CIFAL Jeju hosted International Workshop on Sustainable Tourism and Forest Management

in the Asia-Pacific Region

27 March 2018, Jeju, Republic of Korea – CIFAL Jeju convened a workshop, Sustainable Tourism and Forest Management in the Asia-Pacific region, in Jeju from 20 to 23 March in collaboration with United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. 32 participants consisting of government officials (central, state and local), NGO workers and private company representatives participated in this event from 13 different countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This event, particularly focusing on sustainable tourism in relation with forest management, was significantly meaningful for many developing countries which are suffering the effects of forest loss.

Countries represented in the workshop included Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Republic of Korea. The event served as a platform to build capacities on sustainable tourism and develop strategies to address problems arising from mass development in a sustainable manner. This workshop on sustainable tourism and forest management has successfully been completed stressing the importance of sustainable forest management.

Six resource persons consisting of researchers, experts in international organizations and policy developers were invited from all around the world for this workshop; Mr. Javier Hernandez Rodriguez from City of Malaga; Dr. Yeong-Hyeon Hwang from Dong-A University; Dr. Ho Sang Kang from Seoul National University; Mr. Sung-gil Lee from UNDP, Mr. Albert Teo from Global Ecotourism Network. These resource persons brought their knowledge and expertise on tourism policies and forest management and provided valuable feedback and comments on case studies presented by the participants.

The lecture and group activities focused on key topics including global trends of sustainable tourism within the framework of SDGs; the basic concept and understanding of forest management; poverty reduction and environmental protection through ecotourism; tourism management strategies for sustainable tourist destinations; reforestation of degraded land; forest biodiversity conservation.

During the workshop, all the participants planted trees on the hill in the back of Jeju International Training Center to join the efforts of protecting forests and promote awareness on forest management. Also, this workshop provided a field visit to various touristic spots where participants can experience the mechanisms of forest management through ecotourism in Jeju. In particular, the participants were able to experience community-based tourism cases in Jeju through the visit to places such as “Olle Trail Course 7”, “Sunhul Dongbak Dongsan” and “Hannam Experimental Forests”.