New IUFRO Initiative to Improve Forest Sciences Study Programmes: the Task Force EFS (Education in Forest Sciences)

The system of higher education has been facing fundamental changes, triggered by globalization and global change, altering expectations of stakeholders and society from university graduates and novel insights of educational sciences – calling for a move from teaching to learning. Programmes of higher forest education have been challenged even more by changing societal demands, such as climate change, changing patterns of demands for ecosystem services, and novel resource governance systems. The development of forest sciences as well as of forestry curricula should adapt to or even anticipate those trends. Consequently development of forest sciences curricula should move towards: • Focusing on generic and methodical competences instead of contents and descriptive approaches, enabling graduates to tackle novel, complex problems; • Competences to integrate and communicate knowledge across disciplinary boarders and to analyze the existing interactions; • New learning units addressing challenges such as climate change, adaptive ecosystem management, governance systems, gender issues, forests as source of energy, role of forests and forest products in rural development and poverty alleviation as well as the assessment of other environmental and social impacts. The IUFRO Task Force on Education in Forest Sciences (EFS – http://www.tf-efs.proste.pl) is an attempt to answer to the growing demand for coordination of research based knowledge and education at university level. The objective of EFS IUFRO TF is an improved practice of Education in Forest Sciences worldwide. EFS therefore aims at contributing to development of standards of Education in Forest Sciences, which meet the requirements of today, using experiences and examples of good practice in the IUFRO community and cooperation with higher education experts. Part of this is the development of a framework on required competences of graduates of education in forest sciences, to be characterized in terms of skill dimension, context, and level of mastery. This will be based, among others, on focus group discussions with higher forestry education specialists worldwide