International Forestry Students' Association

The International Forestry Students’ Association or IFSA is one of the largest international networks of students in forestry and related sciences. IFSA is a globally organized and locally operating students’ organization connecting forest and related science students to their peers and forest-related organizations and policy platforms.

International Forestry Students' Association
AbbreviationIFSA
Formation1973
TypeNon-profit
Legal statusFoundation
HeadquartersFreiburg im Brisgau, Germany
Alina Lehikoinen, Finland
Simone Massaro, Italy
Pedro Almeida, Portugal
Barbara Ollerer, Austria
Key people
Council:
Open Call,
Konstantin Schwarz, Germany,
Yu-Tung Hung, China-Taipei
Websiteifsa.net

With more than 130 member associations also known as local committees (LC), spread across over 50 countries, IFSA unites thousands of students in their endeavor to learn about forests, cultures, and the environment. IFSA is a non-political, non-profit and non-religious organization that is entirely run by students.[1]

IFSA promotes global cooperation among students of forest sciences in order to broaden knowledge and understanding to achieve a sustainable future for forests and provides a voice for youth in international forest policy processes. For this, IFSA provides a platform for students to enrich their formal education, promote cultural understanding by encouraging collaboration with international partner organizations, and gain practical experiences with a wider and more global perspective. Through its social network, IFSA encourages student meetings, enables participation in scientific debates, and supports the involvement of youth in decision making processes and international forest and environmental policy.

IFSA is officially registered as a charity organization, with its seat in Freiburg, Germany.

History

It all began in Great Britain in 1973 with an annual meeting of forestry students: The International Forestry Students Symposium (IFSS). The event was held there for thirteen years and the goal was to provide forestry students with a platform where they could meet their counterparts from other countries, discuss their ideas and views and create an atmosphere of solidarity and inspiration. During the following years the symposium attracted more and more students. The first accomplishment of these meetings was the creation of INFOCENTER; an office established to coordinate the exchange of information among forestry students.

During the 18th IFSS in Lisbon, Portugal in 1990, the participants decided to expand the cooperation between forestry students beyond the annual symposium. At the constitutional assembly of IFSA, the founding member associations approved provisional statutes and elected the first representative organs. INFOCENTER was relocated and took on the official role as IFSA’s communicative and informational organ.

The following year, the 19th IFSS was organized in the Netherlands. This symposium turned out to be a great success with 112 participants from 38 countries; it was the first time that students from all continents were represented. The following symposium was organized in Italy (1992). Here the third General Assembly (GA) designated a central organ, the Secretariat, to be responsible for the association’s bureaucratic tasks, internal communications and all INFOCENTER duties. The Secretariat, thus, fully assumed its role as IFSA headquarters.

IFSA became a truly world-wide organization when the new statutes were finally approved in 1994 at the fifth GA during the 22nd IFSS in Switzerland. The association was officially registered as a charity organization with its seat in Göttingen, Germany. Five years later, with the adoption of the revised Statutes, Decrees and By-laws, the general assembly moved the seat to Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany. [2]

Vision

IFSA’s vision of a world that appreciates forests describes the dream of having all the people and societies on the earth recognize the full worth of forests and fully understand forests, grasping their implications and being grateful for their multi-fold contributions to humanity.

Mision

To enrich our members' education through international events, networking and intercultural exchange.

Structure

We believe in the power of community, changing hearts, minds, and action through building new and needed connections across the world of forests. Consequently, our first objective is to build a community connecting students with each other on local, national, regional and global levels.

IFSA Wheel

IFSA Board

President: The President is ultimately responsible for all aspects of the organization and works to ensure that IFSA is globally represented, inclusive, and growing in a way that is consistent with the organization's mission, vision and spirit. The President is the principal representative of the Association and leads the management of all external partnerships.

Vice-President: The Vice President is in charge of the governance of IFSA, while also assisting the President in every decision-making process. The Vice President leads the overall management of the internal departments of IFSA, including any matter related to the members and Regions.

Treasurer: The Treasurer is responsible for all financial matters and ensures the correct and adequate use of the money owned by IFSA. Moreover, the Treasurer handles the communication with the German authorities such as for the non-profit status of the association, or with the registration court and taxation offices.

Executive Secretary: The Executive Secretary takes care of matters concerning Secretariat, e-mail and archive, but is also responsible for record keeping (such as reports and minutes) and for the preparation of the General Assembly.Specifically, it is of fundamental importance the maintenance of the physical and digital archives and the e-mail correspondence within and outside IFSA.

Internal councilor: The Internal Affairs Councilor focuses on overseeing the Communication and the Capacity Development Commissions, while ensuring there is as much communication and coordination among the Council members as possible. The Internal Affairs Councilor is responsible to make certain that operations in the organisation are executed in accordance with the Rules of Procedures and Statutes

External councilor: The External Affairs Councilor assists in coordinating IFSA’s external partnerships and processes with the President, and oversees the International Policy Commission and Liaison Officers.

Membership councilor: The membership councilor focuses on coordinating regional action and overseeing the Regional Representatives. Important task is to represent the interests and needs of the Regions balances in the decisions taken by the Council.

IFSA Officials

IFSA has various working groups (commissions) which allow students the chance to develop new skills, contribute to the running of the organisation and work to achieve the aims of IFSA. [3]

Internal

Head of Communication Commission: Head of Communication Commission coordinates the Communication Commission which seeks to communicate all of IFSA’s activities and opportunities to give the best experience for users through design and the website. The following SubComissions are in charge of the Commission.

  • Head of Design SubCommission
  • Head of Social Media SubCommission
  • Head of Publication SubCommission
  • Head of Podcast SubCommission
  • Head of Web SubCommission
  • Head of Wikipedia SubCommission

Head of Capacity Development Commission: Head of CDC seeks opportunities to develop skills of IFSA officials and members by organising training sessions and sharing other skill development opportunities, ideally alongside IFSA delegations and IFSA Partner events. The capacity development commission creates new learning content and opportunities for IFSA members through its different Sub-commissions.The following SubComissions are in charge of the Commission.

  • Head of Carbon and Sustainability SubCommission
  • Head of Cultural Competency SubCommission
  • Head of Forestry Education SubCommission
  • Head of Language SubCommission
  • Head of Mentorship SubCommission
  • Head of TreE-Learning SubCommission
  • Head of Treehouse SubCommission
  • IFSA-IUFRO Join Task Force Coordinator
  • Deputy IFSA-IUFRO Join Task Force Coordinator

External

Head of Partners Commission: The following SubComissions are in charge of the Commission.

  • Head of CIFOR SubCommission
  • Head of EFI SubCommission
  • Head of FAO SubCommission
  • Head of ITTO SubCommission
  • Head of IUCN SubCommission
  • Head of IUFRO SubCommission
  • Head of RECOFTC SubCommission
  • Head of TDF SubCommission

Head of International Policy Commission: Head of IPC is responsible for the coordination and preparation of IFSA’s contribution and delegations to forest related political processes and United Nations (UN) functions outlined below. The commission is also a forum for the discussion and exchange of opinions on forest policy and conduit for forest students to increase engagement with national policies. Each of the sub-commissions support a dedicated process or a UN Agency. The following SubComissions are in charge of the Commission.

  • Head of Forest Europe SubCommission
  • Head of UNCBD SubCommission
  • Head of UNEP SubCommission
  • Head of UNFF SubCommission
  • Head of UNFCCC SubCommission

Regional representatives

The Regional Representatives are the information links between the IFSA Board and the Local Committees (LC) in their region, and between the LCs to ensure good communication. The key duties of a Regional Representative are: keeping contact with LCs, cultivating and expanding the regional IFSA community, and collaborating with the other IFSA officials.

Members fall within one of seven regions, defined by geographical area. These regions are Asia-Pacific, Northern America, Latin America, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Northern Africa and Southern Africa.[4]

  • Latin America
  • Northern America
  • Southern Europe
  • Northern Europe
  • Southern Africa
  • Northern Africa
  • Asia-Pacific

Activities

Youth representative during international decision making processes regarding environmental and forest policy

As a Youth Non-Governmental Organization (YNGO), IFSA has the status of youth representative for the following events:

The organisation promotes the involvement of professional foresters in decision making. In the organisation's opinion, forest scientists are, as a matter of principle, better qualified to evaluate questions of sustainable forest management than specialists from other sciences.[7] For that reason, forestry students are offered the opportunity to understand and actively take part in these international forest policy processes.

International Forestry Students’ Meetings

The International Forestry Students’ Association forms a wide network of forestry students throughout the world, on which the Association bases its main activities — meetings of students at the regional and international levels.[8] These meetings allow better communication between members and facilitate cultural exchange and the making of new friendships.

Hosted by a different country each year, the International Forestry Students’ Symposium (IFSS) is the venue for the IFSA General Assembly, during which work from the previous year is reported, decisions are made regarding IFSA activities and new officials for the next year are elected and appointed.[9] During the IFSS, numerous activities are planned to showcase the host country's culture and natural environment, in particular the forests. Lectures from guest speakers and field trips attempt to make the IFSS educational as well as fun.

IFSA also holds very important regional meetings gathering students from the different regions where it is active. These meetings are the opportunity to discuss the problems in a geographical area.

The interim meeting is attended by IFSA Officials and is held midway through the IFSA year. It allows officials to discuss their progress and whether they are meeting their aims set at the IFSS, discuss any problematic situations and work together to learn from each other and improve the work being carried out. IFSA 7 is attended by the Direction and Council, the main aim of preparing for the General Assembly at the IFSS.

Projects


Partnerships

IFSA has very strong partnerships with the International Union of Forest Research organizations (IUFRO) and the European Forest Institute (EFI), which permit student to join international scientific congresses, to have the opportunity to present their work during them and to meet some specialist in the different fields of forestry. Between 2005 and 2006, EFI and IFSA cooperated in the framework of the FOPER programme (Forest Policy and Economics Education and Research)[10][11]

IFSA has also recent partnership with the Commonwealth Forestry Association (CFA) which always offers new opportunities. Finally, IFSA is member of the International Partnership for Forestry Education (IPFE) and helps actively to improve the forestry education around the world. Such partnerships are very important in the preparation of students for their professional life.

How can I Form my LC?

Process:

How many LCs are there in the world?

You can check it out at the following link


See also

References
  1. Amtsgericht Freiburg im Breisgau. Registriergericht. Vereinsregisternummer (VR) 3432. Statutes Section A Article 1
  2. "History". www.ifsa.net. Archived from the original on 2009-01-17. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
  3. Amtsgericht Freiburg im Breisgau. Registriergericht. Vereinsregisternummer (VR) 3432. Statutes Section C Article 15
  4. Amtsgericht Freiburg im Breisgau. Registriergericht. Vereinsregisternummer (VR) 3432. By-Laws Chapter 2
  5. United Nations Forum on Forests Multi-Stakeholder Consultation Summary. Quebec City, Quebec. Canada. 24 September 2003. On http://www.un.org/
  6. Forest Europe. The MCPFE Newsletter of the Liaison Unit Warsaw. Issue 10,11 July/October 2005
  7. MCPFE-5 Conference Proceedings
  8. ECOSOC: discussion paper for UNFF-5
  9. Amtsgericht Freiburg im Breisgau. Registriergericht. Vereinsregisternummer (VR) 3432. By-Laws Chapter 6
  10. FOPER programme on www.efi.int
  11. “Strengthening capacities of education and training for forest policy and economics development”. Interim report on the FOPER implementation by IFSA
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