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The first global workshop on forestry
education was held at the headquarters of
the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi
in September 2007. Eighty-five participants
from 29 countries reflected on the declining
standards in forestry education and agreed
on measures to improve it. The key findings
from the workshop are described in a policy
brief, Future Forestry Education – Responding
to Expanding Societal Needs.
“There has been serious degradation of
forestry education around the world,
especially in developing countries,” explains
August Temu, Partnerships Coordinator
at the World Agroforestry Centre and one
of the organizers of the workshop, “and
this is having a damaging impact on rural
development.” According to the World
Bank’s 2008 World Development Report1,
growth in the agricultural sector in Africa
– and this includes forestry and agroforestry
– is four times more effective in overcoming
poverty than growth in other sectors. This
means that investing in education and
training in agriculture and related fields
provides an attractive way of strengthening
Africa’s economies, while at the same time
addressing poverty.
The policy brief points out that in recent years forestry education has
largely failed to respond to the dynamics in forestry practice, the demands of
the job market and the challenges of new global forestry paradigms. Many
curricula are outdated and they have failed to align forestry education with
related disciplines, such as agriculture, soil science and biodiversity
conservation. Many schools of forestry have failed to recognize that over recent
decades the forester’s job has been transformed from that of just managing
forests to applying a wide range of skills to respond to the needs of many
different stakeholders. At the same time, there has been a significant decline
in investment in forestry education.
The policy brief sets out a series of
recommendations to improve forestry
education. These include:
- increasing investment in forestry
capacity;
- improving co-ordination mechanisms
to reinforce the quality and content of
forestry education and training;
- enhancing the harmonization of forestry
with other related sectors;
- establishing and sustaining regional and
global mechanisms for collaboration in
forestry education, for example through
the International Partnership for
Forestry Education, which was launched
in 2006.
“The policy brief is a major wake-up call for
governments and donors, alerting them to the
urgent need to improve forestry education
worldwide,” says Temu. He believes the workshop
and the policy brief have already begun to
influence the policies of donors such as the
World Bank, and he expects to see an increase
in investment in forestry education in the near
future.
1 Online reference for World Development Report
2008 (forestry story)
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2008/Resources/2795087-1192111580172/
WDROver2008-ENG.pdf
Further reading
emu A and Kiwia A. 2008. Future forestry education – responding to expanding societal needs. A policy brief.
Nairobi: World Agroforestry Centre.
http://www.worldagroforestry.org/library/listdetails.asp?id=50720
For more information,
contact August Temu,
a.temu@cgiar.org
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