Higher Education Cooperation for Forest Landscape Restoration and Sustainable Livelihoods in Bangladesh and Vietnam (FORSU) a new project of VITRI, University of Helsinki

 

 Higher Education Cooperation for Forest Landscape Restoration and Sustainable Livelihoods in Bangladesh and Vietnam (FORSU) is a 3-year capacity building project (1 December 2022 to 30 November 2025), which is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

The project includes 2 Programme HEIs: University of Helsinki (coordinating HEI) & University of Freiburg, and 2 Partner HEIs in Bangladesh: Rangamati Science and Technology University & Patuakhali Science and Technology University; and 3 partner HEIs in Vietnam: Hue University, Tay Nguyen University & Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry.

Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) emerged as a key approach in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-30), which aims to scale-up restoration of degraded ecosystems to combat the climate crisis while enhancing and protecting livelihoods, food security, water, and biodiversity. Global support to strengthen and fund forest and other ecosystem restoration faces a major challenge: the mismatch between the opportunities for restoration and the capacity (knowledge, skills) needed to support it. Bangladesh and Vietnam are among the most vulnerable countries to climate change, and have a range of policies and programmes to promote and scale-up FLR. Their higher education systems are however, unable to produce graduates that fulfil the domestic or international needs related to FLR. Continue reading “Higher Education Cooperation for Forest Landscape Restoration and Sustainable Livelihoods in Bangladesh and Vietnam (FORSU) a new project of VITRI, University of Helsinki”

“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 – the 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.

The 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 is 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, the project aims to support the 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.

Project’s website: https://frameerasmus.eu/en

Contact persons:

Nicholas Hogarth, Principal Investigator (nicholas.hogarth@helsinki.fi)

Dipjoy Chakma, (dipjoy.chakma@helsinki.fi)