Forest researchers from around the world gather in Bangor!

The School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography played host to the annual conference of the Forests, Nature and Society (FONASO) consortium last week. FONASO is a world-class programme funded by the European Union aimed at educating the leaders of the future generation of scientists and managers working with sustainable forest and nature management, in both tropical and temperate regions, for wider societal benefits. The FONASO programme is offered by a consortium of seven universities: (i) University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Coordinators), (ii) Bangor University, UK (iii) Dresden University of Technology, Germany(iv) AgroParisTech, France, (v) University of Padova, Italy (vi) Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, and (vii) University of Gottingen, Germany. The Universities will work in research partnership with (i) Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Indonesia, (ii) University of British Columbia, Canada, (iii) James Cook University, Australia, (iv) World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Kenya, and (v) Dalhoff Larsen & Hornemann, Denmark.

The programme has provided scholarships for over >40 PhD students of >20 different nationalities who attended the conference in Bangor University’s Management Centre from 20 – 22 May, 2015, along with faculty members from the participating universities. The Bangor coordinator of the programme, Prof Morag McDonald, said “this programme has been a fantastic opportunity for us to recruit highly qualified doctoral students which have enhanced our research partnerships with European universities and our partner institutions, and trained a global cadre of forest researchers”.

Fonaso Field Trip 2015

Publication date: 26 May 2015