COURSE FEE

REGISTRATION

COURSE ORGANISERS

INFORMATION

COURSE SCOPE AND BACKGROUND

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a relatively new climate change mitigation option. It is widely seen as a promising win-win strategy to simultaneously deal with the global challenge of climate change and worldwide deforestation and forest degradation. However, many remain sceptical about the desirability and effectiveness of REDD+ and there are still many technical, social and political challenges in designing and implementing REDD+. Moreover, concerns exist about REDD+’s impacts on other values of forests such as biodiversity and local livelihoods.
 
This post-graduate course focuses on these challenges and concerns from an interdisciplinary perspective. Through a set of interactive lectures, discussions and group-work assignments, participants from all over the world have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and understanding of current REDD+ debates, different scientific perspectives on REDD+, and the actual implementation of REDD+ activities from both a theoretical and practical perspective.

A broad range of cutting-edge topics related to REDD+ will be covered:

• History, political negotiations, governance, and design of REDD+ arrangements;

• Actors involved in REDD+, from global organisations and institutions to local levels;

• The technical and political challenges of establishing adequate, legitimate and inclusive REDD+ measuring, reporting and verification systems (MRV);

• How co-benefits, synergies and safeguards can be included in evolving REDD+ arrangements for climate mitigation;

• REDD+ in a broader context, i.e. how REDD+ relates to forest certification and forest management, payment for ecosystem services, and carbon markets;  and

• REDD+ finance and economics.

The post-graduate course is part of a week-long set of activities at Wageningen University focused on REDD+, beginning with a REDD+ symposium, open to the public, with prominent scholars and practitioners as keynote speakers. Parallel to the post-graduate course there is an authors’ workshop to discuss a forthcoming special issue on REDD+ in the journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. These activities are organised together to enable exchange among the participants of all events.

This course is an initiative of the recently established REDD@WUR network (http://www.redd.wur.nl/), which facilitates the exchange of knowledge and networking related to REDD+ within and beyond Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR). About 60 scientists from WUR are actively engaged in REDD+ research, including more than 20 PhD candidates. They cover disciplines related to forest governance, environmental policy, forest management, remote sensing and carbon monitoring, earth system science, and ecosystem services.

Learning outcomes:

After completion of the course, participants will have:

•   Broader knowledge of cutting-edge REDD+ research fields;

•  A better understanding of negotiations and key debates on REDD+;

•  The ability to critically reflect on REDD+ research;

•  Knowledge on combining natural and social scientific methodologies for REDD+ research;

•  Familiarity with important theories to analyse REDD+;

• The ability to develop policy options for REDD+ to address its many challenges;

In addition, participants will profit from being able to expand their network of academics and practitioners working in the field of REDD+ all over the world.

Learning methods:

The course will contain the following learning methods:

•   A one-day REDD+ symposium with prominent key note speakers;

•  Lectures on REDD+ from both natural and social scientific perspectives;

•  Poster presentations by course participants;

•  Group discussions on cutting-edge REDD+ issues;

•  Discussions with lead authors and practitioners in the field of REDD+; and

•  Discussions about own research: pitfalls and best practices.

GENERAL INFORMATION  

PROGRAMME

COURSE FEE*

* Fee includes drinks, lunches, diners and course materials

REGISTRATION

Please register by clicking here and filling in the document after which you send this to pe-office@wur.nl.

Within a few days after registration, you will receive an official registration confirmation by the PE-RC Office.

Deadline for registration is Friday 30 March 2012.

COURSE ORGANISERS

Organised by:

•  Environmental Policy Group (ENP)

•  Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group (FNP)

•  Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group (FEM)

•  Laboratory of Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing (GRS)

Organising committee:

Aarti Gupta (ENP), Martin Herold (GRS), Marielos Pena Claros (FEM), Niki de Sy (GRS), Marjanneke Vijge (ENP), Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers (FNP) and Claudius van de Vijver (PE&RC)

In collaboration with the graduate schools:

• C.T. de Wit Graduate School Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (PE&RC),

• Wageningen School of Social Science (WASS),

• Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE)

Sponsored by:

• Interdisciplinary Research and Education Fund of Wageningen University (INREF)

• COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)

• C.T. de Wit Graduate School Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (PE&RC)

• Wageningen School of Social Science (WASS)

• Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE)

On course content, please contact: Marjanneke Vijge (marjanneke.vijge@wur.nl).  

For information about registration contact PE&RC Office (office.pe@wur.nl)