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“Forests, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Higher Education Cooperation in Mekong Region (FRAME)” a new VITRI project.

 

Forests, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Higher Education Cooperation in Mekong Region (FRAME) is a 3 years capacity building project (15 November, 2020 to 14 November, 2023), which is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

The project includes 2 Programme HEIs – University of Helsinki (coordinating HEI) & Czech University of Life Sciences, and 2 Partner HEIs each in Laos: Savannakhet University & Souphanouvong University and Thailand: Kasetsart University & Chiang Mai University.

Project aims to strengthen forestry higher education in Laos and Thailand based on the priority themes of ‘Sustainable forest management’ and ‘Forest restoration & rural livelihoods’; with the crosscutting themes of climate change mitigation & adaptation. Both countries have high levels of forest loss and degradation, and are highly vulnerable to climate change. Within this context, a key challenge for both countries are to make forest management more sustainable, socially inclusive, and to conserve and restore forests while providing development opportunities. Yet, their HEIs are inadequately equipped to provide the education services needed to address these challenges. Forestry students need to be trained not only in production forestry, but also in social, environmental, economic, and policy aspects.

Following the regional priorities, project aims to support modernization and internationalization of Partner HEIs curriculum, and support the development of new teaching and learning tools (including MOOCs & open source ICT tools), innovative methodologies and pedagogical approaches.

Contact persons:

Eshetu Yirdaw, eshetu.yirdaw@helsinki.fi

Nicholas Hogarth, nicholas.hogarth@helsinki.fi

Dipjoy Chakma, dipjoy.chakma@helsinki.fi

 

 

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CLIDEV – a new VITRI project for Strengthening Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development in Myanmar and Vietnam

Project for strengthening climate change education for sustainable development in Myanmar and Vietnam received funding from Ministry for Foreign Affairs

CLIDEV project for Strengthening Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development in Myanmar and Vietnam has received 4-year HEI ICI funding from Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The project aims to empower an ever-increasing number of students with improved climate change knowledge and skills to make a positive contribution to the needs of society.

The project’s main intended outcome is the enhancement of the forest and agriculture related climate change higher education systems in Myanmar and Vietnam. This will be achieved by modernizing, improving accessibility and internationalization of partner HEIs curriculum by supporting the development of new learning and teaching tools (including Massive Open Online Courses – MOOCs and Open Educational Resources – OER), specifically in relation to agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors. Thus, domestic capacity to sustainably manage natural resources will be improved, for the benefit of the local people and the environment, while at the same time enabling Myanmar and Vietnam to effectively respond to the demands and opportunities of international processes e.g. Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Bonn challenge.

The outputs of the project will lead to increased understanding of climate change to support fact-based decision-making resulting in increased resilience of vulnerable communities. It will also support partner countries to pursue sustainable development pathways.

CLIVEV is coordinated by the Viikki Tropical Resources Institute (VITRI) at the Department of Forest Sciences. The project is a collaboration between six partners: University of Helsinki and Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Finland); Yezin Agricultural University and University of Forestry and Environmental Sciences (Myanmar); Hue University and Vietnam National University of Forestry (Vietnam).

What is HEI ICI ?
The Higher Education Institutions Institutional Cooperation Instrument (HEI ICI) supports cooperation projects between higher education institutions in Finland and the developing world that are designed to enhance higher education provision in these countries. The projects support the higher education institutions in developing their subject-specific, methodological, educational and administrative capacities.

Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides funding for the programme through its development cooperation funds. The Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) administrates the programme.

More information about HEI ICI and the list of all funded projects for the period 2020-2024
https://www.oph.fi/en/programmes/hei-ici-programme