as well as member countries who have expressed specific interest in acquiring certain items.
On 2 May 2022, at the 15th World Forestry Congress held in Seoul, the Republic of Korea, Korea Forest Welfare Institute (FoWI) has generously donated fifty-nine (59) units of computers to further promote capacity building and to foster the transfer of proven technology for sustainable forest management, as well as to booster cooperation and solidarity for forest welfare services in Asia. The donation ceremony was held at Glad Hotel Gangnam Coex Center and was attended by FoWI, AFoCO Secretariat, and the Yeongju National Forest Office of Korea Forest Service.
The Korea Forest Welfare Institute (FoWI) is a public organization under the Korea Forest Service, which was established in 2016 based on the Forest Welfare Promotion Act (Article 49) to meet the growing demand of the people of ROK for forest welfare. Since then, FoWI has been proactively carrying out forest welfare projects to improve people’s health and quality of life, by providing customized forest welfare services, operating a green fund project using lottery funds to practice universal forest welfare, and fostering forest welfare experts. FoWI has also been operating the Forest Welfare Research and Development Center to enhance scientific research through verification of the effectiveness of forest welfare and applying them in the private sector.
Executive Director Mr. Ricardo L. Calderon expressed sincere appreciation to FoWI for the donation, emphasizing that the donation will undoubtedly contribute to and assist AFoCO and its Member Parties’ continuous efforts to foster sustainable forest management and boost cooperation and solidarity for forest welfare services. The Secretariat will proceed to facilitate the delivery of the computers to AFoCO projects as necessary to support the projects in Member Parties.
Submitted by Assistant Program Officer, CHA Ji Yea
