Carbon Forestry, Forest Management Planning and Forest Inventory and Forest related Education in Freiburg
Report by Nehemia Gurusinga, Indonesia
I am a trainer working at Regional Environment and Forestry Education and Training Center in Samarinda. My main task is to support the institution in improving human resource quality of government officers and private employees working in Kalimantan Region through providing environment and forestry education and training programs.
The Forest Expert Program gave me opportunities to experience different aspects of becoming an independent learner from the beginning until the end of the program.
In Germany, I felt myself going upstream to learn about Carbon Forestry from the experts and actors who play different roles in forest carbon projects. I met with a person in connection with politicians who knows the background and updates of climate policies. Then, I also learned from scientists and project developers who formulated some methodologies of carbon accounting; an auditor who inspects and verifies carbon projects; a carbon marketer who helps industries/companies count their carbon footprints, and offers carbon credits to offset their emissions. Interestingly, the ambience of the learning was special as the participants come from 28 different nationalities and professional backgrounds. These multicultural compositions enabled lots of rooms to comprehend various perspectives on climate change, hence it felt like having a global classroom.
Going to different forestry offices, I learned about how the foresters practise a forest management to keep the forests being productive sustainably while maintaining the biodiversity at the same place. I also learned on how foresters are trained and upgraded for their professionalism in the forestry training center. Visiting the House of Forest was inspiring as I became aware that common people (non-foresters) could also benefit from learning activities in the forests. Such tactile experience has triggered me to create a similar forest education initiative in our training institute. Last but not least, I was impressed by the use of sophisticated tools and devices as well as the involvement of IT to support the forestry business in the country. Overall, my visit to the country was meaningful for my professional development, and the first-hand experiences have inspired me to formulate action plans as a way to share the knowledge and skills to other people.
Post Training Activities
After returning to my home country, I was preparing my presentation and formulated two action plans organised in SMART planning system. A week after my arrival, I made a formal presentation before my superior and colleagues sharing my experiences derived from the program. I also met with a manager of a local educational institution to promote my action plans.
I tried to keep in touch with Kenan from the House of the Forest in Stuttgart, and sought a possibility for future cooperation related to my action plans but until this report is written, Kenan is not replying three of my emails.
Action Plans
After the program in Germany, I have two action plans approved by my institution that need to be carried out in the near future. The first is a creation of an innovative forest education provided for common young adults (non foresters). Such a program is inspired by the activities of the House of the Forest. Together with two of my colleagues, I form a team that will initiate a sharing of forest education for the non-forester locals on May 5, 2018 conducted in the arboretum of our training centre. We focus on bringing more people to experience sensory exposure to the benefits of forest to mitigate climate change (details can be provided). We are designing the programs for different target groups along this year. The second is the creation of a carbon calculator system to estimate the carbon emissions of our institution and another business organisation. The plan is inspired by principles of carbon accounting learned from the Carbon Forestry course.
Nehemia Gurusinga