Research Themes

REFOREST Programme initially includes three thematic areas in which the PhD students will conduct their research. These are:

• 1. Commercial forestry and bio-economy – tree growing as business, tree improvement and silviculture, forest health and protection, forest products development, marketing, forest products value chains, sustainable forest management;
  2. Natural forests Management – Ecological and socio-economic aspects, biodiversity conservation, bio-energy, climate change, REDD+, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), forest land policy and ownership as well as forest-land-water relations; and
  3. Agroforestry, forest-agriculture interactions and synergies, and conflict management.

Cross-cutting areas for all the themes include gender, policy, livelihoods, forest governance, environmental and economic sustainability. Particular attention is on areas requiring more interdisciplinary research approaches, e.g. climate-forest issues, land use conflicts, market system analyses, poverty alleviation potentials of various forest/tree products and services, economic / social / ecological aspects of forestry, food and nutrition security.