EFI-IFSA-IUFRO Project

Green jobs – The future of employment in the forest sector

Global student networking and green jobs in the forest sector
A Joint EFI-IFSA-IUFRO Capacity Development Project

The forest sector has been facing significant changes over the years including globalization, digitalization, changing societal demands and climate change. Thus, the nature of employment in this sector is shifting. Occupational demands keep changing, and the newly evolving “green jobs” promote sustainable development as well as the general well-being of the people. For students, our future decision makers, these developments offer a broader potential professional spectrum, and they will need adequate training to be equipped with the skills required for the new jobs. We do not know of the extent of the changes in employment, as well as the level of preparedness of students. This project will investigate the transforming employment trends in the forest sector while putting special focus on the perspective of students and recent graduates from around the world. It will further explore ways to prepare future foresters for the expected changes.

Please also see our project flyer for further information:

The project ended on April 2022, thank you all for your support throughout the entire duration of the project.

New Publication Alert!

What are students’ perceptions about their studies? Understanding this is crucial in addressing the declining interest among young people to pursue studies and careers related to forests. The paper “Passion for nature: global student motivations for forest-related education and career aspirations” explores where the interest to pursue forest-related programmes stems from among students as well as their career aspirations. This is an output of the EFI-IFSA-IUFRO Project!

Factsheets

Students

Global students Survey

Universities

Universities

Policy Makers

Policy Makers

FINAL EVENT
EFI-IFSA-IUFRO Global student networking and green jobs in the forest sector

Date: 7th April 2022
Time: 14:00 to 15:30 (Central European Time)

Recording of the event available here: https://youtu.be/RkS-rzJGEfQ

The joint capacity development project “Global student networking and green jobs in the forest sector” that has been running from December 2018 will be coming to an end in April 2022. The project partners are organizing a final virtual event for students, early career professionals, universities, and policy makers!

Aims of the final event:
• To show case the behind-the-scenes of the tasks carried out by the project team and disseminate the outputs from the project.
• To highlight how the ambitious goals of the project were executed.
• To share the significant progress and contributions the project has made to the understanding of the trends in the global forest sector labour market including green jobs.
• To allow the audience to know how the project facilitated communication and networking by speaking at various international conferences, organizing workshops, publications, and working with diverse stakeholders globally, from students to lecturers, top scientists and forest-related employers, and organizations working on similar topics and projects.

Find out about the different project activities:

Global students Survey

Educating towards forest-related employment

Global students Survey

Expert workshop

on forest sector employment, green jobs and forest education

Expert workshop

Dare to Explore!

Traineeship Program

Dare to Explore!

Employer interviews

Students interviewing employers

Employer interviews

Meet the project team

Juliet Achieng from Kenya, recently graduated from the MSc. Tropical and International Forestry Program at University of Göttingen. She brings in experience in research, advocacy, communication, education and networking in the field of forestry from different continents – Africa, Asia and Europe. Juliet.Achieng[at]efi.int

Lisa Prior from Germany holds a MSc in Forest Science and Forest Ecology from the University of Göttingen. She is the former Vice-President of IFSA and has the experience in global student networking, project management and strong passion in helping students to reach their full potential.
Lisa.Prior[at]efi.int

Presentations and Publication

“Trends in forest-related employment and tertiary education: insights from selected key countries around the globe”

Authors
Juliet Achieng Owuor, ‪Lukas Giessen, Lisa C. Prior, Damiano Cilio, Georg Winkel
Published on 29.10.2021

The study highlights trends in forest-related employment, including green jobs, in seven selected countries: Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, South Africa and the United States of America.

The report also provides insight into how forest-related tertiary education in these countries is addressing these trends, which can be summarised in the following points:

  • Employment in “traditional” forestry focused on timber production and logging is on the decline.
  • The use of innovative wood-based products is on the rise.
  • The importance of environmental services to society for employment is on the rise.
  • Job quality in the forest sector remains a challenge.
  • A shortage of forest workers is being experienced in countries like Finland and Germany.
  • Important knowledge gaps in forest-related employment and education remain.

Download the report here:

Expert workshop – Madrid

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization organized a workshop on 25th-26th June 2019 with the theme “Facing challenges, exploring opportunities and increasing the capacity of UNECE member states”. The workshop was held at the University Polytechnique of Madrid and brought together the Team of Specialists from UNECE member countries and other invited participants. Our presentation was titled “Reality check for green jobs in the forest sector” and was the highlight of the second day of the workshop. It sparked interesting discussions on the need for aligning forest education and training activities with the future needs. After the discussion, there was increased enthusiasm on how the youth can be involved in such discussions.

You can view the presentation here:

Find out about the latest project news:

Other publications

This project is supported by:
The German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL)