On May 10, the Korea Forest Service (Director Choi Byung-am) held an "official launch of the Business for Land (B4L) Initiative," a new platform for land, and Woori Financial Group (Chairman Son Tae-Seung) declared its support.
* B4L Initiative: An initiative to expand activities to neutralize land waste, such as anti-dissertation afforestation, through partnerships with the UNCCD and businesses.
* United Nations Convention on the Prevention of Desertification (UNCCD): The Climate Change Convention, the Biodiversity Convention, and the United Nations Three Environmental Conventions signed in 1994; now, 197 member states.
* Land Degradation Neutrality: A state in which the amount and quality of land resources are required to provide ecosystem functions and services and maintain food security within a given specific time, space, and ecosystem.
In October last year, on the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Changwon Initiative, the Korea Forest Service proposed to the UNCCD Secretariat the necessity of "building a partnership in which companies participate in the neutralization of land", and as a result, it was officially launched as a "B4L Initiative" at the 15th General Assembly.
* Changwon Initiative: The initiative proposed by Korea at the 10th General Assembly of the UNCCD in 2011 supports establishing a scientific foundation and partnership construction pilot project related to land abolition neutrality.
On May 2, Woori Financial Group signed a business agreement with the Korea Forest Service for "carbon neutral activities and mutual cooperation in environmental, social, and transparent management (ESG management)" at the World Forest Conference event.
* ESG: When evaluating a company's value, it refers to a comprehensive measurement of non-financial factors such as environment (E), society (S), and governance (G), as well as traditional financial factors
Sohn Tae-Seung, chairman of Woori Financial Group, said in a declaration of support for the B4L initiative at the 15th UNCCD General Assembly Business Forum, "We will actively participate in anti-desertification and neutralization activities to achieve sustainable development goals."
Park Eun-Sik, an international forest cooperation officer, said, "This event is a starting point for companies to participate in land waste prevention activities with the Korea Forest Service and international organizations." He added, "The Korea Forest Service will provide a channel and a window for the private sector to participate through the Changwon Initiative."
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