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.

SEANAFE undertakes its third theme project on Enhacing Forestry Policy Education in collaboration with the Regional Community Forestry Training Center (RECOFTC) starting 23 June to October 2008.  The project aims to strengthen capacities of faculty members from SEANAFE member institutions in teaching forest policy analysis and effective communication, and produce teaching materials in national languages in support of the first objective.

SEANAFE is now accepting applicants for the second batch of its MS Research Fellowship.  Applicants must be nationals of its member countries i.e.,  Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. A total of 10 fellowships shall be awarded at US$1,500/grantee.  Deadline for application is 1 August 2008.  For further details, please read related announcement.

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) approved the no-cost extension and budget reallocation of SEANAFE’s Phase 2 grant operation through a letter issued to ICRAF dated 3 June 2008.

The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE) recently published this policy brief which consolidates the recommendations of the First Global Workshop on Forestry Education held in September 2007 at ICRAF in Nairobi, Kenya.  The workshop, held under the auspices of the International Partnership for Forestry Education (IPFE), called for changes in forestry education, research and practice.