voilà, Montpellier

And here it is, live and (in)direct from the south coast of France, some words from another great sutroforian...Phil.

My experiences of Montpellier so far have been mixed. Before I went there I was quite worried that I wouldn't be able to follow the courses, as I did not speak french except for a few words. However I saw that as an extra challenge and thus opportunity, plus I though the change of climate would more than compensate for this.  When I asked  the SUTROFOR coordinator for Montpellier about my chances to get accepted there and eventually graduate as well, he was very optimistic and encouraged me. When I told him that I speak some Spanish too, he assured me that there would be no problems.
Without taking a preparatory language course, I joined the preparatory module "Foret tropicale humide" in French Guyana. This trip has been very different from the trips to Sarawak and Tanzania, because it was a little introduction to tropical forests in general. "What are the tropics? What is tropical forest? What is soil? What is so special about tropical forestry?" At first I did not really understand anything they said  as everything was french, however since my background is forestry and CPH gives an ample overview of tropical forest issues, I could actually follow the courses. The first 2 weeks we had courses that were held in a classroom on the CIRAD campus, paired with small excursions, day trips etc. to illustrate. I experienced this as a very tangible and holistic way of introducing students to the tropical forest context. For me it was very frustrating, as I had heard about the greatest part of the course matter and understood, but was not able to ask questions and take it beyond the introductory level, especially in the face of the apparent expertise of the lecturers.
The third week was data collection for a group project and week 4 analysis and presentation of the results. It was a very relaxed (in terms of workload) month and in my opinion also had the purpose of giving the group a good start together and leveling the background for those few who had never heard about all these things. French Guyana is an incredible french colony, with astonishing nature on the one hand and European style infrastructure on the other hand. There are no parasites in the rivers and no malaria or dengue etc around. I like to describe it as a tropical Disneyland.

Directly after Guyana courses started with usual introduction week (i was told) and after that modules are organised weekly, i.e. one 1,5 ECTS module e.g. Agroforestry = one week of exclusively AF courses and the exam later on. They invite many guest speakers often from CIRAD, INRA or IRD, etc that lecture on a specific topic within the subject.

SUTROFORs are part of the french Master 2 course "GEEFT" so there are no special courses for us and we just go with the rest of the course. However, the SUTROFOR 2nd year courses are not exactly the same as the GEEFTs (in fact we just have to do less) and I took me an awfully long time to find out which courses I needed to take, as I had heard many subjects in CPH already and there was conflicting information of the SUTROFOR.eu and GEEFT website about the SUTROFOR courses. Unfortunately my coordinator wouldn't even mind my constant reminders, requests and visits to his office. After this had been going on for almost 4 weeks he finally gave me the information that he is not responsible for that. :D
After contacting the GEEFT coordinator it turned out to be a matter of printing an excel sheet with the correct info.

So a big downside of Montpellier is that there is no help in organising your studies there, so sometimes I didn't even realise that I had not understood sth., or failed to ask if this is different for SUTOFORS. But some things seem to be unorganisable. There are no dates for the exams, for example.The AF exam was announced 2 weeks before, which makes it a bit hard to plan ahead. However, there is also some flexibility, e.g. I was allowed to make a distance exam.

The Master thesis will take the shape of an "internship" at a company or research institute that provides guidance, supervision and some sort of a payment as this is a french law. Although it is still somewhat obscure, it seems like there is still some freedom in deciding what, how and how long you want to do your thesis internship. We will finish courses in mid February to mid march (depending on electives) and have until September for the thesis.

Summarising the school, it offers high quality but relatively low level education. Where you had to read a bunch of papers to prepare for a class and discuss the problems in more depth in CPH (although still not enough for my taste), you just come to class here and listen to a good summary of the topic. But the level does not stay behind because of students or teachers incapacity but because it is simply not possible to discuss REDD or governance in 3 hours in a way that prepares us to work these issues later.

Of course I still suffer from my rudimentary french that by now allows me to ask questions and make comments, but that is often misunderstood or taken as a sign of me not understanding the topic, e.g. " No Philipp, you see, trees sequester carbon in their wood...". Unluckily the french students are not too eager on asking questions either, so what I mostly see at school is a good summary of things I already heard. Montpellier for me with background in natural sciences from forestry and some social sciences from CPH is rather a first year institution (although I guess I don't know the other criteria).
The language is not really a problem for exams I believe, as international students get an extra 30min for exams and can answer in English. However I have only taken one exam so far and i don't know how it turned out. Also this rule does not seem to be firmly rooted because some lecturers didn't know about it, seemed reluctant or made other suggestions. I did write some reports for group work and these have to be in french. This means you will pass it as it is group work and the others will work more if you cant. Here your level of french just determines how much "dead weight" you are for your group. Although writing in English and translating afterwards works fine, organising the group work, discussing focus etc and especially making sure your group sticks to the plan and a new last minute plan is not evolving without you is very hard.

Other than this, I love living in Montpellier. I went to school by bike in t-shirt, the french students are really open and friendly. They included me when I wasn't even able to talk with them and helped me a lot learning the language. I actually share a flat with 5 other french students from my campus. Speaking of the campus, it is very small and nice, the whole class (GEEFT+SUTROFOR) is about 25 people and has courses together except for group work etc. I love the french way of enjoying good things, especially their eating culture. Although 2 hours lunch break seems a bit of an exaggeration sometimes it reflects the importance of having enough time to prepare good food and enjoy it without any pressure.
The city centre is really beautiful reminding me a bit of Venice, just somewhat more Spanish with small alleys in pastel colors and a lovely atmosphere.
I pay about 200€ for my shared flat. In fact I even share a room, but there are standard student residences of ca 15m2 for 200-300€.
The Mediterranean sea is half an hour from the city, but i haven't been there yet. Nightlife is confined to bars that close around 1 during the week and 3 on weekends. There is some good music places and Mitch told me the opera is only 3,50.
Ok before I tell you about cheese wrapping paper I will call this a little account of my 2nd year so far. Contact me if you have more specific questions.

A plus
Phil

Prifysgol Bangor

All right, a few words on Bangor and some of my impressions being here as a second year sutrofor student. I'll also try to cover some aspects on a bit of everything, so academics, the place, the uni, etc.

My student life revolves around the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography (SENRGY), located at the Thoday building below the main university hub (like below the hill) but closer to Bangor's High Street (one of the bussier streets). Across the street is the Deniol library, where (as you know by now) you'll be spending some fun quality time too. About Thoday, I'll just say it has a focal point at a common room equiped with some tables and chairs, all the hot water you need (you supply your tea and coffee), a mini-fridge and a microwave oven; for some reason, the building also has lots of doors (irrelevant comment, just had to say it). It's convenient to be able to bring your lunch and keep the tea flowing, but quite frankly I miss a student cantine here; there are however a bunch of commercial food places nearby. About the School I'll say it's a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere, lecturers are nice and very approachable and they know their subject. There's plenty of talks here and there by resident and invited lecturers, not only forestry related but other fields like conservation and things going on in North Wales, and since the school is relative small it's easy to hear about them and attend. Makes for nice alternative informative sessions. Sutrofors are taught with the Agroforestry postgraduate course, so altogether we're 10 students sharing the same classes (also international). There's two main courses running, you can check the details in the sutrofor page. Overall the focus is definitely on agroforestry and the subject is covered by multiple lecturers with different styles and approaches. Some have an agricutural background, others are foresters, some are into livelihoods and others dig systems views and/or local knowledge, some like the temperate areas and others love the tropics (overall there's more focus on the tropics), and everyone is pretty much a tree fan. The rhythm is quite variable but surely keeps you bussy. Oh yes, grading is based on reports and presentations. There's also a parallel class on research methods, which you share with pretty much all other masters students, so much bigger class (nice). It's a one-day-per-week class, which covers (very quickly) as the name would suggest all aspects of research. A bit redundant maybe for some of us in our second year, but good refresher and a few new things. Some days are in class, others in the field (one day was a voluntary trip to participate in rhododendron control in the mountains, cool even with rain). The class also covers GIS and remote sensing, a couple good classes and computer practicals on that, also based on some field collected data. Also worth mentioning that the school organizes additional field excursions which make for a enjoyable day out in the nearby mountains and farms. Ah yeah, and I almost forgot, classes here run until december (a few days before x-mas) and then you're off to focus on your thesis. You can attend more classes if you wish, that is the agroforestry courses (the masters taught postgraduate with the other students) keep running for a couple more months, but you're basically on to your thesis. Must be said, at the beginning there was some confusion as to when we were supposed to hand in our thesis, first it was said may, now its september, slight difference!, although we're welcome to finish early. I dunno how it will be next year, would be good to ask as this is an ongoing general discussion among all sutrofor institutions.


Regarding thesis subjects, it's notable that topics are pretty much unlimited as are locations. Now this can be good in terms of flexibility (not so helpful when you are undecided). You are not particularly obliged to do something within Agroforestry, although of course it's in your interest and AF is quite a broad subject anyway. Researchers in the school (SENRGY) have broad fields of interest. Asides from the whole agriculture-agroforestry-forestry spectrum, there are a lot of excellent lecturers involved with conservation or rivers-catchments or geospatial analysis for example, and one current AF classmate of mine is gona work with a supervisor (from another school) to look into rice genetics. If anyone wants to really get more specific, drop me an email and I'll send you the list of research opportunities from all faculty members (the one we got his year) for you to browse. It's also worth mentioning that location is also completely open, it can be North Wales, for which there is a lot of interesting research going on, e.g. the school has a silvopastoral experimental station in Henfaes, is involved with the Treborth botanical garden, and next building is the Environment Centre Wales on a partnership with the U.K.'s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Of course, tropical foresters as we are, north Wales rain is tolerable but would be nicer to feel on a warm climate. Options to work in tropical countries are there. Big consideration of course, is the funding. Some researchers may have some available, but as you know that is highly variable. You are obviously encouraged to look for it and they are willing to help, but it comes down to your own initiative. It's worth mentioning the great links of Bangor with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and also with CATIE in Costa Rica. Specially with ICRAF, there have been lots of available options to work for/with them in projects around the world, and that means funding and collaboration. Of course, it depends on what projects are running at the moment (you adapt to the larger project, not the other way around), but it seems there's always something going on! I can tell you that the 3 of us here are most likely going to go this way =).

And very briefly now (feel free to ask me more details), there's lots of activities going on in the University. There's over a hundred societies running, be it sports (there's some very nice infrastructure for sports), academic, community, hobbies, performing, outdoors, social, etc. check them out in the student's union site to get an idea. And finally, about North Wales, it really is a beautiful place. The Snowdonia national park is just a step away and the mountains are amazing. There´s lots of quaint Welsh towns around, a beautiful coastline, and yes, lots of sheep to dot the otherwise grassy landscape. I love it.

Second Year in Copenhagen

Hello all,

For any of you Sutrofarians that are considering coming to Copenhagen, I've been asked to contribute some knowledge on what it's like here. With a couple of months left of classes, things have been overall well so far. I'll comment here about the academic issues and below in the last paragraph about daily life in Copenhagen. The academics at the university are by-and-large quite good and kept to a high standard - the professors are all very sharp. I've heard from other students that first year SUTROFOR studies at Copenhagen are much more natural science based than the second year studies. The second year is divided into two nine week blocks of classes with a week break in between, starting in early September and finishing in late January (with a week break for Christmas). They are centered around livelihoods and qualitative social sciences methods, and it is very common to be lumped in with the Agricultural Development students at the Faculty of Science in your classes, with no classes specific to SUTROFOR.

The first block is composed of two courses, Research Planning in which you learn a lot of theory about research design and have the opportunity to develop your plans for a thesis and Qualitative Methods in Agricultural Development, in which you learn some useful skills of data collection in the field. There was a decent amount of overlap between the two courses, and it's tough (read:boring) having two theory classes at the same time, but overall that first block was a very useful start to thesis planning and I'm glad I did it when I did. The second block is more science based, with an online course in Participatory Forest Management and Rural Livelihoods and Natural Resource Governance - I say this because you are not allowed to choose your courses, they are chosen for you.

Overall, I would say that the academic quality is higher than at my first year institution (Bangor) and I am generally pleased with the lecturers. There is a strong tendency to have multiple lecturers for a single course, which gives a broad array of perspectives. I do have some qualms with the style here at Copenhagen - the grading system is arbitrary and often ridiculous, the QMAD course had a lot of research and work, presentations and data collection, but ultimately the final mark was decided in a 15 minute oral exam that a lot of people walked away from quite disappointed. Apparently that's a typical thing in Danish education. Another reason that I was initially interested in Copenhagen is that it's a wealthier university that I perceived to have more funding opportunities available for the thesis work. I have been tentatively told that the university can provide some funds towards buying the plane ticket (and told that it's unsure whether this will continue in future years), but all of the other funding is up to me to find - there are lots of opportunities if you are diligent and know how to look, but they are all competitive. If you want to work in a poor country, you can apply to Danida (the state development agency) but they only fund countries with a certain GDP - Brazil, for example, is too high and won't be considered. It seems like if you want funding you can probably find it, but I haven't received the decisions from any of the funding sources I've applied to, so can't tell how competitive they actually are. Overall, I'll only be here seven months, and with the sun going down before 4 PM now, that's okay with me.

As for the daily life in KBH, it's an excellent city. Bicycles are must-have here, and bike lanes are on every major road. The city is extremely expensive, with a beer usually costing 5-7 euro, although there are opportunities to save when you look (for example there is a student bar on Fridays where beer is 2-3 euro). The Danes are nice enough people but difficult to access sometimes - most of the classes are made up of 30-50% Danes and 50% internationals, and the Danish are in general quiet unless approached. The city is beautiful, not many tall buildings, and not very large, with plenty of parks and green space. There isn't much to offer in the way of outdoors, although there are some impressive stands of forest in Zealand and Skane in Sweden. Public transportation, within the city and long distance, is quite pricey, but you can get an under 26 rail card and have half off long distance transport. Prices to rent a place in the city are very high, but you can get lucky too (I'm paying less for my lady and I to live in a small room in a shared apartment than I was for just me in Bangor, but I haven't met anyone with a rent as cheap as mine and most people pay double what I pay just for themselves, so it takes some diligence to find a cheap spot). The social life is good and, being the capital city, there's always something interesting going on (films, workshops, dinners, dancing), but being from the mountains, I find myself missing them sometimes.
If you want to email me with any further questions, marcustaylor2@gmail.com

A brief overview and opinion on 2nd year studies so far in Padova

Alan asked me to write something about my time here in Padova as people were asking about the different 2^nd year options, so here is my attempt! To give some context, our studies here have been going for 2 months now – we have completed two courses so far and except for some exams, are three more weeks from completing the next three (then we’re done and it is thesis time next year).  I can say that the course info on the SUTROFOR all looks up to date, save for some slight name changes, so for subject matter, there aren’t really any surprises and you can know properly beforehand what you would have the opportunity studying.  The main Professor here, Davide Pettenella also has a website (http://www.tesaf.unipd.it/pettenella/ - scroll down to SUTROFOR), where you can find more info on two of the courses.

As has apparently been said, the actual classes here are indeed “very small and focussed”.  Class size has been really small – 5 students!  For me this has positive and negative points.  I feel it would be nice to have some more students to interact with INSIDE the classroom, so there would be more backgrounds, opinions etc. to learn from, however at the same time, this means more personal attention from the teachers and I’ve really enjoyed this as I feel the teachers here are great - we’ve all had some good in-class discussions really analysing what we’re learning.  The teachers are engaging and we learn a lot by doing and we get good feedback on the numerous small assignments we do. The teachers have a lot of professional experience (not just teaching and research) to draw upon, which I particularly like, and the staff,  as well as the PhD students, come across very much as a team and the study program reflects that.  I feel the classes/topics themselves are all well integrated and the teachers and students are aware of what the others are doing/teaching, which I think has lead to a comprehensive coverage of the subject matter, with no holes in the theory or practical sides.  The whole specialisation (the arrangement of courses and the work within them) feels well planned for the learning outcomes promoted.

It’s difficult to comment on the subject matter, as whether one likes it or not will come down to individual preferences.  For what it’s worth, I’ve enjoyed learning more about international trade and social/ethical management practices as I find it interesting and I feel it complements my previous learning and experience (I studied forestry for my bachelor, with lots of focus on management and policy, and studied 1^st year SUTROFOR in Copenhagen).  As for whether the course is very “desk oriented”, which was asked, I think that on average, this may potentially be the case, but I feel the various subjects also open up many field opportunities for work or research.  More than anything, it comes down to your interests and what you want to use the knowledge and methods learned for.  Looking at possible thesis topics, there are quite a few that are desk-based, analysing economic and social data and that kind of thing, however there are plenty of opportunities for some good field time in the countries where partnerships already exist, or any other of your choice and we’ve read previous theses that have done this.  To try and provide an example of both the desk and field aspects of the topics, we have a class on social marketing as applied to the forestry sector (e.g. forest certification) at the moment, and we are covering things like actual marketing of products (let’s say this is desk-based), but also stakeholder engagement (could be either), and actual processes of auditing certified forests in the field (possibly more field based).  Another example could be illegal logging, which we’ve focussed on somewhat, and is obviously dealt with internationally in various policy forums, by national governments in importing countries with trade regulations, and also in the tropical forests and communities themselves.  Personally, I’ve enjoyed this aspect, and that’s what my impression was when I chose to come here.

This is perhaps stating the obvious, but ultimately, I think the decision of 2^nd year placement should come down to what you are actually interested in academically and professionally.  Obviously I’ve only experienced two of the universities, but I think all of the options with have their strong and weaker points.  What you can gain from each, while obviously depending on the subject matter and the form and quality of delivery, will ultimately come from your own interests and what you make of the opportunities presented.  For Padova, like I said previously, the course descriptions of the ones here on the SUTROFOR website seem spot on and I’d happily send the intro slides to the courses (those giving potential thesis topics could be useful) or answer other questions.

First impressions from Dresden

Alan's comment: This is great stuff from a great guy in Dresden, thanks Vladimir for this!

----------

Hi Sutroforians, I’m Vladimir and I’m currently on my second year at TUD. I’m here, along with all the other second year students, to help you make informative decision regarding the choice of your second year institution. I’ll split my impressions in two parts: academic and non academic.

Academic

Course in Tharandt (where Forestry faculty is located, 20km from Dresden) is relatively short one. It lasts until the end of February, and after that you are expected to go to the tropical country of your own choice to conduct fieldwork for your master thesis. There is no exact period that is expected from you to stay in your tropical country, but I guess anything below one month will be a bit suspicious (this is in comparison with Bangor where is not necessary to go to the tropics and Copenhagen where you should spend at least three months in the tropics).It is expected that you defend your thesis until the end of August, but that is only because your scholarship covers your expenses until the end of that month. Yes there are SUTROFOR students that were defending their thesis in November.

In the course you will be having 5 or 6 modules (I know it sounds weird, but I’m still not really certain about this). I can make some comparison with Bangor University here, since this was my first year institution. Course at Bangor was organized module by module, while in Dresden you are having all the modules at the same time. Deadlines were strict at Bangor, while in Dresden they are more plastic. Here you will have to make up your mind about your thesis pretty quick, and there wouldn’t be any of the presentation of professors with possible thesis titles (again in comparison with Bangor). You just say what do you want to do on your first presentation (which will be in October) and then one of the professors will tell you who would be the right person for your supervisor. Modules and lecturers vary in quality; the best ones, according to me, are the ones from Urban forestry, Economics, Biostatistics, and Biodiversity. The course is more based on classical forestry with a mix between temperate and tropical forestry issues. For all of you who have BSc from forestry will be a lot of familiar things I guess. Currently TUD wants to achieve something they’re calling “excellence” which means, as much as I could gather,  that they’ll be controlling themselves (instead of independent institutions) and then declaring whether they have achieved “excellence” or not. A good thing in that mess is that students will be having something to say about the quality of the study at TUD. Use that right, if not for the sake of yourselves then for the sake of the next generations. The bad thing is off course that it is only the student evaluation of the course, which means that there is no guarantee that it will be taken in to account while making decisions regarding your study.

Non-academic

Regarding your accommodation in Dresden, you should decide as soon as you can whether you want to live in Student Halls (Studentenwerk) or will you be looking for private accommodation. In first case you will be able to reserve your place from June (I think) 2013. Prices of Studentenwerk vary from 160-280 Euros per month (all utility bills included except internet connection). Price of student accommodation has soared for 40% in the last year, and it is expected to continue to rise further. Off course, price will be higher if you are requesting bigger accommodation for your family. You have also International Student Guesthouse that will provide for accommodation (for a price) for maximum of three months.

In case you are looking for a private accommodation the most important advice that I can give you is start on time (at least one month before your arrival). There is a major website for looking for flats - WG Gesucht . Most of the ads are in German. If you know anyone who is leaving their apartment, or have a spare room, that could make your life much easier. You will be needing contract of your accommodation in order to register in the Municipal office.

Transportation is covered by University, but until you get matriculated you will not be getting your semester transportation card, so you would need to cover your own transportation costs. Weekly ticket for tariff zones of Dresden and Freital (where your Faculty is located) is 27.5 Euros and is available from machines on most of the tram stations in the centre.

There’s a lot of bureaucracy, so be patient and be prepared. For all non EU students you will need you rent contract, in order to open a bank account and to register yourself at Municipal office, and then in the Foreign office in order to extend your residence permit. For this you will need a lot of papers, showing them that you actually exist. EU students do not need to extend their visa or residence permit but are still required to register and open a bank account (for receiving the scholarship).

Dresden is a beautiful city, with rich history, and a lot of thing to do whether during the day or during the night. I’ve met a lot of great people here, and I’m proud of knowing them. However, as with every city there are always dangers that most of us are not aware of. Recent incidents are forcing my hand here, and I want to be understood in a correct manner. This is NOT accusation that entire Dresden is packed with racist. I come from Serbia and I could tell you a lot of things...a lot of things regarding dangerous parts of Belgrade. This off course does NOT mean that you shouldn’t go in Dresden of Belgrade for that matter. Every city in the world has dangerous neighbourhoods. As you will not be having nice time in the group of hardcore Lazio fans in Rome, or during the city derby in Belgrade, or during the riots in any city that you choose, you will most certainly not have a nice time facing a group of skinheads in the middle of the night. While in Dresden in 99% of cases you will not be having any problems there are couple of incidents, in recent period, where students of different ethnic and racial background were confronted with violent racist groups, which were stopped thanks to the other passersby.  Also it would be wise to avoid football games of Dynamo Dresden. Again Dresden IS a good city, the one that has a lot to offer, but there are couple of idiots everywhere on earth.

Anything else you wish to know about second year in Dresden, you can reach me on my e-mail (which Alan has sent to first years) or you can find me at SUTROFOR facebook page. I will be happy to help you in any way that I can.

29/11/12 Dresden                                                                           Vladimir  Zindovic                                                                                                                                  

choosing the 2nd year institution

First years are starting to think about their next stop in the sutrofor train, so it could be a good idea to ask a fellow sutroforian about her/his experience in their respective institutions. Let's make some connections amongst us. So I suggest you go to the 'about' tab in this blog and look into the who-is-where map, e.g. Ajay and Marcus are second years in CPH, Asantewa (a.k.a. Martha) is in Bangor with others, Vladimir in Dresden, etc. I'll e-mail you shortly everybody's email so you can directly communicate if you wish. Otherwise I'll also push for the second years to post their opinion on their current institutions on here. Good luck!
.
.
.

Research (thesis) possibilities in India -Dr. Chavan

Amigos,

as we've shared, Dr. Shivaji Chavan is a SUTROFOR visiting scholar from India currently working in Bangor.

Anybody looking into thesis (and other) possibilities in India should definitely keep on reading. Some of the potential topics follow, but first some clarifying aspects.

PS. He also made available the "Strategic Plan for Maharashtra State Social Forestry" of which he is very familiar, I can forward that to anybody interested.

Alan

HIS STATEMENTS:

1. It should be in  total consultation with Supervisors and Course Coordinators of the concerned student and the norms, rules and regulations of the university concerened.

2. I will act as a Technical and Academic Adviser  to facilitate the research topic formulation and proposal making in consultation with the supervisor from university concerned.

3. Technical, field and logistic support( accommodation and vehicle required for field purpose) to an optimal level  will be provided in India. The facilities will be decent but modest.( In short with basic amenities)

4. Technical and academic support may be provided for Desktop Dissertations.

5. The University concerned may  screen the proposals and decide about the candidate and topic.

6. I am not an expert in all these topics but have a long experience of working on these issues in India.

THE TOPICS:

1. Impact of Non Forest landuses on Mangroves in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
2. Social Forestry Perspective of Maharashtra in achieving the objectives of the Forest Policy of India

3. Assessment of Ecological Services being provided by the Ecosystems in Mumbai/ Western Ghats ( or in an area in the Central Indian State of Maharashtra

4. Impact of the Forested Suburbs on Greater Bombay and the other way around.

5. Land Dynamics and its impact on Tigers in Central India.(Specific Site may be chosen)- Kanha Tiger Reserve, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Pench Tiger Reserve, Sahyadri Tiger Reserve.

6. Developing Monitoring Protocols for Protected Areas to boost up conservation efforts.( Semi Desktop)

8. Strategy and Framework for dealing with large landscapes to conserve them for wilderness.

9. Participatory Forest and Wildlife Management in India- The Protected Area and Managed Forest Interface.

10. Developing an Adaptable Framework for dealing with Human Wildlife Conflicts around Protected Areas.

11. Impact of various Environmental Legislation on Conservation of Forest, Wildlife and Environment in general.( Desk Top Dissertation)

12. Impact of Forest Rights Act, 2006 on Conservation of Forested Landscapes in Central India.(Specific Site may be chosen)

13.Ecotourism as an alternative livelihood to reduce dependence of forestry resource.

14. Develop a Village Level Intervention Model for Alternative Strategies to supplement community income.

15. Review of the Joint Forest Management Initiative in India ( may be made specific to one site)

15. Develop a Strategy and Framework for ' Conservation Oriented Development'.

16. Review of Environmental Policies/ Legislation/ Programs in India ( Desk Top Dissertation)

17. Review and Assessment of Conservation Effectiveness of Government, Autonomous and Non Government Organizations in India ( organizations may be shortlisted) ( Deak Top Dissertation)

18. Developing Protocols for Management of Wildlife in Managed Forests in India.

19. Review of the Planning Process for Protected Areas and Managed Forests- A Technology Perspective( Semi Desk Top Work)

20. Developing Spatial Digital Planning and Management Support Systems for Protected Areas in India.

21. Review of Land Tenure Systems and  suggesting a  strategy for improving Conservation Effectiveness.

22. Developing a Conservation Oriented Strategy and Framework for 'Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative' ( One Corporate/ Multi National may be chosen for the study and it may be 'Desktop Dissertation)

23. Analysis of Attitude of Communities living inside and around Protected Areas/ Managed Forests towards conservation.

24. Development of  a Program for ' Education for Sustainable Development'  in Maharashtra State, India ( Middle Schools/ Junior Degree Colleges/ Degree Colleges)  

25 Develop an Ecotourism/ Eco Development Plan for a Group of Villages around a Tiger Reserve, Urban National Park, Mumbai/ Wildlife Sanctuary/ Managed Forests Divisions in Maharashtra.  

CONTACT INFO

Dr. Shivaji Chavan
Director General and CEO,  (Freelance International Environmental Consultant)
National Coordination Office, Mumbai
Wildlife and We Protection Foundation
B-507,508, Nilgiri Upvan Apartment, Gawand Baug,
Pokhran-2, Thane (West)
The Wildlife and We Protection Foundation,( Mumbai and Silvasa) Branch 
Offices- Thane, Goregaon, New Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur(Maharashtra), 
Dehradun(UK) ,Lucknow(Uttar Pradesh), Raipur ( Chhattisgarh), 
Mandla(M.P.), Hyderabad ( A.P.), Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) and Arunachal
Pradesh.
+91-9993204708, +91-9424385450 (M.P. & C.G.) +91-9920017260 (Maharashtra)
Email - shivachavan@yahoo.com, shivachavan1958@gmail.com, shivaji@wildlifeandwe.org,dgandceo@wildlifeandwe.org 

Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA) Awards

A previous masters student here at Bangor got up to £1,000 from the TAA to go overseas and do his thesis related field-work, covering travel costs and other stuff. Very nice grant!, worth looking into, although I believe it's limited to UK citizens; still there are a few of you who would qualify.

Check out the Tropical Agriculture Association website and LINK to this and other awards. Good luck.

©