Malaysia shall become SEANAFE’s newest country member by February 2009. This is the agreement reached by 14 participants from 4 universities and 2 government agencies during an organizational meeting to establish the Malaysian Network for Agroforestry Education (MaNAFE) held on 24 November 2008 at Residence Hotel of University Tenaga Nasional, Selangor, Malaysia.

Fifteen researchers from ThaiNAFE member institutions shared research experiences during a 1-day Agroforestry Seminar held on 22 November 2008 at Kasetsart University (KU), Bangkok, Thailand.

In commemoration of its 72nd year annniversary, the Kasetsart University-Faculty of Forestry (KUFF) implemented the FORTROP II International Conference on ‘Tropical Forestry Change in a Changing World’ on 17th-20th November 2008 at KU’s Golden Jubilee Hall in Bangkok, Thailand.

Participants to SEANAFE’s “Student-Faculty Dialogue to Improve Forestry Education in Southeast Asia” recognized the need to enhance the regional perspective and multidisciplinary nature of forestry as a study program among universities in Southeast Asia. This consensus is targetted to (a) highlight the multiple and evergrowing functions of forestry beyond national concerns, and (b) improve the competitiveness of graduates for job opportunities at a more regional scale.

Twenty-two heads and website administrators of ThaiNAFE attended a 1-day workshop on Global Forestry Information System (GFIS) on 17 November 2008 at Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. The workshop was a collaborative undertaking among SEANAFE, the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO), and ThaiNAFE.

Twenty-three rectors , vice rectors, and deans of VNAFE member institutions, including members of its Board, and representatives from selected government agencies met on 12-13 November 2008 in Dalat City, Lam Dong Province to institutionalize their commitment and enhance collaborations among them toward sustaining network operation.

SEANAFE welcomes the newest member of its Board in the person of Dr. Vo Dai Hai from Vietnam. He was elected to the position during the SEANAFE Board’s 16th meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia on 19-21 August 2008. He will serve for 2 years as Board member effective 1 September 2008 until 31 August 2010.

SEANAFE’s experiences on “Building Capacity toward Region-wide Curriculum and Teaching Materials Development in Agroforestry Education in Southeast Asia” was among the 40 papers presented during the UNESCO-organized Asia Pacific Conference on Higher Education held on 24-27 September 2008 in Macau, SAR, China. 

The SEANAFE Board came up with major decisions and matters for action during its 16^th meeting on 19-21 August 2008 in Jakarta, Indonesia on sustaining the operation of  the network.

  Read More...

The Philippine Agroforestry Education and Research Network (PAFERN) was recently tapped by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to assess its Forest Program nationwide. 

The SEANAFE Board, during its 16th meeting in August 2008 in Indonesia, approved the applications of two Vietnamese and 1 Filipino as grantees for the second batch of SEANAFE MS Research Fellowship. The grantees and their university affiliation and research topics are as follows:

Teams Vietnam and Philippines of SEANAFE’s Agroforestry Landscape Analysis (AFLA) Project have recently conducted their incountry trainings in August and September 2008, respectively. A total of 48 lecturers (i.e., 20 from Vietnam and 28 from the Philippines) from 40 SEANAFE member institutions benefited from these trainings.

A 3-day training on Global Forestry Information Service (GFIS) will be conducted for web administrators of SEANAFE country networks and ICRAF-SEA on 21-23 August 2008 at Aston Rasuna Tower in Jakarta, Indonesia.

SEANAFE recently approved and signed contracts with its country networks to implement their respective special projects for 2008. The special projects are part of SEANAFE’s budget reallocation which was approved by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in June 2008.