News

The Society of Ecological Restoration held its fourth world conference on ecological restoration in Merida, Mexico from 21 to 25 August last month.  UNU-LRT was presented at the conference in an oral presentation in a session on ecological restoration education, and in a poster in the poster session.  Four scientists, who teach and supervise in UNU-LRT annual six-month training course, also attended the conference and gave oral presentations on their research and projects.  These scientists come from the Agricultural University of Iceland and the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland. 

Individual project work is an important part of the six-month training at UNU-LRT and is the main focus in the latter half of the training.  This year the fellows projects are very diverse, some are strictly scientific and include field- and lab work, mapping and use of GIS, as well as data handling and statistical analysis.  Others are closer to the field of social sciences and include surveys and examination of participatory approaches in land management, and evaluation of legal frameworks and policies related with grazing lands.

Last week, the 2011 UNU-LRT fellows participated in the annual one-week fieldtrip around Iceland. The fieldtrip is a vital part of the UNU-LRT six-month course and takes place after the course work has finished and before the fellows start to concentrate mainly on the individual project work. In the fieldtrip last week, the fellows were exposed to land degradation problems in Iceland and were introduced to different land use practices, research, Icelandic culture, and conservation work. Moreover, farmers were visited and the fellows met district consultants of the Soil Conservation Service.

Included in the UNU-LRT six-month course curriculum is training in environmental governance and land management planning.  The input of Ingrid Gevers from the Centre for Development Innovation, within the Social Sciences Group of Wageningen University and Research Centre (UR), has been highly significant in the development of this part of the training.  Ingrid has taught at our programme since its initiation in 2007 and her input and the cooperation with the Centre for Development Innovation in Wageningen has been effective and important for UNU-LRT.

Today the fellows of this year’s six-month training programme visited the Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA) and the Directorate for International Development at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA).

The Vice-Rector of UNU, Prof. Kazuhiko Takeuchi, visited UNU-LRT at its headquarters at Keldnaholt yesterday.  He was introduced to the current fellows of the six-month training programme, the UNU-LRT staff, some studies committee members, and the Director of SCSI and the Rector of AUI.  Prof. Takeuchi is also the Director of UNU-Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP) in Tokyo and we had good discussions on the importance of sustainable use of natural resources, restoration of degraded land, and the mutual benefits of creating cooperation between UNU-ISP and UNU-LRT.