Global Forestry (GLOFOR) is a two-year English language world-class Erasmus Mundus MSc programme preparing graduates to deal with forestry’s tremendous contemporary challenges and potentials with the problems of biodiversity protection, climate change, and the development of a circular bio-economy.
Applications for GloFor are now open – EU, EEA and Swiss citizens are allowed to apply till 1 March 2024.
Why global forestry?
Deforestation and forest degradation account for 10-15 % of the world’s greenhouse gas emission, contribute massively to the global loss of biodiversity, and undermine the livelihoods of millions of people who depend heavily on forests and the uncultivated environment for their livelihoods.
These processes predominantly take place in middle and low-income countries in the Global South. However, the causes of deforestation and forest degradation are complex and linked to climate change, poverty and profit-driven agricultural expansion, unsustainable logging, unjust distributions of forest and land rights, and the lack of effective mechanisms to conserve nature without undermining rural livelihoods.
On the other hand, forest resources hold great potential. Indeed, a global transformation towards an equitable and green economy will not be possible unless forests in medium and low-income countries come under sustainable forms of utilisation and protection.
The Global Forestry consortium
A consortium of five European Universities with extensive experience in global forestry offers the programme:
- Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Prague (Czech Republic)
- Paris Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences (AgroParisTech), Montpellier and Kourou campuses (France)
- Technische Universität, Dresden, Institute of International Forestry and Forest Products, (Germany)
- University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics (Denmark)
- University of Padua, School of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (Italy)
The GloFor Consortium also includes associate Partners, among which the following academic Universities in the Global South:
- Institute of Forestry at Tribhuvan University in Nepal
- Faculty of Forestry at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania
- The Resource and Environmental Geography Working Group at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon
- Hawassa University Wondo Genet, Ethiopia
- The Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales-LISEA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The GloFor Universities all have significant experience in research-based teaching on global forestry. The GloFor Programme thus provides you with a single entry point to top-level and up-to-date teaching.
Programme structure
Students get a thorough introduction to forestry’s local and global role in middle and low-income countries during their first year. All students complete their first semester in Copenhagen, where faculty from all GloFor Universities join the teaching activities. During February, the first year, all students and one teacher from each GloFor University participate in a joint field course in a middle or low-income country. Then, students move to either Dresden or Padua to complete their first year.
In their second year, students pursue a particular line of specialisation in any one of the five GloFor Universities:
- Livelihoods and Governance(Copenhagen)
- Management and Policy(Dresden)
- Tropical Forest Ecology(Kourou & Montpellier)
- Social and Environmental Responsibility(Padua)
- Agroforestry Systems(Prague)
The Erasmus Mundus Programme
Read more about the Erasmus Mundus Programme at the European Commission website where you can also find a useful FAQ table, studies, statistics and other useful information about the programme.
For more information: https://globalforestry.eu/
