SUFONAMA - Sustainable Forest and Nature Management

 

SUFONAMA -MSc in Forest Ecosystems, Nature and Society

As an MSc in Forest Ecosystems, Nature and Society, you work with the enormous challenges in balancing the use of natural resources, e.g. for agricultural production, and society’s demand and need for forests, nature and landscapes, e.g. for recreational purposes. You become an expert in managing the use of natural resources in profitable and sustainable ways and in managing major forest and nature preservation projects.

 

Read an interview with Barry McGonigal.

 

Admission requirements

A good first university degree

• High proficiency in English: 1) IELTS score: 6.0 or 2) TOEFL score: 560/IBT 83
• Strong personal statement of motivation
• Good recommendations from two references, of which at least one is academic
• CV

At the time of application, you must supply proof of your BSc degree as well as the required language test.

 

Profile

The SUFONAMA programme qualifies you to deal with the huge challenges in Europe’s pursuit of an evermore sustainable management of its natural resources, namely that the management of forest and nature areas must be seen in an integrated landscape context. You can choose to specialise in Conservation and land management, Economic management of forests and nature, Timber and non-timber forest product use and processing, Scandinavian and East European forestry or Mountain forestry and watershed management.

 

Career opportunities

Graduates will gain the required competences for working with sustainable forest and nature management issues: a significant theoretical foundation, practical and international experience and a cross-disciplinary approach. The successful student will be able to apply to high-level PhD programmes or pursue a career in, for example, international and government agencies, consultancy, private companies and NGOs.

 

Structure

The aim of the first year is to provide a thorough and broad introduction to sustainable forest and nature management. This allows students to choose freely among the five specialisations in the second year. The first year ends with the mandatory Joint Summer Module, including fieldwork at a variety of sites, which demonstrate a range of forest and nature types as well as diverse conservation and sustainability issues. The two-week Joint Summer Module field course alternates between the consortium countries.

 

The second year of the SUFONAMA programme gives the students the opportunity to specialise in one of five well-defined fields

• Conservation and land management (Bangor)
• Economic management of forests and nature (LIFE)
• Timber and non-timber forest product use and processing (Goettingen)
• Scandinavian and East European forestry (Alnarp)
• Mountain forestry and watershed management (Padova)

You complete your programme by writing a research-based thesis. Former students have worked on issues like:

• Impact of the climate on forests
• Forest conservation efforts
• Aggregation of spatial rainfall on flood modelling
• Temporal trends in nature-based recreation
• Quality development of plantations

Contact

Information on application deadlines and procedures can be found on the SUFONAMA website. www.sufonama.eu or by contacting the Erasmus Mundus Secretariat: .

 

SUFONAMA is offered by a consortium consisting of five European universities:

• LIFE – Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark

• Bangor University, Wales

• University of Goettingen, Germany

• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden

• University of Padova, Italy

 

Student life

Students enrolled in the SUFONAMA programme are part of a truly international study environment no matter at which of the five partner universities they study. Read an interview with Barry McGonigal, who studied his first year at LIFE in 2009-2010.

 

You are also welcome to contact current SUFONAMA students to learn more about the programme and student life.

 

SUFONAMA graduates have also established an alumni association.