10:33 a.m.
Dear IUFR Working Party on Resource Data in the Tropics:
Below is IUFRO Spotlight #90. Other Spotlights can be found at:
http://www.iufro.org/media/iufro-spotlights/
Regards,
Sheila Ward
Associate Coordinator
IUFRO WP 1.02.04
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: IUFRO Headquarters <office(a)iufro.org>
Date: Mon, Aug 30, 2021 at 1:22 PM
Subject: IUFRO Spotlight #90 - Employment and Sustainability in Latin
American Forests
To: Dear IUFRO Officeholder <mahoganyforthefuture(a)gmail.com>
[image: IUFRO Spotlight]
IUFRO Spotlight #90 - Employment and Sustainability in Latin American
Forests
*IUFRO Spotlight* is an initiative of the International Union of Forest
Research Organizations. Its aim is to introduce, in a timely fashion,
significant findings in forest research from IUFRO officeholders and member
organizations to a worldwide network of decision makers, policy makers and
researchers.
IUFRO will encapsulate, and distribute in plain language, brief, topical
and policy-relevant highlights of those findings, along with information on
where/how to access the full documents. The *IUFRO Spotlight* findings will
be distributed in a periodic series of emails as well as blog postings.
Employment and Sustainability in Latin American Forests
*Main Objective of Unique Entrepreneurship Guide*
PDF for download
<https://www.iufro.org/fileadmin/material/publications/spotlights/spotlight90-forest-entrepreneurship.pdf>
IUFRO and the International Forestry Students' Association (IFSA) – through
a Joint IUFRO-IFSA Task Force on Forest Education (JTF)
<https://www.iufro.org/science/task-forces/forest-education/> – have joined
forces with Reforestamos <https://www.reforestamosmexico.org/> in
developing an ambitious "how-to" forest-based entrepreneurship guide for
use throughout Latin America.
Reforestamos is a Mexico-based NGO with a mission to safeguard forest
landscapes needed for sustainable development in the region. It has, among
other initiatives, supported the creation of small and growing businesses
by people living in and from the forests.
The result of the IUFRO-IFSA-Reforestamos collaboration is the *Guide to
Forestry-Based Entrepreneurship*.
*José Carlos Martínez Hernández*, Director of Innovation at Reforestamos,
notes that more than 100 million youths in the region are affected by
unemployment. So the importance of strategies and programs to help those
young people enter the labor market and find decent jobs cannot be
over-emphasized.
By adding entrepreneurial strategies to existing technical knowledge,
Reforestamos helps businesses increase their economic, social and
environmental impact. And, for the past seven years the NGO has, through
its Young Forest Entrepreneur Initiative (YFE), conducted training for
7,000 forestry students in 12 countries. Several of these have been hosted
at major IFSA and IUFRO events in collaboration with the IUFRO-IFSA JTF.
"We consider sustainable entrepreneurship as one of the factors that
facilitates employment and protects forests," he said. "We are also working
to narrow the gender gap. We want more women participating in the YFE
program either as proposer of projects or as teachers actively involved in
the training.
"This guide is aimed at students of forestry-related programs. We believe
those programs could be strengthened and leveraged by adding social and
entrepreneurship topics and courses to their training," he added.
The NGO supports and is a part of international efforts to integrate the UN
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, from a forestry perspective,
ensure more and better managed forests.
The Reforestamos emphasis on entrepreneurship has lined up nicely with work
done by the IUFRO-IFSA JTF that also found a need for introducing and-or
strengthening business enterprise skills in forest engineering programs.
*Prof. Sandra Rodríguez*, of the Faculty of Animal Science and Ecology at
the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Mexico, and also IUFRO coordinator
for the entrepreneurship guide project, said the collaboration between
IUFRO and IFSA has helped them identify some of the gaps, as well as
strengths, in forestry education.
"Traditionally, forestry programs focus on the uses and processing of wood.
Studies emphasizing the establishment or actual implementation of
forestry-based business seem to be missing or marginalized.
"Because of the immense number of goods and services that forests provide,
the YFE program offers entrepreneurship training as an option for young
forestry professionals and helps fill that training gap.
"This guide, developed through the YFE experience, strives to reach more
young people and teachers to promote entrepreneurship as a skill that
complements the academic development of future forestry professionals," she
said.
The aim of the YFE program is to ensure that, by 2030, educational forestry
programs in Latin America will be training their students so that they may
undertake forestry entrepreneurial enterprises in a competent, professional
manner.
The guide defines forest enterprise as: the generation of products and
services that satisfy society's needs by means of the sustainable use of
forest resources.
In addition, the guide points out that forest enterprise boosts local
economies by generating sources of employment. Therefore, it is not only an
idea for generating money. The business model specifically promotes social
and environmental benefits generated by forests.
Those who use the guide will learn why forest entrepreneurship is
important; will see exactly what a forest enterprise is; and will find
follow-up steps to take after the enterprise is created.
The guide also elaborates on five tools essential to a successful start-up:
- Mapping of the Purpose – defining your passion, team building;
- Detection of Needs – listening, analyzing, understanding the needs of
those affected;
- Ideation – generating, developing and communicating new ideas about
the use of forest resources;
- Prototype and Validation – designing, testing the proposal;
- Key axes of the Project – detailing the enterprise, highlighting
impacts.
Scattered throughout the guide are a series of helpful and informative
links that range from information on the SDGs and how a project aligns with
them, to connecting the user to information on various aspects of the
process from other young foresters who have benefitted from using the
step-by-step.
The guide has been implemented in different scenarios at national and
international levels and is available in English at:
https://www.iufro.org/fileadmin/material/science/task-forces/tf-forest-educ…
Spanish version:
https://www.iufro.org/fileadmin/material/science/task-forces/tf-forest-educ…
*________________________________*
The findings reported in *IUFRO Spotlight* are submitted by IUFRO
officeholders and member organizations. IUFRO is pleased to highlight and
circulate these findings to a broad audience but, in doing so, acts only as
a conduit. The quality and accuracy of the reports are the responsibility
of the member organization and the authors.
Suggestions for reports and findings that could be promoted through *IUFRO
Spotlight* are encouraged. To be considered, reports should be fresh, have
policy implications and be applicable to more than one country. If you
would like to have a publication highlighted by Spotlight, contact: Gerda
Wolfrum, wolfrum(at)iufro.org <wolfrum(a)iufro.org>rg>.
The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) is the
only worldwide organization devoted to forest research and related
sciences. Its members are research institutions, universities, and
individual scientists as well as decision-making authorities and other
stakeholders with a focus on forests and trees.
Visit: https://www.iufro.org/
*________________________________*
*IUFRO Spotlight #90, published in August 2021*
*by IUFRO Headquarters, Marxergasse 2, 1030 Vienna, Austria. Available for
download at: **https://www.iufro.org/media/iufro-spotlights/
<https://www.iufro.org/media/iufro-spotlights/>*
*Contact the editor at office(at)iufro.org <office(a)iufro.org> or visit
https://www.iufro.org/ <https://www.iufro.org/> You are receiving this
message, because you are an IUFRO member or officeholder or have registered
for one of our web-based email distribution lists. If you wish to
unsubscribe from IUFRO Spotlight publications, please send us a short note
by e-mail (burger(at)iufro.org <burger(a)iufro.org>).*
*Imprint: https://www.iufro.org/legal/#c18944
<https://www.iufro.org/legal/#c18944>*
