Indonesian Forestry Students will host Forestry Students from across the world in the 37th International Forestry Students Symposium on 26 August to 9 September 2009. This annual Symposium will be held by the cooperation between UGM ad IPB. Before Indoneisa, Bulgaria have hosted the symposium in 2008 and South Africa have hosted the symposium in 2007.
IFSA (International Forestry Students' Association) is an organization that focuses on enriching the forestry students knowledge through formal education and improving international cooperation and their intern and professional partners network through the international forestry students symposium.
The symposium is entitled Forest Conservation: Balancing Utilization, Protection and Preservation, simposium and it will discuss how will the policy makers and forestry practitioner answer the demand on the continuous forest development from various fields. This approach is an integrated long-term plan to maintain the tropical forests of Indonesia. Some topics that will be discussed are forest governance, incentive scheme for forest-area society, carbon exchange, and forestry education. Approximately there will be 150 forestry students will learn about how Indonesia deal with global issues of forestry.
Policy makers such as the government, NGOs, researchers and other stakeholder will also present at the event. The Organizing Committee President Akhmad Viko Zakhary hoped that the 2009 IFFS can expand students’ knowledge about forestry issues and its management. He also hoped that this symposium can be a basic for students to become a better future leader and forest manager.
Indonesia have suffered from forest degradation since 1990. The imbalance of utilization, protection and maintenance of forest are the main factors of the tropical forest loss in Indonesia. Forest degradation will cause the loss of forests’ potential resources such as woods, natural diversity and forests’ ecology.
(Public Relations of UGM)