Postgraduates Institute Technical University of North Ecuador
Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources University of Freiburg Germany
International Summer School: Biodiversity, local knowledge and climate change in the Andean - Amazon region: many challenges, one goal OBJECTIVES: Explore the professional and institutional capacities of ALUMNI in Latin-America for developing a scientific agenda for research and education on the question of how to generate and diffuse knowledge about local potentials for biodiversity, wellbeing and governance. This includes in particular (1) the exchange of knowledge and experiences on research and technology transfer in the area of biodiversity conservation and forest management in the framework of climate change (2) the identification of opportunities to foster cooperation between research and education, in particular the establishment of an Andean-Amazon Alumni biodiversity network for research and education supported by German universities. PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES: - all Latin American Countries DATE:
04.05.2014 - 14.05.2014
PROGRAMME LANGUAGE:
Spanish
PROGRAMME FEES:
covered by scholarship
SCHOLARSHIP includes: - Subsidy to travel (reimbursement after arrival, according to country of origin up to 500 Euro) - Board and lodging during the course - Programme fees (incl. transport, study material, field trips)
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APPLICATION: Personal requirements: - Alumni of a German Universities holding a degree/ PhD or at least having spent a three month period at a Germany university (exchange programme, internship) - Researcher/ PostDoc with at least three month working experience at a German University or research institute - English language working level. Online application by email: pmaguirre@utn.edu.ec and cc: reiner.muehlsiegl@io.uni-freiburg.de Documents:
- Motivation/ specific interest to participate this programme - Abstract (max. 250 words) for a presentation/poster for one of the workshop topics (listed end of page) - CV (short) specifying your work experience - Copy of degree/ certificate/ scholarship/ work contract of the German university or research institute
Application deadline:
Sunday 30.03.2014
Selection of candidates: Selection committee will decide first week in April You should be able to make a presentation regarding the following topics: 1. Governance. Both, informal and formal institutions play a role in local decision making on natural resources. It will be discussed how contexts with a low degree of governmental intervention could benefit from the consideration of local rules, and how formal and informal institutions can be combined for the establishment of more effective natural resource governance mechanisms at the local scale. 2. Education and Communication. Although much information about natural resource management and climate change exist, only a small proportion of that information makes it way to local resource users. It will be discussed how relevant information could be more effectively delivered to local natural resource managers. 3. Commercial Resource Management. It is widely accepted that tropical ecosystems house an enormous economic potential, however in practice there are enormous barriers for translating this potential into urgently required local income. It will be discussed, what the opportunities for a commercial use of tropical ecosystems exist for local people. 4. Cultural and local knowledge. As pointed out, the value and importance of local knowledge and culture is commonly accepted, but approaches for development and conservation nearly exclusively rely on externally defined proposal for management and organization. It will be discussed, what the relevant local and cultural knowledge is, and how this knowledge could be translated in public policies, and injected in the agenda of governmental and non-governmental organisations. 5. Gender perspectives. Despite it is widely agreed that the adequate consideration of gender aspects is crucial for the success of conservation and development, still these aspects are often overseen in practice. It will be discussed, what the real relevance of gender is, and how to more effectively incorporate theses aspects in the practical work of development relevant organisations. 2