News

In the first week of July, the UNU-LRT fellows participated in a 4 days field excursion. Moving from Gunnarsholt in the south the fellows went through the highlands in the south-west up to the north-west of Iceland, before heading south again through the Kjölur highland road. This was the first of a total of two field excursions the fellows will experience during their stay in Iceland. The second trip is scheduled in late August. The 2013 UNU-fellows have already been on shorter field trips close to Keldnaholt, the base of the UNU-LRT programme. The aim of these trips is to introduce the fellows to different land use practices in Iceland, land degradation problems and how they have been combated in different areas in Iceland.

Mr Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, visited Iceland on 2 – 3 July. During the visit, he learned about the activities of the UNU programmes in Iceland; including UNU-LRT. He met with Hafdis Hanna Aegisdottir the UNU-LRT Director and two UNU-LRT Fellows, Ms Olive Chemutai from Uganda and Mr Azamat Isakov from Kyrgyzstan. Ms Chemutai addressed the Secretary-General on her experience with the UNU-LRT training and how it will help her to meet the challenges at home. Her address was very well received.

Last week Dr. Jeffrey Herrick, research soil scientist from the Jornada Research Unit, USDA-ARS, New Mexico, USA, held a short course on evaluation of restoration outcome for the UNU-LRT fellows. Moreover, specialists from the Agricultural University of Iceland and the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland attended the course. Dr. Herrick’s teaching included designing and establishing monitoring and evaluation system, and gathering and managing information. Furthermore, he taught about the importance of land potential when creating restoration and management plans.

The International Conference on Soil Carbon Sequestration for Climate, Food Security and Ecosystem Services held in Reykjavik 27-29 May, was a great success according to the UNU-LRT fellows who all attended the conference. The conference participants came from impressingly many countries from all over the world. The UNU-LRT fellows had a presentation in the conference‘s plenary session on the first day of the conference titled: Soil carbon and the quest for land quality – Experiences from Africa and Asia. Ms. Wellencia Clara Mukaru gave the presentation on behalf of the eleven fellows.

UNU-LRT had a guest lecturer last week when Dr. Richard Thomas, from the UNU Institute for Water, Environment & Health (UNU-INWEH) in Canada, gave the UNU-LRT fellows lectures on management of dryland resources. Dr. Thomas has worked for UNU-INWEH for almost 5 years where he is the Assistant Director for the Dryland Ecosystems Programme.

This week, the fellows visited Thingvellir National Park as well as selected farmers that live in the neighbouring areas. The fellows' assignment for the visit was to interview stakeholders in the area, which will be used in stakeholder analysis later on. The fellows interviewed farmers, staff of the National Park and others that in some way make use of the park. The focus was on sustainable land management of the natural resources within the area.