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Tag: ifsa

A piece of forest education for all!

Written by Alina Lehikoinen

The EFI-IFSA-IUFRO Project on Green Jobs has been running for almost three years now and is coming to an end in early 2022. The project has borne fruit, which could be seen at the project’s IUFRO World Day session. Juliet Achieng, Lisa Prior and the project’s trainee Alina Lehikoinen hosted a session called Bridging the gap between forest education and employment: Launch of IFSA TreE-Learning platform! with support from Simone Massaro from IFSA and Janice Burns from IUFRO. 

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Integration of forests, policy and mindsets

Written by Lison Ambroise & Sara Helsen

As part of the IFSA (International Forestry Students’ Organisation) delegation, we had the opportunity to take part in the conference “Governing and managing forests for multiple ecosystem services across the globe” in Bonn. The event did not only gather experts from many different countries, but also transdisciplinarity was the watchword: participants ranged from the field of forest policy to forest management research, and from practitioner to policymaker. 

During the introductory panel, the projects responsible for the organization of the conference were presented. Both the INFORMAR (Integrated Forest Management Learning Architecture) and the POLYFORES (Decision-making support for Forest Ecosystem Services in Europe) project were introduced by Georg Winkel (Head of EFI Bonn), while the Research Training Group ConFoBi (Conservation of Forest Biodiversity in Multiple-Use Landscapes of Central Europe) was presented by Jürgen Bauhus (Freiburg University). After a welcome note by Eva Müller, Head of the Forestry Department of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the first plenary started with a global overview of today’s forest management and practices, a “Tour de la Planète”. From Robert Nasi (Center for International Forest Research, Natalia Lukina (Russian Academy of Sciences), Christian Messier (Université du Québec à Montréal), Ulrich Schraml (Forest Research Institute of Baden-Württemberg), and Eduardo Rojas Briales (Polytechnic University of Valencia) we learned about European forests, tropical forests, Boreal forests – including differences between Russia and Sweden –, Australian and northern American ones, as well as Mediterranean forests. It was obvious that, depending on the localization of the forests and the societal context, the perception of forest ecosystem services differs a lot, as well as forest management. According to Robert Nasi, in some tropical forests, the informal sector accounts for ten times more logging than the formal one and the deforestation rate is still increasing, so what we call “sustainable management” does not seem to be the solution. In Russia, Australia, Canada, and the US, forest management is predominantly segregated, while many European countries apply an integrative approach. Segregation versus integration, that was a returning question. We were impressed by the creativity of Ulrich Schraml (Forest Research Institute of Baden-Württemberg) who illustrated a history of segregation and reintegration using bowling pins in different colors.

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Green jobs: different names, same thing? Perspectives from half-year reflection of the project’s milestones

The change to a greener economy offers important opportunities to create decent jobs and create social inclusion, besides leading the global economy to a path of sustainable growth…These changes give an opportunity to change all the shortcomings in the forest sector.

(Forest Europe, 2014)

Written by Juliet Achieng

The mention of green jobs elicits different reactions among people. For some, it is the hope of better tidings for the forest sector, for others it’s just a fancy term that has no clear meaning while for others it just brings more confusion and questions than answers. But who will shed light on this buzz word? The Green Jobs project brings together three international organizations (European Forest Institute, International Union of Forest Research Organizations and International Forestry Students Association) with research and networking prowess to attempt to give answers to this puzzle. We also aim to shed light on the changes in employment that have been happening as well as the drivers of these changes in different regions and what trends could be anticipated in the future with regards to employment in the sector. Skills and competencies needed for future employment are also a vital component of our project. Through a clearly defined research approach, consisting of a literature review, workshop, survey and rapid employers’ interviews, we aim to adequately tackle these topics and provide a more elaborate picture. 

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Spirituality of the urban forest

Written by Joshua Amaitum Elukut

“When we pay attention to nature’s music, we find that everything on earth contributes to its harmony.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan

Twenty first century cities are characterized by tall skyscrapers, high residential densities, improved public transport infrastructure, as well as buildings of historical heritage. More people are moving from rural to urban areas, with the proportion of global urban population set to increase from 14% in 1900 to over 66% in 2025.

It is unfortunate that despite this trend, many urban areas lack adequate green infrastructure thus the ratio of green areas to built up areas is low. This gives inhabitants the feeling that they live in a ‘concrete jungle’ and are divorced from the natural world, contrary to earlier times when trees had a dominant influence upon human life and were sacred in many cultures.  

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Learn, grow, protect – environmental education in urban forest

Written by Vera Knill

„Don’t underestimate the ability of children to help drive change!“ Jo Sayers (The Mersey Forest)

Urban forests serve as a biodiversity hub and enhance resilience to environmental changes. As one of the most significant ecosystems for CO2 reduction from the atmosphere, forests do not only mitigate climate change. They also increase societal benefits, improve the quality of life and shelter the declining species of manifold flora and fauna. To spread this knowledge and to preserve and restore forest ecosystems, education for sustainable development is key.

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You are never too young or too old to learn to love forests

The joint EFI-IFSA-IUFRO project, funded by the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture, recently launched the ‘Dare to Explore!’ traineeship programme. Each year for 2019, 2020, and 2021 the programme will offer four unique, paid traineeship positions at three partnering organizations as well as other international forest related institutions. The traineeship programme aims to enrich students and recent graduates’ formal education and gain insight into science-policy interactions at the international level. In 2019 the traineeships address topics such as forest education, forest restorations, rewilding and rights-based approaches and includes knowledge sharing, literature review, outreach and communication activities.

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Equipping young forest leaders for a changing work environment

New Joint EFI-IFSA-IUFRO Project on “Global student networking and green jobs” analyses changing employment in the forest sector and prepares current forest students and young scientists for future leadership.

The forest sector has been facing significant changes in recent years due to various challenges including globalization, international trade, and climate change.
Naturally, this has also changed the nature of forest sector employment. Forestry careers have expanded beyond traditional forest administration and industry jobs. New ‘green jobs’ match a broader societal awareness for forest ecosystem services, climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental education, recreation, tourism, and nature protection, for example. These shifts in labour market trends call for a new generation of graduates with a strong foundation of knowledge in the context of current global issues.
“The crucial question we need to answer is: Are we, the world’s forestry students of today, prepared for the new expectations and skills society is placing in our hands as future land managers and forest policy decision makers?” emphasises Dolores Pavlovic, President of the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA).
A new project run by European Forest Institute (EFI) in close collaboration with IFSA and the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) has now been started to tackle this question. The joint project is generously funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and will be hosted by EFI in Bonn, Germany.

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