Highlights of the student-faculty dialogue to improve forestry education in Southeast Asia

The role of forestry has apparently extended to managing trees in landscapes outside forests brought about by the rapidly changing societal demands for forest products and services. While the sector tries to manage sustainable forest production, it also faces the complexity of ensuring conservation to balance the demands of its multi-stakeholders. This indicates the need to have an improved capacity in the forestry profession. Two international meetings have been conducted recently with the aim of discussing ways to improve forestry education. These were firstly, the ‘First Global Workshop on Improving Forestry Education’ organized by the African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE) in September 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya and secondly, the meeting on ‘Establishing an Asia-Pacific Forestry Education Network’ organized by SEANAFE and Melbourne University as a side event during the Asia-Pacific Forestry Week in April 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Participants of these meetings, who were mostly from academic, research and other learning institutions, identified major concerns confronting forestry education and offered possible options to address them. However, improvements in forestry education require concerted efforts from all stakeholders. With student enrolments apparently declining in most Southeast Asian (SEA) countries, there is even more reason to hear their opinions, considering that they constitute the new generation of forestry professionals, to help address the demands and challenges that the sector is facing now and in the near future.

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