Recipient Organization
STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK
(N/A)
SYRACUSE,NY 13210
Performing Department
Adirondack Ecological Center
Non Technical Summary
Working as a subcontractor to Tetra-Tech, Inc., the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) proposes to conduct a US-India exchange tour in 2016 for Indian Ranger School Faculty with the ESF Ranger School in Wanakena and Syracuse, NYThe purpose of the exchange between ESF and Indian ranger school faculties is that this will be a contribution to establishing ecosystem approach to forest management (EAFM) in the institutions that teach many of India's field forest managers. This exchange will bring key faculty from these Indian ranger schools into contact with ESF Ranger School faculty who have years of experience teaching a curriculum similar to the DFE syllabus and the Forest-PLUS EAFM curriculum. The exchange will give Indian ranger school faculty observationalexperience and teaching methods to enable them to absorb EAFM and the DFE syllabus into their teaching.Current forest management practice in India still tends to manage forests for their physically extractable major (timber and wood fiber) and minor (NTFPs) economic resources. Although many current Indian forest policy documents support an EAFM, Indian forestry still does not have EAFM tools, techniques, and methods (TTMs), or has not incorporated such TTMs into forestry training, forest management planning (e.g., Working Plans), or forest management practices taking place in the field.The Partnership for Land Use Science (Forest-PLUS) program is a five year program designed and implemented by USAID/India and Government of India (GOI). Forest-PLUS contributes to USAID/India's Development Objective of accelerating India's transition to a low emissions economy by encouraging REDO+ spread widely as an approach to forest management. Forest-PLUS demonstrateshow improved conservation and management of forest ecosystems can reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and sequester atmospheric carbon while at the same time enhancing biodiversity health, environmental services, forest-based livelihoods and social uses. Forest-PLUS achieves these objectives by developing better tools, techniques, and methods for forest ecosystem management, scientific data acquisition and analysis, increasing individual and institutional capacities, and public awareness and environmental education. Forest-PLUS demonstrates this integrated approach in four pilot landscapes that represent a diversity of India's forest types, coordinating its efforts with the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC).A goal of the Forest-PLUS program is to develop and promote EAFM in India. Necessarily this is a long-term goal to which Forest-PLUS can contribute, but cannot achieve in the term of the program. Forest-PLUS' activities for its contribution to this goal include developing and demonstrating EAFM TTMs, but also developing and disseminating a modern, EAFM-based forestry curriculum, working in collaboration with Indian forestry teaching institutions.Forest-PLUS is working with the Directorate of Forestry Education (DFE). ForestPLUS is advising DFE as it revises its forestry syllabus. Forest-PLUS is also developing an EAFM curriculum, working not only with DFE, but also with Indian experts, the USFS, and Forest-PLUS subcontractors. DFE will incorporate the Forest-PLUS EAFM curriculum into its new syllabus and into its training of WorkingPlan officers.Awarded Start Date: 8/15/16Sponsor: Tetra Tech
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Objectives1. To complete an exchange between Indian ranger school faculty and ESF colleagues on their experiences and knowledge about subject matter, particularly EAFM, and effective teaching methods appropriate for field oriented forest managers.2. To allow Indian participants to discuss with experienced ESF colleagues the subject matter content of the new DFE syllabus and the most effective ways to teach the syllabus.3. To allow Indian participants to observe in person the teaching program of the highly regarded ESF Ranger School.4. To allow Indian participants to gain an international perspective on forestry education as a reference to improve their own teaching forestry in India.
Project Methods
The exchange will be 16 days including international travel. Participants will travel to the SUNY ESF Ranger School campus in Wanakena, NY (http://www.esf.edu/rangerschool/). The Ranger School faculty will host their Indian counterparts for one week in an exchange that will focus on discussing the topics and teaching methods appropriate for training forest rangers in modern field management of forest ecosystems. During the second week, the participants will meet with ESF faculty on the main campus in Syracuse to gain an understanding of the bachelor and master degree programs and course work. The program will reflect the teaching priorities identified by India's Directorate of Forestry Education (DFE), which include: 1) an ecosystem approach to forest management; 2) managing and enhancing non-extractive forest products such as ecosystem services; 3) measuring and monitoring forests for adaptive management,particularly ecological health and the productivity of non-extractive forest products such as ecosystem services; 4) the ability to collaborate productively with local communities and forest resource users; 5) the ability to think creatively, critically,and independently to solve field forest management issues. In addition, the DFE has called for modernizing the teaching methods India's ranger schools so they aremore interactive, hands-on, field-oriented, and make use of modern technology.The expectation is that the participants in the exchange, once they return to India, will be far better prepared to receive and teach effectively the new forestry training syllabus that DFE is preparing -a syllabus that incorporates many of the subject modules in the Forest-PLUS EAFM curriculum and topics that are taught at the Ranger School.Forest-PLUS, DFE, and the faculty of the ESF Ranger School will design a detailed exchange program that addresses these priorities.