John Innes, Professor and Forest Renewal BC Chair in Forest Management, Faculty of Forestry, UBC
International Programs within the Faculty of Forestry at UBC agreed to edit and publish the discussions and papers. In conjunction with FAO, web-based, CD and paper versions of the proceedings will be developed. FAO and IUFRO will ensure that French and Spanish versions are made available. The FAO Report will be disseminated in English and French to member countries, regional forestry commissions and the commission.
How should/can forestry academics get more relevant and more involved? Questions included:
Networking. There is an identified need for a network of people communicating on an ongoing basis. This network needs to engage people that were not represented at the meeting.
Costs. Finances are a limitation for involvement.
Clarity of the roles and objectives of participating organizations. CPF is a group of Institutions consisting of: FAO, UNDP, UNEP, World Bank, CIFOR, IUCN and ICRAF. It is a new Network: CFP NETWORK and will have parallel meetings. This is a good venue to discuss the issues discussed at the meeting.
Consortium for International Forestry Education. CIFE was proposed as a Consortium of institutions, regions, different capabilities, structures and mandates in order to get them to work together.
IUFRO as a catalyst. Language barriers exist for many important groups, such as those from Eastern Europe. IUFRO could act as a catalyst for representation from different regions. Doctoral theses should be translated into English from other languages.
Going beyond forestry. There are many institutions that do not have forestry in the Program title, for example, natural resources are not included in forestry discussions. These need to be included in any collective discussions.
Involvement. Academics should be invited to join forest policy discussions. There is an indentified need for exchanges between academic teams and negotiators. In Oregon, one strategy that works is the fact that federal scientists are also adjunct professors. Scientists must be more proactive in reaching out to government and other delegations and make recommendations. They must know that there will be advantages in international negotiations from involving scientists. Scientists need to work with the key agencies and develop a track record. For example, Canada External Affairs have always listened to industry more than scientists. There is a struggle even to get people participating from the Canadian Forest Service. Canadian delegations at the IPF-IFF-UNFF have had NGOs and private sector participation, but no academics.
Participants identified the following needs: technical skills (the toolbox), appreciation of other values, communication skills, ability to join teams, and entrepreneurial skills. Problems identified included:
Admission standards. It was emphasized that dropping admission standards was an absolutely unwise way to increase enrolment. However, if standards are raised, it becomes very difficult to bring on international students. Every foreign student trained and returned is worth 10 students in developed countries. Forestry educators need to be assisted in providing teaching in some of these other schools. Organizations such as CIDA should be petitioned to put together a small number of scholarships for students from developing countries.
Short courses. It may be most effective to meet the needs of foreign countries by collectively running a series of targeted one-month or six-week courses, a suggestion supported by the FAO. A group of faculties, that have similar problems related to their forests, should be gathered and the group should then address those key challenges. In developing countries, the needs for training and for forestry are there. Implementation for sustainability has been achieved through revision of laws, introducing requirements for the preparation of management plans, but is there a lack of capability to prepare these plans? The network of forestry faculties should be a resource for world forestry community and should be used particularly in developing countries.
Under the Consortium, academic twin programs are supported and promoted between developed and developing countries.
Exchanges. FAO, in collaboration with IUFRO, has established a database of sabbaticals which universities can access to identify training institutions in developing and developed countries for placements. This could start as early as January or February. An example is the International Foundation for Science in Sweden.
Opinion of students. There was a feeling of a need to discuss the challenges and directions with students.
Ad hoc Dean's / Department Heads Group
There was a unanimous view that such a group was needed. Its proposed actions are:
