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영어

Each mountain village has its own peculiar ecosystem composed of human society, forest and various living things. Usually, human activities deeply affect forest. An example would be that poor residents often damage forest in order to maintain their livelihood. For the sustainable development of mountainous regions in developing countries, it is required to prepare development strategies that meet cultural and ecological characteristics of the region. To meet such requirement, United Nations recently suggested SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) which are the collection of 17 global goals covering most aspects of human life. The SDGs are considered as representative guidelines of ODA (Official Development Assistance). The purpose of this talk is to seek interdisciplinary cooperation to achieve SGD1, 'No Poverty' especially in mountainous regions. The first step of it is to share experience of KOPIA (Korea Program on International Agriculture) implemented by Korean government. To reduce rural poverty and to guarantee food security by increasing agricultural productivity, RDA (Rural Development Administration) has established 21 KOPIA centers all over the world. Those centers has been trying to develop and distribute regionally appropriate agricultural technology. Although the activities of KOPIA are mainly focused on agricultural areas, KOPIA also has a lot of experience in mountainous areas and highlands where many low-income farmers live. For example, KOPIA has introduced techniques to grow vegetables which is suitable to cooler climate. And KOPIA has often built virus free seed-potato production base in highlands. In Southeastern Asia including Cambodia and Laos, small farmers are very interested in sericulture. Sometimes desirable agricultural practices are very useful to protect forest. Some areas of Latin America suffer from deforestation due to excessive grazing. By making suitable grassland, it is not only useful to prevent deforestration but also very effective to increase livestock productivity. In the future, we need to focus on ecologically valuable agricultural methods such as agoforesty. In addition, it is available to distribute agricultural technology suitable to raise the income of the residents near the large-scale economic tree plantations.