News

Dear Friends of UNU-LRT. Another good year for the UNU-Land Restoration Training Programme has come to an end. We send our best wishes for the festive season ahead and many thanks for the acceptance and interest the Programme has received in 2011. Happy New Year! Hafdis Hanna Aegisdottir, Berglind Orradottir and Thorbjorg Valdis Kristjansdottir      

Tigist Araya Gessesse from Ethiopia participated in the six-month training course of the Land Restoration Training Programme in 2009. She has an MSc degree in Tropical Land Resources Management and has worked as lecturer at Mekelle University in Northern Ethiopia from 2006. Two months ago, Tigist started a PhD study at the Center for Development Research /Zentrum fur Entwicklungsforschung (ZEF) at the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources Management, University of Bonn in Germany. Her research topic is: Dynamics of different soil organic carbon fractions under various land use and management options in Ethiopia. This topic is related to Tigist‘s individual project work that she worked on in Iceland titled Assessment of the impact of different regevegation methods on soil carbon stocks in Iceland The UNU-LRT team wishes Tigist all the best for her PhD studies.    

The United Nations University Land Restoration Training Programme (UNU-LRT) is now on Facebook! On Facebook, we will keep you up to date with what is going on at UNU-LRT, news about new and former fellows, what is happening in land restoration in Iceland and international stories on environmental issues we think are worth sharing. Please visit the UNU-LRT Facebook page  and "like" it to follow our work.

A new book HEALING THE LAND: The story of land reclamation and soil conservation in Iceland written by Professor Roger Crofts was published last week by the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland (SCSI).  It describes the fascinating story of land restoration and soil stabilization in Iceland over the last one hundred years.  The publication of the book was celebrated last Friday in a meeting on the international importance of land reclamation and soil conservation activities.  There the author introduced his work and emphasised on the importance of spreading the successful story of reclamation and soil conservation work in Iceland to the global audience.

The rector of the United Nations University (UNU), Prof. Dr. Konrad Osterwalder, is currently in Iceland to visit the Icelandic UNU training programmes.  Yesterday he visited the headquarters of UNU-LRT at Keldnaholt where he was welcomed by the UNU-LRT director as well as the rector of the Agricultural University of Iceland (AUI) and the director of the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland (SCSI); the two institutes that implement UNU-LRT.

Recently an article titled Combating land degradation in the High North was published on the UNU website (unu.edu).  The article describes briefly some of UNU-LRT activities and the topics dealt with in the annual six-month training course run by UNU-LRT.  This summer’s one week field trip is described in detail but the field trip is an important part of the six-month training course.  Perspectives and experiences from two fellows of this year’s training are also given.  The article can be found here http://unu.edu/articles/global-change-sustainable-development/combating-land-degradation-in-the-high-north