Last month I wrote an article about the Green Climate Fund, which is the largest fund for combating environmental problems under the United Nations. According to the past article, South Korea?s Songdo City in Incheon was chosen to be the host for the Green Climate Fund. Recently, another international environmental action was conducted in Incheon. On November 15th, 2012, the East Asia Biodiversity Symposium(a.k.a. KAST International Symposium) was held in Incheon University.

The East Asia Biodiversity Symposium aimed to seek for transnational collaborations for researching about East Asia?s biodiversity issues. Due to climate change, deforestation, desertification, excessive industrialization and urbanization, the biodiversity in the East Asian region is rapidly becoming destructed. However East Asia has been the paradise for diverse organisms for decades. One example is the De-Militarized Zone(DMZ) in Korea. The Korean DMZ is the region that splits the borders of South and North Korea, each reaching 2 kilometers from the Military Demarcation Line. Since entrance or moving around in the DMZ is strictly restricted, the DMZ has been left untouched by any humane inteference, and is preserving its natural unpolluted state. Therefore a variety of animals and plants were able to inhabit the area, but to preserve this biodiversity regardless of external dangers international cooperation is needed, and this is why the East Asia Biodiversity Symposium was held last week.

At the conference, experts such as Professor Houhun Li of Nankai University, Professor Badamdorj Bayartogtokh of National University of Mongolia, Le Xuan Canh Head of Vietnam Institute of Ecology and Biological Resource, and Vice President Park Kyu Taek of KAST gave lectures on the issue. Thanks to these speeches and fruitful debates about East Asia?s biodiversity issues, the conference ended with profitable conclusions and proposed positive directions for preserving biodiversity in East Asia.