Congratulations to the GRÓ LRT fellows of 2022
Fellows of the 15th cohort of the GRÓ Land Restoration Training Programme graduated from the six-month training in a ceremony, held on 14 September at the Keldnaholt campus of the Agricultural University of Iceland.
This year’s graduating cohort came from eight countries in Africa and Central Asia: Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Malawi, Mongolia, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, and Uganda. Seventeen fellows came from GRÓ LRT’s partner institutions in respective countries, and two participated as representatives of UNESCO MAB’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves, coming from Omo Biosphere Reserve in Nigeria and the Mount Mulanje Biosphere Reserve in Malawi. Their participation is part of a new GRÓ LRT and UNESCO-MAB cooperation, where GRÓ International Centre for Capacity Development, a UNESCO Category 2 Centre based in Iceland, sponsors annually GRÓ LRT fellowship for two young professionals working for institutions and organisations that are a part of UNESCO MAB’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
At the graduation ceremony, the GRÓ Director General, Ms Nína Björk Jónsdóttir addressed the guests as did the GRÓ LRT Director, Dr Sjöfn Vilhelmsdóttir, and two of the graduating fellows, Ms Chimwemwe Chimbaza from Malawi, and Mr Abdubakir Qo´shboqov from Uzbekistan. GRÓ Director General, Ms Nína Björk Jónsdóttir awarded the fellows with the certificates, together with the GRÓ LRT Director. The Rector of the Agricultural University of Iceland, Dr Ragnheiður I Þórarinsdóttir, closed the ceremony. There were special guests attending this year’s graduation ceremony: Mr Tuvdendori Janabazar, the Mongolian Ambassador to Iceland, and his wife, Mrs Batsanaa Bayartogtokh.
The graduating cohort of 2022 is the first group of fellows to participate in the GRÓ LRT six-month training after it became eligible for ECTS credits. This means that fellows receive a Postgraduate Diploma in Ecosystem Restoration and Sustainable Land Management (30 ECTS) from the Faculty of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the Agricultural University of Iceland, in addition to the GRÓ LRT Certificate of Completion.
Since the beginning of the Land Restoration Training Programme in 2007, 175 specialists, in the fields of restoration and sustainable land management, have graduated from the annual six-month training programme; 53% of them have been men and 47% women, from 14 partner countries.
Congratulation class of 2022!
