The Chair of Tropical and International Forestry, as part of the Department of Forest Sciences at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences is granting a dedicated to research in the field of “Forest Farmers’ Organizations in timber value chains: Financial performance, power, and governance”.
Duration & location: funding period of the scholarship is 36 months, starting ideally in October 2023. The awardee PhD candidate will be based at the socio-economics in forestry research group in Tharandt, TU Dresden. The candidate will be associated with the Velux Stiftung-funded project “EmPOWERing forest farmers’ organizations for driving landscape restoration through timber value chains in the tropics (emPOWER)”, with envisaged research options at partner universities in Vietnam and Tanzania.
Project background: The emPOWER project aims at the empowerment of forest farmers’ organizations (FFOs) as actors within timber value chains and wider value networks in Vietnam and Tanzania. This comprises various work packages at the farm forestry, forest farmers’ organization, and value chain levels to analyze the trade-offs in the study landscapes. It includes power analyses among value chain actors and their networks.
Research focus: The candidate will ideally focus on forest farmers’ organizations as the unit of analysis. This could analyze the organizational decision-making, financial profitability and financing mechanisms of selected FFOs, with the view to determine practical potentials for their improvement in the governance of timber value chains. The PhD candidate will need to travel for fieldwork, publish peer-reviewed articles, and employ knowledge transfer methods. The detailed research will consider the candidate’s background and interest, and guidance of the supervisors Prof. Dr. Lukas Giessen and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Pretzsch, and the postdoctoral researcher/coordinator Kendisha Hintz. Beside publications, research results may be transferred to the MSc program “Tropical Forestry”, envisaged knowledge transfer workshops with timber value chain actors, and policy briefs for the study countries.
Requirements: An interdisciplinary master’s degree with emphasis on policy, politics, economics; natural resources policy and economics; or environmental social sciences with specialization in
forest sciences. The degree must be equivalent to a German master’s degree, qualifying the PhDcandidate in accordance with requirements identified here: https://tu-
dresden.de/bu/umwelt/postgraduales/promotion. The candidate will need distinct analytical skills in the social sciences, microeconomics, financial and economic analyses of enterprises; the ability to process qualitative and quantitative data; to think in interdisciplinary terms; and a high level of (conceptual) creativity. Research/work experiences in the tropics are an asset. Proficiency in English is mandatory; other languages (e.g., Swahili, Vietnamese), good intercultural communication skills and social competence are an advantage. The successful candidate should be highly motivated and willing to travel.
Application: Please send your electronic application including 1) a cover letter (including your motivation), 2) CV, 3) education certificates, and 4) a selected own writing sample (max. 5 pages) before 16.07.2023 as a single pdf document to: tropen@mailbox.tu-dresden.de. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Interviews are planned for August 2023. Expenses incurred in attending interviews, if any, cannot be reimbursed.
Forest Governance Scholarship for PhD call_emPOWER
