News

2020 was an eventful year for the Land Restoration Training Programme. On the first day of January, we transitioned from the UNU to join the GRÓ International Centre for Capacity Development, Sustainable use of Natural Resources and Societal Change, a new UNESCO category 2 centre located in Iceland. In the beginning of May, we welcomed a new Director to the Programme. The year 2020 turned out to be an extraordinary time for LRT, like for everyone else with the emergence of COVID-19, and the pandemic continued to impact all our activities from mid-March and throughout the year.

Today a new host institution agreement was signed between the GRÓ Centre for Capacity Development under the auspices of UNESCO and the Agricultural University of Iceland. On this occasion the Chairman of the GRÓ Governing Board, Mr. Jón Karl Ólafsson and the GRÓ Centre Director General, Ms. Bryndís Kjartansdóttir, were welcomed at the premises of GRÓ LRT where the agreement was signed by Mr. Jón Karl Ólafsson and Dr. Ragnheiður I. Þórarinsdóttir, the Rector of the Agricultural University of Iceland.

Today we celebrate the International day for Biological Diversity by participating in UNESCO expert panel on the theme of the day, “Our solutions are in nature”. GRÓ LRT Deputy Director is one of the speakers in the panel, addressing the topic “What are the possible ways/tools to regenerate ecosystems and restore our links to the living?” This UNESCO initiative gives us opportunity to come together in this period of great uncertainty around common values, to share the resources on which we can rely upon to be collectively resilient and to accelerate a transformation towards a more sustainable and fair world.

Dr Sjöfn Vilhelmsdóttir is the new Director of the GRÓ Land Restoration Training Programme as from 1 May 2020.

The GRÓ LRT six-month training programme, scheduled to initiate on 16 March, has been rescheduled for March 2021. Given the serious developments and the many uncertainties regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unfortunately not able to initiate the training later this spring. The candidates invited for the 2020 training will be invited to attend the six-month training in 2021 instead.

Last weekend, twenty professionals from Africa and Asia were expected to arrive in Iceland to attend the GRÓ LRT six-month training programme. We had planned to launch the 2020 six-month training on 16 March, but in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the training had to be postponed at least for the coming weeks. Here in Iceland, as in so many countries around the globe, authorities have taken measures to address the threat stemming from COVID-19. In Iceland, all universities and colleges have been closed and a ban on public events and gatherings has been imposed from 16 March until at least 13 April. Whether we will be able to run this year’s training programme later this spring remains uncertain. This will depend on how things evolve in Iceland and around the world regarding the outbreak.