Name: Nguyen Thi Minh Hue
Affiliation: Department of Climate Change (DCC), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), Vietnam
Journal Title: A beautiful day with AFOLU Sector
Date: 10 August 2022


The past few days of continuous rain in Seoul have caused flooding in the streets of Gangnam. Fortunately, it's sunny today, we are all happy and look forward to an energetic day with AFOLU Sector.


Photo 1: Mr. Kim starting his lecture on organic amendment in Rice paddy

The lesson started at 9.15 a.m. Mr. Kim from Gyeongsang National University gave us a lecture on organic amendment in Rice Paddy: Challenges and opportunities on global warming. He described the value of soil carbon, agricultural practices for soil carbon stock increase, mechanism and formation of carbon and nitrogen compounds. He also mentioned that the Korean country specific emission factor for rice cultivation is higher than the given default value in the 2006 IPCC Guideline. This also happens to my country when we developed our emission factor for rice paddy in different regions in Vietnam.


Photo 2: The trainees attending the lecture

In the late morning, Mr. Kim introduced AFOLU sector based on 2006 IPCC Guideline and focused on non-CO2 emissions on land. He explained about nitrification and denitrification. This is 2 most important processes in the nitrogen cycle. This knowledge is very useful to us because not all students have a deep understanding of AFOLU Sector.

At the end of the class, we took a group photo with Mr. Kim. We had an hour for lunch, I and some friends went to a restaurant near the hotel to enjoy more traditional Korean dishes.


Photo 3: A group photo with Mr. Kim

In the afternoon, we attended the lesson on LULUCF sector by Mr. Yim from Forest ICT Research Center. This is the most difficult sector. He provided us a comprehensive picture of national inventory with 4 main contents: roles of the LULUCF sector, general GHG inventory in the land sector, GHG inventory in Korea and reporting under the Paris Agreement.


Photo 4: Mr. YIM giving the lecture on LULUCF Sector

After the first section, we understood well about the characteristics in the land sector, especially carbon cycle of carbon pool helped us define the GHG emissions and removals in different types of land. 
The second part of his presentation gave us the comparation among 1996 Guideline, 2003 Good Practice Guideline and 2006 Guideline, the method to construct and report a matrix of land use change, Institution in charge of the LULUCF sector by some countries such as USA, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Australia and New Zealand as well as general method for GHG emissions/removals.


Photo 5: Discussion about mitigation/removal actions in forestry sector

We also listened and discussed about GHG Inventory for Forestry in Korea. Interestingly, each type of land use area in Korea is taken from different sources and complied by different organizations. I admired the methods they used to estimate growing stock for national forest inventory. In my country we don't have enough resources to make such annual measurements.

In the Reporting under the Paris Agreement part, we discussed more actively and asked Mr. YIM about mitigation/removal actions in forestry sector.


Photo 6: Yoisy Belen Castillo from Panama presenting her country report

After the lecture, participants from Panama, Tonga and Malaysia presented the status, barriers and country plans for inventories in the AFOLU sector.
The lectures were insightful and meaningful. It helped me to understand more AFOLU Sector and definitely support me in my future work. Many thanks to 2022 UNFCCC-GIR-CASTT Program.


Photo 7: Alilia from Tonga starting her country presentation on AFOLU Sector


Photo 8: Country presentation of Woon Kok Sin from Malaysia





Coordinator's comments:
Finally this day was a no-rain day. The rain knows when to stop considering that there were only 2-3 days left until everyone fly back to their hometown. After continued rains which might have caused the feeling of tiredness to you and fellow trainees due to humidity, I hope you started this beautiful sunny day with refreshed mind and great energy!
Professor Kim’s expertise is specifically about estimation and analysis of GHG emission from rice paddy fields, and I considered his lecture would be relevant and thus helpful to those from countries of which rice cultivation is one of major sources of emissions. I can see that it was for our Vietnamese trainees, and glad that there was a chance to compare the Korean case with the Vietnamese one in terms of emission factor.
Everytime I see photos of trainees making country presentations which were taken for each other, I find it very heartwarming – it’s so sweet of you to take photos of each presenters of this day, Thi Minh.