Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Global Forestry (GloFor)

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)
• National Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences (AgroParisTech), Montpellier and Kourou campuses (France)
• Dresden University of Technology, 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)

Why choose Global Forestry?

The MSc programme in Global Forestry is a two-year outstanding integrated programme aimed at qualifying graduates with the diverse careers in forestry in medium and low-income countries.

Gain competencies

Through an outstanding, research based education, graduates will gain the required competencies for working with global forestry issues:

• a firm theoretical foundation
• practical and international experience
• openness to foreign cultures.

These are all competencies needed for working as a researcher or in tropical forest practice, e.g. with a development agency, consultancy company, NGO, international organisation, ministry, or governmental agency. Successful students will also be able to apply to high-level international PhD programmes.

Benefit from an international, cutting-edge educational scheme

The programme’s innovative features encompass:

• joint teaching of all students during their first semester through teacher mobility
• the combination of theory and field work, including in medium and low-income countries
• use of technology in teaching (pure e-learning as well as blended learning) across a wide range of modules; use of associate partners as internship hosts during thesis work
• support to achieve all specified learning outcomes through a wide range of teaching methods and assessment methods to cater for different student working and learning styles
• mobilisation of cross-consortium teaching resources in delivery of jointly taught courses.