XXIII IUFRO World Congress

The forest is vanishing. The forest, the lung of the earth, is being destroyed by reckless development, logging, abnormal climate changes, and other destructive factors, leading to global warming, loss of biodiversity, desertification, and other serious environmental problems.

Held from August 23 to 28, 2010 at the COEX, Seoul, under the joint sponsorship of the Korea Forest Service and Korea Forest Research Institute and under the theme of “Forests for the Future: Sustaining Society and the Environment,” the XXIII IUFRO World Congress will discuss the roles and importance of forests and seek ways to facilitate sustainable co-existence of human beings and nature.

IUFRO, established in 1892, is a non-profit, private organization designed to support the world’s forest research institutes in exchanging information and promoting cooperation. Currently, its membership includes approximately 700 research centers and universities from 110 countries, with 15,000 scientists, government officials and experts at international agencies in active service.

At this round of its congress, held every 5 years, 3,000 forest scientists from about 100 countries will present 2,000 theses under 9 academic themes in an effort to attain scientific answers to critical global issues, and will adopt as the Seoul Declaration the results of the discussion among the world’s great scholars on political, economic and social values as well as the roles of forests.

Even though Korea was once turned into ruins by Japanese colonial rule and the Korean War, it is now cited as a world’s outstanding success case which has achieved forest greenification in the shortest possible time unprecedented in world history – by planting 10 billion trees and thus reviving the health of its forests. A commemorative stamp featuring “trees and life” is issued, hoping that this round of IUFRO world congress will uncover ways to heal the ailing earth through forests.

Title: XXIII IUFRO World Congress
Date of Issue: 23 August 2010
Country: South Korea
Denominations: 340 won