News

This morning, GRÓ LRT and the Icelandic Red Cross signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a strategic collaboration between the two parties. The MOU expresses an interest in sharing of expertise, capacity training and collaborating in development projects focusing on land restoration and environmental sustainability.

Today we welcomed Mr Friðrik Jónsson, the Director of GRÓ International Centre for Capacity Development, to Keldnaholt campus. In his visit he met with the 2021 cohort of GRÓ LRT fellows and learned about the activities ahead in the six-month training programme. He also met with GRÓ LRT staff and Academic Committee, and the Rector of the Agricultural University of Iceland.

We welcomed a new group of fellows for our annual six-month training here at Keldnaholt campus this morning.

GRÓ LRT has been approved as an official Supporting Partner of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. As a Supporting Partner, GRÓ LRT will help promote and amplify the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and its activities, but the UN Decade will be officially launched at the World Environmental Day on 5 June 2021.

2020 was an eventful year for the Land Restoration Training Programme. On the first day of January, we transitioned from the UNU to join the GRÓ International Centre for Capacity Development, Sustainable use of Natural Resources and Societal Change, a new UNESCO category 2 centre located in Iceland. In the beginning of May, we welcomed a new Director to the Programme. The year 2020 turned out to be an extraordinary time for LRT, like for everyone else with the emergence of COVID-19, and the pandemic continued to impact all our activities from mid-March and throughout the year.

Today a new host institution agreement was signed between the GRÓ Centre for Capacity Development under the auspices of UNESCO and the Agricultural University of Iceland. On this occasion the Chairman of the GRÓ Governing Board, Mr. Jón Karl Ólafsson and the GRÓ Centre Director General, Ms. Bryndís Kjartansdóttir, were welcomed at the premises of GRÓ LRT where the agreement was signed by Mr. Jón Karl Ólafsson and Dr. Ragnheiður I. Þórarinsdóttir, the Rector of the Agricultural University of Iceland.