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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

Array ( [0] => Europe/Amsterdam )

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

Array ( [0] => Africa/Nairobi )

TerraFund for AFR100 Landscapes

TerraFund for AFR100 Landscapes:
How to Apply for Financing in 2023

March 28
1:00 – 2:30 p.m. GMT | 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. CAT | 4:00 – 5:30pm EAT

TerraFund for AFR100 is launching its new application cycle on April 5, 2023.

After working with the Top 100 restoration champions across 27 African countries since 2021, the team is ready to invest in additional locally led non-profit organizations and for-profit enterprises.

Champions that restore land in three landscapes are eligible for this opportunity:

Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda
Ghana Cocoa Belt
Greater Rift Valley of Kenya

Expressions of interest for funding will be open on the TerraMatch platform from April 5, 2023 to May 5, 2023. Non-profit organizations can apply for grants and for-profit organizations for loans of $50,000 to $500,000 USD. A team of reviewers will select the top-scoring groups to submit more detailed applications.

We are pleased to invite you to a preview webinar in English to unpack the details of how to apply for this unique opportunity.

Please join World Resources Institute, One Tree Planted, and Realize Impact to learn which geographic areas are eligible for investment, how you can access the TerraMatch application platform, how the program monitors, reports, and verifies progress, and when you can expect final funding decisions. Attendees will be invited to ask written questions, which a team of experts will address in real time.

Array ( [0] => Africa/Nairobi )

5th International Congress on Planted Forests: 2023

International Congress on Planted Forests 2023 : planted forests, an essential nature-based solution to meet growing needs in wood products, restore forest ecosystems, and mitigate climate change

Global context

With a world population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050 – an increase of nearly 30 percent from today’s 7.6 billion [1] – needs for food, fuel, fiber and other bio-based products and services will rise sharply. Demand for forest-based biomass will increase, driven by construction and packaging, and wood fuel will remain the main energy source for many households in emerging economies.

At the same time, climate change, ecosystem degradation and their impacts call for deep changes in our global production and consumption patterns. Societies are engaging in the decarbonization of their economies and the restoration of their environment – with a prominent role for nature-based solutions. Forests and trees are an essential nature-based solution to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy by providing opportunities for substituting fossil carbon based and greenhouse gas-intensive products with renewable forest-based products [2].

However, this demand for wood products will have to be met in a context of decreasing forest area, with 420 million hectares of forest lost to deforestation over the past 30 years, mainly in tropical countries (1990 to 2020) [3]. Meeting the rising demand for wood products in a sustainable manner will require a series of complementary actions along the value wood chain. However, these changes will not be sufficient if wood production itself does not increase. Planted forests, defined as forests that at maturity are predominantly composed of trees established through planting and/or deliberate seeding [4] only represent 7 percent of the global forest area [5].

Plantations [6], which make up less than half of the total planted forest area [7], produced in 2012 about 35 percent of the world’s total roundwood [8]. Planted forests hold untapped potential to fulfill future needs in wood products, while mitigating climate change and restoring degraded forest ecosystems. They should become a more important component of sustainably managed and well-developed forest sectors for socio-economic development and environmental protection

This fifth International Congress on Planted Forests will be the opportunity to review and discuss challenges and opportunities in harnessing the potential of planted forests to meet growing human needs, restore forest ecosystems, and mitigate climate change.

You will have the opportunity to participate to NGP first study tour in Kenya:” Public Private Partnership’s, private investment in sustainable forestry, timber processing“ More information

Why ICPF2023 in Africa?

The size of the challenges and opportunities for planted forests are even greater in Africa.

Between 2017 and 2050, 26 African countries are projected to at least double their current population size[9]. The African urban population could grow from 500 million to 1 billion in 2040 [10] with needs in wood for construction and energy increasing sharply. To meet additional fuelwood requirements by 2050 in Sub-Saharan Africa, a mix of agroforestry and energy woodlots with a total area of 21 to 31 million ha would be required [11]. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to see substantial increase in housing requirements until 2050, with estimated consumption volumes of sawn wood, plywood and veneer increased by 32%[12].

Africa Vision 2063 is that, by that time, Africa will be a prosperous continent with the means to drive its own development through the sustainable, long-term stewardship of its natural resources[13], including forests. However, the high rate of population growth, coupled with a strong dependence on natural resources, especially to meet energy needs, will make it more difficult than ever to meet the growing demand in wood and wood products from a sustainably managed resource.

Simultaneously, the regional momentum for restoration of degraded forests and landscapes, embedded in the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI), and other national commitments provides major opportunities for restoring degraded landscapes while satisfying people’s needs and improving livelihoods through planted forests, small stands and woodlots, as well as agroforestry systems.

Of the total 624 million of ha under forests in Africa, 16 million ha (about 2.5%) are considered as planted forests. In addition, 4 710 million trees are found outside of forests, including in woodlots, parks, hedgerows, fruit trees, trees growing in fields…[14]. There are many opportunities to expand the area of planted forests and to increase the productivity of existing planted forests.

More information

Array ( [0] => Africa/Nairobi )

The Third Mountain Futures Conference

Mountain Communities in the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

Mountain Futures is a global initiative, which aims to promote the well-being of people in the mountains, enhance the diversity, stability and sustainability of ecosystems, and construct and share green mountain development solutions.

The United Nations declared 2022 the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development to increase awareness of the importance of sustainable mountain development, and the conservation and sustainable use of mountain ecosystems. To that end, the third Mountain Futures Conference will revolve around the core values and concepts of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity – Ecological Civilization: Building a Community of Life on Earth.

The conference will focus on four thematic areas of scientific exploration, ecological restoration, indigenous wisdom, and future living. The agenda will include a visit to an ecological site, art exhibition and poster exhibition.

Chinese and English simultaneous interpretation will be available for both onsite and online participants.

Mountain Futures is led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and is jointly sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Mountain Partnership, the World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). The first and the second Mountain Futures Conferences were held in March 2016 and June 2018, respectively.

Event website

Array ( [0] => Asia/Shanghai )

Learning challenge: Investor marketplace

Join the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM) online Community of Practice (CoP) on Local Finance for Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) for the session on the “Investor marketplace” on 16 March 2023, 10:00-11:10 CET, by registering here.

As the final session of the third learning challenge of the CoP on Local Finance for FLR, entitled “Private sector engagement and development of bankable business plans”, participants can expect three private sector investors to share an overview of their funds and mechanisms. Attendees will also have the opportunity to discuss their bankable solutions and develop further connections to take forward through this virtual world cafe event.

Learn more