KU Hosted 2nd Asian Student Environment Platform Forum

2nd Asian Student Environment Platform Forum

The week-long Asian Student Environment Platform (ASEP) forum hosted by the Green Fund was held at Korea University on Aug. 2-6. ASEP was founded in 2012 with the aim of nurturing talent in environmental studies by strengthening leadership in environmental policy development in Asia and improving perspectives toward the environment. Held under the theme of 'Humans and the Environment,' this year’s forum was attended by 80 undergraduate students, with twenty from each of four Asian universities - Korea University, Waseda University, Tsinghua University, and Vietnam National University. Under the leadership of Professor Yohwan Sohn of KU’s Life Science College, the participants took eco-tours to Jeju, Buan, Jeonju, Seoul and Paju.

ASEP’s opening ceremony took place at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 2 at a video conference room in the Centennial Memorial Hall. KU Vice-President Jaeho Yeom expressed in his welcoming speech his appreciation that a number of Asian students were able to come to Seoul and provided the participants with an overview of five representative Korean cities. He also emphasized the importance of such a forum because the world requires a coordination of efforts to deal with various global environmental challenges such as air pollution, degradation of biodiversity, waste landfills and others. He closed his speech by wishing the participants a pleasant stay in Korea.

The chairman of the AEON Environmental Foundation, Mr. Takuya Okada, also extended his appreciation for the students' interest in the environment and for their participation in the forum. He stressed that environmental issues require urgent, open-minded, global cooperation.

Ambassadors from China, Japan and Vietnam gave congratulatory addresses, which were followed by speeches by program alumni. One of the graduates, Nakamura Takui, shared his experience in the village of Iwate-Tanohata after 2011’s earthquake. He talked about how roughly half the hotels there still required repair and most of the guardrails had been destroyed by the tsunami. Another participant from last year talked about his experience with the AEON tree planting campaign.

On Aug. 5, the participants started their tours to Jeju, the Saemangeum Dike, the DMZ, World Cup Park and the Cheonggyecheon. Environmental experts from each country took turns to give lectures on each country's ecosystem. Groups of eight students, with each group composed of two from each school, had discussions every evening.

The first round of discussion showed a diversity of opinions among the participants. Students from  Korea and Japan argued that the environment should come before the economy because environmental recovery is very difficult once destruction has taken place. Students from China and Vietnam retorted that excessive environmental policy that hinders economic development should be avoided. However, after multiple rounds of discussions and conversations, the groups reached an agreement: Asian countries should work together in order to protect the environment.

On the last day of the forum, the participants had a chance to share their lessons from the forum at a video conference room in the Centennial Memorial Hall. Pham Thi Van (21) from Vietnam National University noted how impressed he was by the way that World Cup Park had recorded and exhibited its past history of being a landfill of waste. He added that he would carry out the lessons from Korea after he had returned to his homeland.
Dr. Son, Yo Whan, a professor of the Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, said that he found it beautiful to see students cooperating and communicating about environmental issues. He told the students that he hoped they would keep thinking about the relationship between humans and nature.