Northern European Regional Meeting 2023

Modern Forestry = New Problems

11th April – 16th April 2023
Participation Fee: €150

Registration for NERM 2023 closes by 5th March 2023. Register now!

Officially!

Welcome to the official website of the NERM 2023 IFSA!

As the Warsaw LC, we are very pleased to present you with a description and schedule of our upcoming event

Having the pleasure of hosting you this year in Poland on the occasion of NERM 2023, we would like to introduce you to the way Polish forestry operates as the main economic branch of our country and to introduce you to the nature that surrounds us every day. We will introduce you to our primary forests, natural forests and their history, the ways in which our ancestors used nature’s goods and modern ways of protecting it. NERM 2023 will be educational, which you can read more about at the bottom, but there will be plenty of space for the most important aspect of our community – Our event is a great opportunity to make new friends and create lifelong friendships and loose fun!

The form of our event is a tour of a large part of Poland in order to visit places in Poland that are diverse in terms of the culture of our forestry. Ineach of these places there will be various activities and topics will be discussed in the form of lectures or interesting field activities, among others.

Day 1 and 2: 

After the participants arrive to Warsaw and start our event with a ceremonial welcome and presentation of our university, we will set off to the territory of the  Białowieża Forest – officially a natural treasure of Polish forests. Here, participants will have the opportunity to attend an interesting lecture on the impact of long-term changes in nature on strictly protected territories and visit a demonstration reserve of the unique fauna of the Białowieża Forest. This region of Poland is considered one of the most beautiful areas of Poland both in terms of landscape and culture, participants will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the spirit and traditions of the local people by taking part in a feast dinner.

Day 3 and 4: 

After leaving Białowieża, our stopover will be Ostrów Mazowiecka, where we will touch thematically on contemporary problems of forestry. Once again, participants will have the pleasure of attending a lecture hitting the issue from the economic side and learning about the problems gnawing at Poland’s forests.  

The rest of the time is dedicated to the Horns, the university’s place of many mating and scientific work, but also an experimental, but also practical space in which our students can get close to nature and learn, but also use the skills acquired from their studies in practice. Here we want to present to you what our studies entail, give you a chance to participate in scientific seminars conducted by the Departments of Forest Utilization and Department of Forest Management Planning from our faculty, and give you a little more space for integration by organizing an international evening.  

While in Rogów, a trip to Spała is planned, where participants will be presented with snippets of the history of Polish forestry and a pinch of tradition in the context of medieval beekeeping, which is returning to the modern aspect of forest use.

Day 5 and Day 6: 

At the end of our event, we will return to our nation’s capital, Warsaw, where participants will attend a seminar on modern forestry, where they will be able to present their work on modern problems that affect their countries in this space. Other IFSA-related activities like the traditional Auction and elections will also take place in Warsaw. 

The rest of the time is set aside for participants to take a guided tour of the old Warsaw city rebuilt after the war based on the paintings, as well as an individual immersion into the structure of the city. The last provided overnight stay including breakfast by NERM 2023 takes place on the night of 15.04-16.04.

 Białowieża:

Białowieża National Park is one of the first national parks in Europe (1932) and its boundaries include about 4,747 hectares of strict protection area. The importance of this park derives from the fact that one of the best preserved natural primary forests exists there. The park, as the pride of Polish forestry, is the site of the reintroduction of the largest of Europe’s mammals, the European Bison (Bos bonasus). The park was established on part of the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest, which is Europe’s only lowland forest preserved in its natural state.

Białowieża National Park is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has also been granted the status of a world biosphere reserve. A closed breeding center for the bison was established in the park, as well as show pens with the bison, deer, Polish horse and wolf. The purpose of visiting this place is to represent to the participants of the event the original nature of the forests of Poland

Rogów:

Rogów is a Polish village where the center of the Forest Experimental Station of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) has been established, with SGGW employees setting up their research plots and our university’s students taking their field classes. These forests are characterized by high biodiversity due to their experimental nature. They also boast many traces of the history of forest use. Within its borders there are also other important facilities for Polish forestry, such as the Museum of Forest and Wood or the Center for Nature and Forestry Education and the Arboretum. The latter, founded nearly 100 years ago, has to offer an extremely impressive collection of plants from all over the world, totaling some 3,200 species and varieties.  The pride of the place is the largest collection of maples, which is counted at nearly 180 species

Spała

Spała is a Polish settlement, the crowning place of many ancient traditions and historical facts. It is also the location of the Polish Landscape Park, the former hunting ground of the former kings of Poland, and now the Spała Hubertus (hunting festival) reunions. Throughout the village you will find many natural attractions like natural monuments and among them about 100 magnificent oak trees with a circumference of up to 5 meters. The purpose of the visit to Spała is to present participants with the cradle of Poland’s resurgent ancient beekeeping trade, which, thanks to the efforts of Polish foresters, can be popularized anew in the 21st century. Polish beekeeping has been internationally recognized and appreciated by its entry on the UNESCO list as an element of cultural heritage and tradition. We want to present beekeeping as an important element of human coexistence with nature and a testimony to the rational use of natural resources while remaining faithful to the principles of caring for the environment.

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital city of Poland. It’s here where our tour starts, where it ends and where OC’s university – Warsaw University of Life Sciences – is located. The most amazing thing about Warsaw is it’s history: it was almost entirely destroyed during World War II and then rebuilt. That’s the reason the entire city is mostly very modern and the most historical places are reconstructions. Since we’re already here, it’s impossible to not mention the Old Town, which was rebuilt based on paintings that were ordered by the last Polish king – Stanisław August Poniatowski from Italian painter, Bernardo Bellotto. This is the reason Old Town is a perfectly reconstructed version of Warsaw from 18th century. Warsaw has many worth seeing city parks with Royal Baths on the top of the list. Royal Baths is a big park and with Wilanów district – one of two places in whole city that remained intact during the war. The park is known for it’s many old, unique trees, plentiful of ponds and small lakes, peacocks marching through it’s paths and abundance of very friendly squirrels that eagerly go near tourists to get some (of course proper and healthy for them!) treats. If you prefer modern museums Warsaw has those too, the most famous ones are Copernicus Centre – an interactive center of of science and Warsaw Uprising museum – the best place to visit if you’re fond of history. The museum in a very captivating and accessible way introduces it’s visitor to newest polish history. So, in shortest words
possible: Warsaw is an extraordinary, diverse and safe place, where everyone can find an activity suitable for them. If you want to plan your free day there more specifically, please contact the OC! We’ll be happy to help!

The participation fee will be 150 €.

Since each country has their own forestry problems, NERM provides a unique opportunity to share these, practice soft skills and develop our knowledge.
Therefore each LC is required to prepare a 10-15 minute presentation about a forestry issue in their country.

The topic can be anything that you would like to show (e.g your ideas, your research, popular forestry problem etc.)
The deadline for sending theme of presentations to our email is the end of March (31.03)

You need to arrive to Warsaw (arrival at Chopin Airport is recommended) on April 11th at latest.

The meeting ends on April 16th

We are going to provide the main meals and housing during the trip but here’s some things you should bring by yourself:

BASIC FOOD ACCOMMODATION AND TRANSPORTATION BETWEEN EVENT SITES INCLUDED IN THE PRICE OF PARTICIPATION
Only breakfast is provided for the last day!

Hi, I’m Maria and some of you may know me from the 2022 IFSS in Chile.
I’m currently doing 2nd year of my engineer’s degree at Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Since I just started studying, I don’t have an area of expertise yet, but my main interest is wild game management.
Beside studying I’m a diehard dog person, I love hiking, riding my bike and building scale models. So excited to see y’all guys on a NERM 2023!

Maria Maszewska

Hello there,
My name is Patrycja and I am Head of the OC.  Also, I am a forestry engineer and currently studying for my Master’s degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. In forestry I am interested in wood.
I spend my free time in theatre and opera, which are my second home and work. I like dramatic performances and classical music. My favorite instrument is the violin, which is connected with my love for wood (I am still learning about lutherie’s wood).
I hope that during the NERM2023, you will get to know our (Polish) view of forestry and fall in love with Polish culture, land and forest!

Patrycja Kulak

Hi, my name is Marcin. Just a few days ago I managed to defend my forestry engineering degree at Warsaw University of Life Sciences. My field of specialization is geomatics. Some of the things I love are cycling, dashunds and roleplaying games. I hope that all of You will have a blast on this year’s edition of NERM!

Marcin Grądzk

Hi, I’m Michał. I’m on my 2nd year bachelor degree studies of forestry at Warsaw University of Life Sciences.

Michał Szczepaniuk

Hello there!
My name is Sylwia. I’m on fourth year of engineering studies.
I love forests, hiking, cycling and trips to the mountains. I like reading good books and watching series.

Sylwia Gołasiewicz

Hello, I’m Kacper and I’m just starting my Masters. I’ve only been on SERM before, so I’m very excited to see you guys and get to know each other. In my free time, I like reading books and playing board games. It would be really nice to see the view of forestry from the perspective of other countries and to show you how we do it.

Kacper Ćwiek

@ifsa_poland

polandnerm2023@gmail.com