INTRODUCTION
Unsustainable forest activities, both of timber and non-timber resources, as well as other human pressures that affect forests, can cause their degradation and cause irreversible losses in biodiversity, threatening the livelihoods of the populations that depend of their goods and services (SCBD 2009).
The disordered exploitation of tropical forests is often cited as one of the main threats to biodiversity, however there is sufficient evidence to suggest that, through good forest management practice, forests used for wood production can be an important resource for the conservation of biodiversity (ITTO/IUCN, 2009).
Despite the vast expanse of Amazonian forest that the Member Countries (MC) of the Amazon Treaty (OTCA) have together (approximately 5.4 million km2), there is a high concern for the permanence of these forests in the long term due to its constant annual reduction, which reached a rate of 0.28% (1.6 million hectares) during the period 2000-2015 (OTCA, 2018).
In this framework, the project “Building capacities of OTCA member countries in ecologically responsible forest management and conservation of biodiversity in managed forests of the Amazon (ITTO/CBD/ACTO)” has designed a training course, by means of an exercise of participatory construction with forest and biodiversity specialists of the MCs, taking as main input the results of Phase I of the Project, corresponding to the National Assessment of the Forest Management Situation.
With the implementation of this course, which is pilot, begins with the MCs a process of development and strengthening of the technical capacity necessary for implementation and improvement of forest management models and ecologically responsible practices, with territorial management approach, which favor the conservation of the forests and their biodiversity, as well as the maintenance of the livelihoods of the local and indigenous communities of the Amazon, thus fulfilling the central objective of the project.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The course is aimed at forestry professionals from the eight OTCA Member Countries (MCs), who act mainly in the field, in government institutions, non-governmental organizations, and academia and in private companies, and who are involved in different activities of forest management, especially those involving community participation.
The course is designed under the modality of an intensive training, with a total duration of eleven days including the time of trips and of approximately 70% of the time in the field practices, which will allow the participants to experience the practice of the conservation of biodiversity in the forest management activities, from a local Amazonian reality with a regional perspective. For this purpose, the course will be implemented in coordination with three forestry training centers, which have a recognized trajectory in the Amazon Region, called in the context of the project Regional Centers of Excellence (RCE) in, which were selected from more than 20 institutions (centers and universities) of the eight OTCA member countries.
The curricular program of the course is designed having into account the UNESCO (2017) recommendations related to the learning objectives needed to achieve the SDG, the commitments of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and the ITTO/IUCN (2009) guidelines for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in tropical timber production forests. In addition, the program includes experiencing the content with practical and real examples through visits to logging sites, forest carbon research areas, forest tree reproduction gardens, etc. The exchange of experiences will also be enriched with the participation of different invited local experts, through forums and debates on the topics addressed.
Three courses will be executed, one in cooperation with each REC, which will welcome the participants under the logic of groups, according to criteria that seek to take advantage of the similarities in the forest management systems implemented in the countries, the common language, aspects of extension of the territory and biogeographical…Click here for more information