DEEF Deputy Minister Engagement Workshop

FOREST21 was featured in the Quarterly Newsletter of the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA), thanks to the efforts of Katy Johnson. The ICFPA supports dialogue across regional and national forest products associations from 28 countries around the world. It promotes global commitments to sustainable forest management, recycling, innovation, water conservation, mitigating climate change, ensuring a safe and inclusive workplace, and optimizing the use of environmentally-friendly wood and paper-based products.

"FOREST21 is a collaborative project between five South African and three European universities to strengthen capacity across South African higher education institutions offering forestry programmes. The initiative recently received great praise from Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), Honourable Makhotso Maggie Sotyu, at a Stakeholder Engagement Workshop. “FOREST21 illustrates the true spirit of partnership, as contained in the Commercial Forestry Sector Masterplan. It is not a common thing for one to receive a progress report even before the project is concluded, we rarely see these things, so thank you very much.” The Deputy Minister congratulated all the coordinators of the project and their teams for work well done even amid the dreadful Covid-19 pandemic.

The strength of the FOREST21 initiative lies in the alignment of its three key pillars - climate-smart forestry innovation, curriculum transformation and entrepreneurship advancement in forestry education, in addressing issues of poverty and unemployment – with the South African national imperatives and the global imperative of climate-smart living. Although far from concluded, since its official launch in April 2021 the FOREST21 project has delivered a feasibility study evaluating knowledge needs and current competencies, conducted training on a variety of subjects for over 150 staff and 280 students, provided three workshops and a variety of training material including six videos, one podcast and a project short film."