INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Organization of Regional Professional Master's Degrees in Protected Area Management & Biosphere Reserve Management (GAP/GRB) and Forest Management Techniques (TAF)
(Sixth Cohort)
Brief Presentation of ERAIFT
The Regional School (ERAIFT) was created on April 10, 1999, around the UNESCO MAB (Man and the Biosphere) program, which aims for sustainable human development in harmony with the environment. Originally designed as a UNESCO project, in recent years the school has undergone institutional consolidation, gaining the status of a Category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO with its own international governance bodies. Since its creation, it has contributed to building the capacity of managers and decision-makers from 22 French- and Portuguese-speaking Sub-Saharan African countries and the Indian Ocean region, particularly in protected area management, as well as sustainable forest and tropical land management. The headquarters of ERAIFT is located in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but it temporarily operates at the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) campus in Kinshasa, DRC, and is installed in the two biosphere reserves of DRC: the Yangambi and Luki Biosphere Reserves. ERAIFT's mission is to train specialists capable of designing, formulating, and implementing sustainable development projects and making decisions in complex situations that characterize development issues; aimed at providing solutions to problems associated with poverty and environmental degradation. Its main objective is to increase the national capacity of African states to implement a new methodological approach that addresses tropical ecosystem management and conservation in a systemic manner, in collaboration with rural populations.
Organization of the Regional Master's Programs
Programs offered and institutions involved in training
At the level of South-South cooperation, ERAIFT has signed a memorandum of understanding with the following sub-regional institutions to implement a regional Master’s program aligned with the LMD (Bachelor-Master-Doctorate) system. The institutions involved in the memorandum of understanding are: the University of Dschang, University of Yaoundé I, the Garoua Wildlife School (EFG/Cameroon), the National School of Water and Forests (ENEF/Libreville), the University of Science and Technology of Masuku (USTM/Gabon), and the University of Kisangani (UNIKIS/DRC). In the framework of promoting "bilingualism: French-English", other cooperation agreements have been signed with English-speaking institutions, notably the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) in South Africa.
Regarding North-South cooperation, this program is implemented by the 35 member institutions of AGRINATURA and ERAIFT. The official language of instruction is French; however, English is frequently used by teachers, external speakers, and assistants, as one of the school's challenges is developing bilingualism in both French and English in its teaching and scientific research activities. This call for expressions of interest aims to select a maximum of 40 candidates for the professional Master’s degree programs in two different fields:
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Protected Area Management and Biosphere Reserve Management (GAP/GRB)
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Forest Management Techniques (TAF)
Application deadline: September 15.