VITRI at the World Forestry Congress 2015 (WFC) in Durban

University Lecturer Eshetu Yirdaw (picture) and the researchers Fobissie Kalame and Yitagesu Tekle participated in the latest WFC in Durban. Dr. Yirdaw had a presentation titled “Rehabilitation of degraded forest and woodland ecosystems for livelihoods and ecosystem services in Ethiopia” as part of the side event “Opportunities and challenges for harnessing local forest management to improve rural livelihoods in Africa”; Dr. Yirdaw also attended the IUFRO-WFSE Steering Committee meeting in Durban.
Dr. Kalame had a presentation titled “Integrating Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Africa: The case of BIODEV Project” as part of the side event “Integrative Approaches to Improve Sustainable Forest Management under Climate Change” organized by Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation, IUFRO Working Party on Forest Management for Adaptation to Climate Change, University of British Columbia, Canada (UBC) and University of Melbourne, Australia (UM). Dr. Kalame also participated as a resource person at the two-day UN High Level meeting on Forest Finance (Third Forum of the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance); and he also presented a paper co-authored with Yitagesu Tekle titled “Institutional interplay between REDD+ and FLEGT-VPAs: options for synergies in Congo basin countries”