News

The United Nations University Land Restoration Training Programme (UNU-LRT) is now on Facebook! On Facebook, we will keep you up to date with what is going on at UNU-LRT, news about new and former fellows, what is happening in land restoration in Iceland and international stories on environmental issues we think are worth sharing. Please visit the UNU-LRT Facebook page  and "like" it to follow our work.

A new book HEALING THE LAND: The story of land reclamation and soil conservation in Iceland written by Professor Roger Crofts was published last week by the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland (SCSI).  It describes the fascinating story of land restoration and soil stabilization in Iceland over the last one hundred years.  The publication of the book was celebrated last Friday in a meeting on the international importance of land reclamation and soil conservation activities.  There the author introduced his work and emphasised on the importance of spreading the successful story of reclamation and soil conservation work in Iceland to the global audience.

The rector of the United Nations University (UNU), Prof. Dr. Konrad Osterwalder, is currently in Iceland to visit the Icelandic UNU training programmes.  Yesterday he visited the headquarters of UNU-LRT at Keldnaholt where he was welcomed by the UNU-LRT director as well as the rector of the Agricultural University of Iceland (AUI) and the director of the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland (SCSI); the two institutes that implement UNU-LRT.

Recently an article titled Combating land degradation in the High North was published on the UNU website (unu.edu).  The article describes briefly some of UNU-LRT activities and the topics dealt with in the annual six-month training course run by UNU-LRT.  This summer’s one week field trip is described in detail but the field trip is an important part of the six-month training course.  Perspectives and experiences from two fellows of this year’s training are also given.  The article can be found here http://unu.edu/articles/global-change-sustainable-development/combating-land-degradation-in-the-high-north

On 29 September eight fellows graduated from the UNU-LRT six-month training programme.  The graduated fellows are from Ethiopia (1), Ghana (2), Mongolia (2), Niger (1) and Uganda (2), three women and five men.   At the graduation ceremony the Minister for the Environment, Mrs. Svandís Svavarsdóttir, addressed the fellows and handed out the certificates.   The 2011 fellows graduated from two specialized lines:  Land Degradation Assessment/Land Restoration, and Sustainable Land Management.

On 19 September the fellows in this year’s six-month training course presented their individual project work in an open seminar at the Agricultural University of Iceland.  The project work includes writing a comprehensive report and giving an oral presentation.  The fellows choose a subject for the project that is of their interest and is related to degradation and restoration challenges in their home countries.