UNU-LRT guest lecturer in 2012
This year‘s main international guest lecturer was Dr. Jeffrey Herrick. Dr. Herrick is a renowned soil scientist and a leading scientist in rangeland health issues. He works for the USDA-ARS and is based in Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico. Dr. Herrick has a wide experience doing research, teaching, and conducting monitoring and assessments all over the world. Dr. Herrick gave the UNU-LRT fellows interactive lectures in the classroom and in the field about land potential and how to assess rangeland health. His input was very valuable for UNU-LRT and the fellows.
During Dr. Herrick’s visit, UNU-LRT in cooperation with the Agricultural University of Iceland (AUI) and the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland (SCSI), held an open seminar on 18 June about land health condition and how to use both scientific and local knowledge to manage land more sustainably. There Dr. Herrick gave a lecture on Global Sustainable Land Management: Opportunities to Integrate Local and Scientific Knowledge Based on an Understanding of Land Potential. A lecture on Rangeland health condition in Iceland was also given at the seminar by Dr. Johann Thorsson specialist at SCSI and Professor Ólafur Arnalds at AUI. In the seminar the vital importance of land health issues was highlighted for the well being of humans as well as ecosystems in the future.