New degree program: Socio-ecological forest management, B.Sc.
#Measures for climate adaptation#Conservation of nature and environment#Education, science and research
About the project
In December 2021, the degree program had initially taken an important hurdle with the name "Social-Ecological Forest Management": The management of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) in Eberswalde had decided to include the Bachelor's program, which is currently under development, in its future teaching program. We are pleased to announce that the new Bachelor's degree program "Social Ecological Forest Management" at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development will be available from the beginning of June 2024.
As an integral part of the course, various student research projects (such as a current forest project in Galicia) will be offered in the future.
Socio-ecological forest management clearly stands for the direction to be taken, namely towards people. But the starting point is the ecosystem in which and from which we live. In this respect, ecological primacy means that forests as ecosystems must be functional and adaptable in order to remain efficient and usable.
Why we fund
We believe that in the course of a socio-ecological transformation, forestry also needs to be reinvented because the fundamental requirements for this discipline have changed. This also has to do with knowledge about the forest, but not only. In fact, the first step and an important concern of this degree program is to reconcile our knowledge of the forest ecosystem and our interaction with it.
The current forest crisis in Germany and worldwide is also a starting point. Forests are being lost, cut up and polluted with substances foreign to the ecosystem, while drought, heat and intensive use are worsening their health. Biodiversity is dwindling. Entire regions are characterized by dying trees, and new plantations are far from always successful. At the same time, the global demand for wood and the need for the diverse ecosystem services provided by forests is growing. An overarching theme of the degree program and a guide through the diversity and complexity of forest-related issues is adaptive management - forest management as a learning system.
Peter Wohlleben, forester and author, is also pleased that all the hurdles have now been overcome and doubts dispelled:
If life is the highest good, then education is the key to the highest good.
