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Integrated Land Use Systems (ILUS) Course

The Chair for Silviculture accepts applications from external participants for its integrated land use course.

Integrated Land Use Systems (Summer School, 26 June -14 July 2023, hybrid course):

The rapidly growing world population and changing consumption patterns are placing increasing pressure on agricultural and forestry production systems. However, the classic intensification approach to increase yield of food and biomass by genetic standardization, mechanization and application of pesticides and fertilizer, has led to ambivalent results. In many places, negative environmental and social consequences have been observed such as soil degradation, eutrophication, decline in fresh water resources, loss of biodiversity, as well as land-use conflicts, loss of employment, and rural-urban migration.

Integrated Land Use Systems (ILUS), which combine different types of land uses and integrate several management goals, are gaining attention. It is assumed that ILUS compared to classic production systems provide a higher level of ecosystem goods and services, are less vulnerable to the risks of global change and market volatilities, and are better suited to the livelihood strategies of rural populations. However, despite these promises, in practice, ILUS still play an only minor role in most agricultural landscapes. Against this backdrop, this module intends to carefully reflect about the economic, social and environmental features of important ILUS and possibilities for broader diffusion.

Course aim:

One goal is to familiarize participants with important ILUS (e.g., agroforestry systems) by gaining up to date expert knowledge. The second major goal is to train competencies in the analysis of ecological, social and economic foundations and effects of ILUS. The participants will be organized into small working groups to conduct in-depth analyses on selected ILUS issues, taking into account different geographical regions, socioeconomic settings and production objectives.

To prepare the groups for this task, experts introduce into key aspects of ILUS from technical, environmental and economic perspectives, and present relevant insights from South-America, Africa, Asia and Europe. Furthermore, excursions to the surroundings of Freiburg will provide practical insights about the relevance, potentials and challenges related to the application of ILUS. Based on this input, the participants will gradually develop their group work, which will be presented and discussed at the end of of the module.

After completing the course students are able to

describe and classify different types of ILUS,
explain the history of ILUS and particularly their recent emergence as possible and more sustainable alternatives to commercial tree and crop monocultures,
analyse the performance and potential of ILUS with respect to environmental, economic and sociocultural considerations,
relate ILUS to specific issues and processes including contribution to food security, economic growth, watershed protection and biodiversity conservation, and
critically reflect about the implications of ILUS in sustainable land use and rural livelihoods.

Target Group:

The module is designed for international graduate students,consultants and land use professionals, as well as for young scientists working in the field of forest, agricultural, and environmental sciences, geography, rural development, land use planning, landscape ecology and other related fields of natural resource management. The programme is open for applications from all countries.

Further information:

Scientific Coordinators	Prof. Dr. Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt, Dr. Sabine Reinecke
Type	Continuing Education Course
Organizer	Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, Chair of Silviculture in cooperation with external experts
This course will be useful for	Graduates of forestry and land use programmes, researchers and PhD students, consultants and land use professionals
Prerequisites for participation	University degree related to agriculture or forestry (minimum 30 ECTS in specific modules), a minimum of two years working experience in a related sector, excellent English language skills
Format	Three week full time seminar (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm), hybrid (i.e. presence in Freiburg expected from 03-11 July, with excursions)
Dates	26 June – 14 July 2023
Certificate	Participants of the course will receive a Qualified Participation Certificate
Credit points	5 CP according to the ECTS (if the voluntary oral exam is passed)
Location	Tennenbacher Straße 4 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Application Deadline	25 May 2023 (first come first served if eligible)
Course Fee	450 Euro for hybrid option with excursions and lunch (an invoice will be sent after acceptance of the application), excluding costs for accommodation, food and travel
Scholarships	There are no scholarships available for the course and no logistical support for travel or accommodation. Interested participants are requested to look for their own sources of funding.

Freiburg:

Freiburg, “the green city” is a traditional but at the same time also a very young and dynamic university city. It is located close to the black forest, France and Switzerland and is considered to be one of the most attractive cities in Germany – especially in summer.
Many sustainability initiatives originated in Freiburg, and it is one of the European centres of renewable energy development and sustainability research.
The Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg was founded in 1457 and is one of the oldest universities in Germany. Students can choose from over 150 programmes at 11 faculties. At present, 25,000 students are enrolled.

More information and application:

Download the application form here.

Download our flyer here.

The class of 2019 has compiled a joint report on the lessons learned in the course on Integrated Land Use Systems that can be downloaded here (PDF).

Contact:

Universität Freiburg

Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources

Chair of Silviculture

Dr. Sabine Reinecke

Tennenbacherstr. 4, 79106 Freiburg

ilus@waldbau.uni-freiburg.de

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CIFOR-ICRAF Science Week 2023: Equity in Action

Each year, CIFOR-ICRAF hosts a weeklong event that brings its staff worldwide together to sustain institution-wide engagement with the critical global problems the organization addresses.

For the first time, some sessions by prominent scientists and leaders from the organisation, including CIFOR-ICRAF’s new CEO Eliane Ubalijoro, are available to the public to attend virtually. This year’s theme is ‘Equity in Action’, providing a unique opportunity to learn about CIFOR-ICRAF’s commitment to equity and inclusion and how its work addresses the global challenge of inequity in all its work with and for communities, partners and governments.

The following sessions will be publicly available to stream on this page and YouTube. Don’t miss the chance to learn more about how CIFOR-ICRAF engages with equity as a moral imperative in its work, the impacts it expects and more.

Event website

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Rewilding Gardens – Bringing Nature Home

We will host this virtual community gathering on the topic ‘Rewilding Gardens: Bringing nature home’ on Wednesday, May 17th at 5:00PM CET/4:00PM BST/8:00AM PDT. The duration of the event will be of 90 minutes.

The Rewilding Community of Practice aims to build a network of rewilding enthusiasts and professionals who can exchange ideas and information to help build a better world.

This is a fantastic opportunity for budding and more experienced rewilders to learn more about creating beautiful, resilient gardens – and how to attract bees and other insects – from four experienced practitioners who take different approaches to but all share a passion for creating wild gardens in which biodiversity is thriving .

We hope you will join us in our effort to scale our collective impact and rewild our planet!

The Speakers

Chris d’Agorne (How to Rewild), Brandy Williams (Garden Butterfly), Wankja Ferguson (Vlinder er Bij Natuurtuin), Eva Makandi (Light On A Hill)

Chris d’Agorne, Founder of How to Rewild

Chris is the Communications Lead at Ecosulis, which works to deliver nature-positive solutions for partners such as the Wildlife Trusts, Environment Agency, and Severn Trent Water. Chris comes from a family of ecologists and has a mosaic of experience across wildlife TV production, genetic research, teaching, photography and web design. They founded howtorewild.co.uk in 2021, a website that guides landowners through rewilding projects and has since applied this rewilding theory on a 3.5-acre field in Somerset. Chris continues to share insights from scientific articles and practical experience for Ecosulis and How to Rewild.

Brandy Williams, Founder of Garden Butterfly

Brandy Williams founded Garden Butterfly, a boutique landscape company focused on creating small-scale and highly-curated ecologically friendly gardens and pollinator habitats in the Los Angeleas area. Brandy’s creations include botanically diverse succulent, native and drought-tolerant mosaics for residential and commercial landscapes. Her work blends horticultural expertise with an artist’s eye to create permanent gardens and bespoke installations. Featured on LA Times, KCRW, KTLA and the Theodore Payne Foundation Native Plant Garden Tour, Garden Butterfly is on a mission to show Los Angeles that it can be a more beautiful, environmental and pollinator-friendly city.

Wankja Ferguson, Founder of Vlinder er Bij Natuurtuin

A landscape ecologist by training, Wankja has over 30 years of experience in ecological design, planting, and general nature conservation work. For the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) she worked on projects in nature conservation in her home country the Netherlands and places such as Kenya and Chili. She now heads Vlinder er Bij Natuurtuin, a design and ecological gardening firm focusing on animal-friendly gardens. Wankja focuses on creating garden environments honouring the relationships between plants and wildlife such as bee-friendly gardens lush with edible wild plants.

Eva Makandi, Founder of Light On A Hill

Eva Makandi is a community developer and peacebuilder and holds a BSC in community development. She is the founder of the Light On A Hill (LOAH), a community-based organization focusing on environmental conservation/restoration, as well as on education and talent development. She was named a 2022 Global Landscapes Forum Restoration Steward and is a 30 under 30 class of 2022 fellow of the North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE).

Wild Garden: Featured project of Katie van Munster – one of the Rewilding Community of Practice members – and presented by Wild Garden members Lori Eich and Kelsey Kaszas

Wild Garden is a tool that helps everyday people transform their gardens into something both wild and beautiful, full of native plants and wildlife. They aim to enhance the world’s biodiversity, one garden at a time.

Reserve a spot!

Further event information

Following the speakers’ conversation, there will be time for questions from the audience. The event will be a participatory event taking place on Zoom. The Zoom link to join the event will be shared with all ticket holders via email on the day of the event.

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Open Innovation Challenge Webinar

Join us at the Open Innovation Challenge Webinar on 2 February 2023 at 10:00 CET. The webinar intends to engage with anyone interested in applying for the Open Innovation Challenge by providing valuable insights on how to apply, the documents needed, grants, and benefits.

During the webinar, we will discuss how to apply for the competition and what the benefits are for the solution providers. Check out the agenda:

10:00–10:15 | Introduction: Bioregions Facility and Open Innovation Challenge
10:15–10:25 | What are the themes of the OIC
10:25–10:45 | Process, document, and timeline
10:45–10:55 | Q&A
10:55–11:00 | Conclusion

If you have any questions, please email bioregions@efi.int, and we might answer your question at the webinar.

The Open Innovation Challenge (OIC) calls for innovative bioeconomy solutions. Start-ups, companies, organizations and universities are welcome to apply and present their innovative solutions – at any stage of development.

Learn more here.

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Webinar series: Smallholder Planted Forests and Trees for Climate, Restored Landscapes, and Livelihoods

The Yale Forest Forum is excited to announce the next speaker series for spring 2023, taking place on Tuesdays, January 17 – April 25th from 12:00 – 1:00 pm US ET. Hosted by The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment(link is external) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Smallholder Planted Forests and Trees for Climate, Restored Landscapes, and Livelihoods

Planted forests, defined as forests that at maturity are predominantly composed of trees established through planting and/or deliberate seeding[i] represent 7 percent of global forest area[ii]. While the world’s natural forests are shrinking, with 420 million ha of forest lost through deforestation over the last 30 years[iii], the surface of planted forests is continuously expanding. Planted forests and trees outside of forests e.g., woodlots, fruit trees, hedgerows, etc. harbor an untapped potential to fulfill future needs through area expansion and productivity increases in existing planted forests[iv].

A significant portion of planted forests and trees outside forests are owned and/or managed by smallholders. Smallholder forestry usually takes place on land privately owned by non-industrial stakeholders. While smallholder forestry has a long history in Western Europe and North America, it has rapidly expanded in recent years to other parts of the globe[v]. Between 1990 and 2005, the area under smallholder ownership has increased three-fold[vi] and by 2005, smallholders owned 26% of planted forests globally[vii], largely exceeding planted forest area under corporate ownership. Furthermore, planted forests managed for productive functions made up 32% of all global planted forest area[viii].

Despite these increases, smallholders face technical, commercial, policy, and institutional challenges that hamper their performance, negatively impact their returns on investment, and ultimately affect their long-term viability. As reported by FAO[ix], smallholders have driven the dramatic expansion of tree plantations worldwide in the recent past and this trend may reverse if smallholders are forced to change from forestry to another land use.

This webinar series will focus on ways to harness the potential of smallholder planted forests and trees to contribute to the provision of environmental services, including addressing climate change, and livelihoods. It will primarily focus on the following questions:

What are the key success factors in the establishment and management of planted forests and trees outside forests by smallholders?
Which management objectives do smallholders pursue and how are they implemented according to business best-practices?
What are the operational risks, financial risks, and vulnerabilities smallholders face related to quickly evolving markets and a changing climate?
Which models and practices are most promising?
Which opportunities and business models arise from the transition towards carbon-neutral economies and the global momentum for ecosystem restoration?
What can be done to support smallholders? (i.e., policy, producers’ organizations, etc.

Join us every Tuesday from January 17 – April 25 from 12:00 – 1:00 pm U.S. ET.

Note there will be no webinar on March 14 and March 21.

Click here to register

Register once to attend all webinars and view the recordings.

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Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) Dialogue Series

The Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) Dialogue Series provides an opportunity to explore the most pertinent ESF-related issues and challenges, while strengthening collaboration and partnerships with diverse stakeholders from across the world. The series provides an opportunity for technical experts to share information and obtain feedback from stakeholders on the opportunities and challenges in their work. It also enables peers to share insights on solutions that could be adapted across countries.

Making Accessibility Operational

This is an overview of the World Bank’s work on disability inclusion with concrete examples of how it has made a difference in the lives of persons with disabilities, and the importance of inculcating disability inclusion in conversations with clients with the aim of not only building awareness to disability inclusive development and ensuring that no one is left behind. The engagement highlighted various mechanisms and tools available to operationalize disability inclusion and accessibility in World Bank projects.

Watch the recording and access materials here

Grievance Redess Service in World Bank-financed Operations

This is the second session of the ESF Dialogue Series, with a focus on the World Bank’s Grievance Redress Service (GRS). The 60-minute virtual event provided civil society organizations (CSOs) with an opportunity to learn more about the GRS and its role and scope in the Bank’s overall accountability framework. Through this dialogue, CSOs could also share their views on the current functioning of the GRS and discuss how they can participate in raising awareness of the GRS among project-affected communities.

Watch the recording here

Learn more

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Forest Restoration Talks: What do we know about forest conditions in Europe and actual restoration needs?

The SUPERB & IUFRO Forest Restoration Talks investigate forest restoration questions from diverse scientific perspectives, with alternating focus on the global and European levels. The series brings together researchers, practitioners, NGOs, policy makers and other interested stakeholders to explore practical forest restoration approaches experiences and challenges worldwide.

You can find the complete schedule of the upcoming events below. To watch our previous webinars, click here.

Learn more

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Fascinating Fungi – Invisible Allies in Rewilding

Join the Rewilding Community of Practice’s seminar on the role of fascinating fungi in rewilding our planet.

We will host this virtual community gathering on the topic ‘Fascinating Fungi: Invisible Allies in Rewilding’ on Tuesday, the 22nd of November at 5:00PM CET/4:00PM GMT/8AM PST. The duration of the event will be of 90 minutes.

The Rewilding Community of Practice aims to build a network of rewilding enthusiasts and professionals who can exchange ideas and information to help build a better world.

This is a fantastic opportunity for rewilders to learn more about the incredible role fungi play in rewilding – and how to rewild mycological networks – from three experienced practitioners who work on turning these invisible allies into a visible force for good.

We hope you will join us in our effort to scale our collective impact and rewild our planet!

The Speakers

David Satori (Rewilding Mycology), Michael J. Hathaway (World Matsutake Research Group – Simon Fraser University), Bethan Manley (SPUN).

David Satori, Founder of Rewilding Mycology

David Satori is a mycologist, consultant, and founder of Rewilding Mycology. He holds an MSc in Plant and Fungal Taxonomy, Diversity, and Conservation and is a former Species Conservation Researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew where he contributed to IUCN Red List assessments of tropical plant species.

David has extensive experience in designing fungal surveys, generating baseline data, and recognizing opportunities for fungal conservation on sites with various land use histories. He draws from his experience at Kew Gardens, where he managed large databases on plant documentation, distribution, population trends, and threats. He will introduce the field of rewilding mycology, highlight the importance of science being fungi-inclusive and discuss recent strides in the field.

Michael Hathaway, Professor at World Matsutake Research Group – Simon Fraser University

Michael Hathaway is a cultural anthropologist who has been working in China for over a quarter century on two major topics. His first project explored how global conservation programs were re-configured by Chinese scientists, villagers, and wild animals (such as Asian elephants), and his second examines the role of fungi in reshaping economies and ecologies on a vast scale.

He will speak about a mindset shift the world urgently needs: a shift from viewing other organisms as objects of utility (as things to be eaten, commodified or even used in rewilding projects) to fellow beings that are also world makers. What might it mean to recognize the presence and power of fungi all around us, especially from this different perspective?, he asks.

Bethan Manley, Program Manager Global Data Science at SPUN

Bethan began studying underground fungal networks during a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge examining Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and their genetic interactions with crop plants. She has since continued work on the genomics of symbiotic fungi as a Postdoctoral Researcher, and worked as a Senior Computer Biologist at the Sanger Institute, UK, on the Tree of Life Project that aims to sequence all eukaryotic species on Earth.

Bethan now works for SPUN | Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, a non-profit initiative that aims to map, understand, and conserve underground mycorrhizal fungal networks. She will speak about the awe-inspiring work the SPUN team does of mapping underground mycorrhizal networks that regulate the Earth’s climate, and the advocacy and innovation work the organization does to protect and preserve our underground fungi kingdom.

Reserve a spot

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2nd Forest Restoration Talk with Bart Muys: “Biodiversity as a key asset for forest restoration in Europe”

You are invited to join our new “Monthly Forest Restoration Talks”, hosted by SUPERB in partnership with IUFRO‘s Task Force ‘Transforming Forest Landscapes for Future Climates and Human Well-Being’.

Targeting researchers, practitioners, NGOs, policy makers and other interested stakeholders, the webinar series will investigate forest restoration questions from diverse scientific perspectives, with alternating focus on the global and European levels. This includes exploring practical forest restoration approaches, experiences and challenges worldwide.

Taking place on Wednesday, 14 December from 16:00-17:30 CET, the second webinar on 14 December, when KU Leuven professor Bart Muys will discuss “Biodiversity as a key asset for forest restoration in Europe“!

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1st Forest Restoration Talk with John Stanturf: “If nature is the solution, what is the problem?”

Taking place on Wednesday, 9 November from 16:00-17:30 CET, the first webinar features forest restoration specialist John Stanturf as a speaker, discussing the topic “If nature is the solution, what is the problem? A perspective from forest landscape restoration”.

Following webinars will take place every second Wednesday of the month at the same time. Save the date for the second webinar on 14 December, when KU Leuven professor Bart Muys will discuss “Biodiversity as a key asset for forest restoration in Europe“!

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