Opportunities for education and research exchange with Sweden

• Reunion explores a formula where the ecological and economic part can be balanced in order to export to the world.

March 2, 2023. Authorities from the Faculty of Forestry Sciences of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) shared with some of the main heads of CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Education Center), a variety of interests that will allow the development of projects related to research and education at master's and doctoral levels.

The visit was made by Rosario Garcia-Gil, Vice-Dean and associate professor of the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Dimitris Athanassiadis, associate professor of the Department of Forest Technology and Biomaterials, Gun Lidestav, associate professor of the Department of Forest Resources Management, Adan Martinez-Cruz, associate professor of the Department of Forest Economics and Francisco Aguilar, professor of the Department of Forest Economics.

The cordial welcome was given by Muhammad Ibrahim, Director General of CATIE, Leida Mercado, Director of Research for the Inclusive Green Development Division, and Alejandra Martínez-Salinas, Coordinator of the Research Unit on Forests and Biodiversity in Productive Landscapes, who gave a general presentation of the work carried out by the institution, the projects it maintains in the region and the development opportunities that have been taken advantage of with other organizations and universities around the world in favor of inclusive green development.

"In the past CATIE has had multiple collaborations with different Swedish organizations, SLU is one of those organizations with which we are very interested in renewing our cooperation agreements, specifically on forestry issues. The colleagues who visit us are experts in different areas of forest ecosystem management. From research in genetics to research with a landscape approach, this is of great interest to us, for the different projects we currently have in the Latin American and Caribbean region and obviously for the opportunities we can explore together to design and implement other projects and collaborations," said Martinez-Salinas at the time of the welcome.

Throughout the day of meetings, some of CATIE's research units presented the most important work plans and objectives, as well as the results of the field work carried out throughout the region.

Francisco Aguilar, professor of the Department of Forest Economics at SLU, pointed out that they arrived with three clear objectives: The first is to establish research links with CATIE, as a center of operations to establish collaboration at the Latin American level. The second is to achieve an exchange of graduate students, both masters and doctoral students, who can visit Turrialba, as well as CATIE students who can visit us in Sweden. Finally, the third objective is the exchange of members of the Faculty of researchers, professors who can take advantage of this opportunity to seek collaborations and thus advance their careers as researchers.

Vice-Dean Rosario Garcia-Gil said that they began with a visit to Yucatan, Mexico, to different organizations and universities and saw the possibility of extending their cooperation program. "We have problems of deforestation, interest in new forest management that is more sustainable and that in some way allows us not only to conserve, but also to use natural resources. We need to find this formula where we can balance the ecological and economic part, which is something we can also export to any country and continent. We are all trying to find a formula for sustainable management that includes the social part, the economic part, the environmental part. We all really have the same question," concluded Garcia-Gil.