As many as 16 Tropical and International Forestry students in S2 program from Georg-August University Goettingen (GAUG), Germany, conduct field practice in Wanagama forest. This activity is the follow-up to the MoU between UGM and GAUG.
Wanagama is chosen as a practice field due to the long history of successful rehabilitation of tropical forest by involving local community. The success of Wanagama rehabilitation becomes a public forest development model in Indonesia.
Deputy Dean for Research, Cooperation, Students and Alumni, Dr. Satyawan Pudyatmoko, S. Hut, M.Agr.Sc said that the 16 students are from Germany, Myanmar, Vietnam, China, Ethiopia, Nepal, Indonesia and several countries in Latin America. The purpose of the field practice is to prepare forest management plan based on forest multifunction as viewed from the ecology, social, economic, education and research aspects.
In the field practice, students are required to make an individual project according to their respective interests. "The students are in Wanagama from 13 November to 13 December 2011, while in the field they are accompanied by two supervisors from Germany, Prof. Dr. Hans Hoeffle and Dr. Sophie Graefe, as well as some lecturers of Faculty of Forestry UGM from 11 disciplines," Pudyatmoko said at Faculty of Forestry UGM, Monday (21/11).
Pudyatmoko said lecturers of Faculty of Forestry in this activity are involved in mentoring students in the form of providing inputs for the preparation of proposal activity, lectures and review of activity results. "Interestingly, the students both from Germany and UGM actively interact with each other in discussion for the retrieval of data and conduct interview with people around Wanagama. I hope through this activity, German and UGM students can mutually enrich their knowledge and experience in tropical forest science," he said.