News
We are honored when ELTI's work is shared in local and international channels. We also enjoy sharing exciting news about ELTI's programs.
December 22, 2017 | ELTI
Karin Bucht, ELTI's Program Associate for the Online Training Program, recently represented ELTI at the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany. On December 19-20, 2017 the Global Landscapes Forum brought together 1,000 attendees from 103 countries in the World Conference Center in Bonn. In total, 21,610,513 people were reached across social media and fully 51,000 people tuned in live from 114 different countries to connect, learn, share and act around our planet’s greatest climate and development challenges.
December 12, 2017 | ELTI
ELTI was selected by Yale’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to receive support to develop and deliver a one-year online certificate program at Yale F&ES. The certificate program is based upon ELTI primary training themes and will build upon the existing work of the online program and involve contributions from diverse Yale faculty members and ELTI's international partners. The year-long program will include four online courses, a practical project course and a field experience at an ELTI training site in the tropics. Gillian Bloomfield, Desirée Lopes and Eva Garen have begun working with the F&ES Dean's office on strategic planning for the program. The program will be launched in January 2019.
Go to http://environment.yale.edu/online-ed/tropics to sign up for updates on the certificate program.
September 19, 2017 | IUCN
In March 2016, IUCN and the Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI) of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies launched an online course on the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) to enhance the capacity of restoration practitioners across the world. Within a year, the course reached 125 individuals in 30 countries. These are their stories.
August 28, 2017 | ser2017.org
ELTI staff members will be attending the 7th World Conference on Ecological Restoration, hosted by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). The 2017 SER conference is in combination with the Iberoamerican and Caribbean Congress for Ecological Restoration and the Brazilian Ecological Restoration Conference.
ELTI will be hosting a welcome reception for ELTI Alumni and Partners. If you will be at the conference and interested in attending, please contact Gillian Bloomfield.
Also, registered conference attendees are invited to the following:
- The ELTI-led symposium: Field-based focal training sites: Examining a unique opportunity to link scientific research and applied experience to develop capacity for ecological restoration
- A pre-conference training course and symposium by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM). ELTI will be participating in both IUCN's course and symposium.
Please let us know if you will be in attendance. We would love to connect!
August 9, 2017 | IUCN website
In order to scale up the use of silvopastoral systems and their integration with ecological restoration practices, Colombia has been implementing the Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Sustainable Cattle Ranching Project in five different regions since 2012. Among the project’s legacies is a network of well-established pilot farms whose owners are committed to providing farmer-to-farmer training in the years to come. Having redefined their relationship with nature, these pilot farmers will help promote the kind of cultural change needed to achieve landscape transformation in Colombia. But cultural change is a long-term process that requires the transfer of both knowledge and values across generations.
Designed to foster this cross-generational relay, a three-day Silvopastoral Heirs Workshop at El Hatico brought together young people from 19 pilot farms in the project’s five regions, the upcoming generation of silvopastoral farmers. Individual presentations, lectures, field visits and folk songs were alternated with group exercises in which children, teens and adults worked collaboratively. The importance of family values, pride in a rural identity, and the need to heal the environment emerged as common threads throughout the discussions. A final definition of Silvopastoral Heirs (SH), their guiding values and principles, and their mission* was approved by consensus, and the Colombian Network of Silvopastoral Heirs was born.
This workshop was sponsored by the Center for Research on Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems (CIPAV), Colombian Cattle Ranching Federation (FEDEGAN), El Hatico Nature Reserve and The Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI).
April 3, 2017 | Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies News
The Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative (ELTI) has received a $4.9 million grant from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing, to continue its work. The new grant represents Arcadia’s third gift in support of ELTI, with Arcadia support now reaching $15.3 million since the program’s inception in 2006. Through field-based training, leadership support, innovative online instruction, and open access information, ELTI has reached more than 5,000 individuals — including landholders and farmers, practitioners and policymakers — across tropical Latin America and Southeast Asia. With this new support from Arcadia, ELTI will strengthen its training activities and materials within the five focal field training sites (Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Philippines and Indonesia); integrate on-site training with an increasing number of online training courses; increase support and networking opportunities for alumni to strengthen their local impact; and implement a monitoring and evaluation strategy.
November 30, 2016 | Bioversity International
The First Regional Training on Forest Genetic Resources was held in Beijing and Shandong, China from October 28 - November 2, 2016, and was organized by Bioversity International, the Asia Pacific Forest Genetic Resources Programme, FAO, the Chinese Academy of Forestry, and the China Happy Ecology Industrial Co. Although forest restoration has been globally recognized as an important strategy to address the threats to biodiversity, the decline in ecosystem services, and the impacts of climate change, the relevance of the genetic aspects of restoration are often overlooked. The training provided an introduction to the principles of genetic conservation of tree species and featured the Forest Genetic Resources Training Guide -- a flexible, easy to follow tool developed by Bioversity International for practitioners and trainers alike to learn about forest genetic resources issues. The guide provides case studies, teacher notes, and audiovisuals that demonstrate the value of forest genetic resources for responsible decision-making in forest and natural resource management. The guide is accessible online at http://forest-genetic-resources-training-guide.bioversityinternational.org.
Hazel Consunji, the Philippines Program Coordinator, shared her thoughts about the relevance of this training course to ELTI's work in an article by Riina Jalonen of Bioversity International, entitled "Seeds of change: training restoration practitioners to solve genetic problems".
November 21, 2016 | Biotropica
Gillian Bloomfield, ELTI Online Training Program Coordinator, collaborated with colleagues from the network People and Reforestation in the Tropics: a Network for Education, Research and Synthesis (PARTNERS - http://partners-rcn.org/) to publish an article entitled "Stakeholders and tropical reforestation: challenges, trade-offs, and strategies in dynamic environments".
Lazos-Chavero, E., Zinda, J., Bennett-Curry, A., Balvanera, P., Bloomfield, G., Lindell, C. and Negra, C. (2016), Stakeholders and tropical reforestation: challenges, trade-offs, and strategies in dynamic environments. Biotropica, 48: 900–914. doi:10.1111/btp.12391
This article was published in the Peer-Reviewed Journal, Biotropica, in a Special Issue exploring "Natural regeneration in the context of large-scale forest and landscape restoration in the tropics" by guest editors Robin Chazdon and Maria Uriarte
November 18, 2016 | El Salvador Cacao Alliance (website)
Jacob L. Slusser, Panama Coordinator for the Neotropics Training Program, was invited by ELTI Alumni Frank Cardoza (Agroecology and Forest Restoration Course – Colombia, July 2016) to present on ELTI’s native tree species nursery guide, at an event entitled, “Capacity building workshop for the establishment of nurseries with native tree species adapted to agroecological farm conditions.” The course was facilitated by the Cacao Alliance of El Salvador, El Salvador Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), with the objective to strengthen the capacities of both producers and ministry officials on the establishment of native tree species nurseries to produce trees to be used in the Cacao Alliance project regions. ELTI also donated thirty (30) copies of the native species nursery guide to be distributed to course participants.
November 2, 2016 | ELTI Staff News
ELTI Staff Members: Dr. Eva Garen (Director), Jacob L. Slusser (Panama Coordinator for the Neotropics Training Program), Gillian Sarah Bloomfield (On-Line Training Program Coordinator), and Saskia Santamaría (Neotropics Training Program Assistant) collaborated with Latin American colleagues to write a book about the social dimensions of ecological restoration. The book, entitled, Beyond Restoration Ecology: Social Perspectives in Latin America and the Caribbean, illustrates research presented during the Latin American and Caribbean Society of Ecological Restoration’s (known by its Spanish acronym as SIACRE), IV Iberoamerican and Caribbean Congress of Ecological Restoration, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2015. Staff members composed two chapters, which illustrate ELTI’s forest restoration capacity building efforts in the region:
Chapter 18: Strengthening the capacities of small farmers to implement sustainable ranching: The experience of the Association of Livestock and Agrosilvopastoral Producers of Pedasi (APASPE)
- Jacob L. Slusser and Saskia Santamaría
Chapter 21: Capacity building experiences for ecological restoration in Latin America
- Zoraida Calle, Gillian Sarah Bloomfield, Saskia Santamaría, Pedro Brancalion, Severino Ribeiro Pinto, Gabriela González, Marina Campos, Eva Garen, Jacob L. Slusser, Carlos Estrada
September 6, 2016 | ELTI Staff News
ELTI staff members - Eva Garen (Director), Hazel Consunji (Philippines Country Coordinator) and Karin Bucht (Online Program Associate) – attended the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Honolulu, Hawaii, during which they presented a poster on ELTI’s work and participated in a session to showcase a new partnership between ELTI and IUCN for online training related to Forest Landscape Restoration in the tropics.
July 13, 2016 | El XI SIMPOSIO Internacional de Ambiente
The 11th International Symposium on the Environment was held in Panama City, Panama on July 12-13, 2016. The event, which was organized by the International Development Bank, Panama Canal Authority, Ministry of the Environment, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Industrial Labor Union of Panama and Suma-RSE, was an opportunity for the public and private sectors to discuss and analyze the environmental challenges for Panamanian industry. Held two weeks after the inauguration of the Panama Canal Expansion, the symposium covered diverse themes including; energy and emissions, waste management, watershed management and potable water management.
ELTI's Principal Investigator from the Smithsonian, Dr. Jefferson Hall, presented a talk entitled "Watershed Management to Ensure the Ecosystem Services in the Neotropics" during the watershed management symposium. ELTI's Neotropics Program Coordinator Jacob Slusser and Assistant, Saskia Santamaria also attended the event and distributed ELTI publications and training materials from an informational stand.
May 28, 2016 | Marine Pollution Bulletin
Hazel Consunji, Philippines Coordinator at ELTI, co-authored a newly published article entitled, "Preliminary Assessment of Post-Haiyan Mangrove Damage and Short-term Recovery in Eastern Samar, Central Philippines."
This journal article describes the findings and policy recommendations of a group of scientists and NGO members, including ELTI's Philippine Program Coordinator, Hazel Consunji, based on field assessments they conducted after the super typhoon Haiyan. The preliminary assessment showed that there was generally less damage and more signs of recovery in natural mangrove stands compared to mangrove plantations. Main recommendations were to protect recovering mangroves, to only plant in totally damaged sites (e.g., plantations), and to only plant naturally dominant species, e.g., Sonneratia alba and Avicennia marina, instead of the popular but inappropriate Rhizophora sp.
May 23, 2016 | ELTI's Online Training Program
El Programa de Capacitación en Línea de ELTI recientemente lanzó el primero de una serie de seis cursos en asociación con la Unión Internacional por la Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN) titulado: ¨Restauración del Paisaje Forestal en los Trópicos¨. ELTI implementó este primer curso en inglés para una audiencia de 21 participantes basados principalmente en el Este y el Sur de África. Varios de los participantes son líderes y tomadores de decisiones en el campo de la Restauración del Paisaje Forestal en sus respectivos países o regiones. Durante el próximo año, ELTI continuará ofreciendo este curso en Español, Portugués, Francés e Inglés para aliados de UICN alrededor del mundo.
March 7, 2016 | California Academy of Sciences
Este artículo describe un simposio reciente en el cual ELTI participó durante la Reunión Anual de la Asociación Americana para el Avance de la Ciencia (AAAS) en Washington, D.C., el 14 de febrero de 2016. El simposio se enfocó en el rol de la ciencia en la conservación y el desarrollo e incluyó una presentación presentada por la Dra. Eva Garen sobre el trabajo de ELTI en Panamá titulado: ¨Empoderando la Conservación a través de la Construcción de Capacidades con Base Científica¨. El simposio también incluyó presentaciones por el Dr. Jefferson Hall del Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales (STRI), el Dr. Stephen Box del Instituto Smithsonian, y de Jacobo Paz Bodden, Secretario de Agricultura y Ganadería en Honduras.
February 14, 2016 | California Academy of Sciences - Science News
ELTI's Director, Dr. Eva Garen, participated in a symposium with Dr. Jefferson Hall (STRI; ELTI), Dr. Stephen Box (STRI), and Jacobo Paz Bodden (Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock, Honduras) during the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The symposium was entitled, "Using Biodiversity Science for Conservation and Development" and was hosted by the Smithsonian Institution. The title of Eva's talk was, "Empowering Conservation through Science-based Capacity Building."
January 30, 2016 | TVN Noticias
Thursday January 28, 2016. A special 20 minute documentary shown on TVN – national news, entitled “El Niño: la sed del planeta.” ELTI Alumni who are members of the Association of Livestock and Agro-Silvopastoral Producers of Pedasí (APASPE) were interviewed about their sustainable ranching and forest restoration practices, which they have conducted on their model farms in the Province of Los Santos in the Azuero Peninsula with the help of ELTI training and mentoring. They discussed how their farms are less vulnerable to the consequences of El Niño droughts and extreme weather caused by climate change, because their restoration practices reintegrate ecosystem services and therefore sustain production on-farm. APASPE interviews start at minute eleven.
January 29, 2016 | La Prensa
Viernes 29 de Enero, 2016. Un artículo en La Prensa de Panamá titulado: ¨Abogan por una ganadería sostenible¨, presenta al Coordinador para Panamá del Programa de Capacitación del Neotrópico de ELTI, Jacob Slusser, quien fue entrevistado sobre el rol de ELTI en proveer capacitación dirigida a aquellos tomadores de decisiones que tienen influencia sobre el uso del suelo, vinculando la ciencia con la práctica. Jacob debate sobre estrategias de ganadería sostenible como lo son la restauración forestal y los sistemas silvopastoriles, los cuales sirven como alternativas a las prácticas convencionales, ayudan a restaurar los servicios ecosistémicos y crean paisajes agrícolas más resilientes y menos vulnerables a climas extremos. Sumado a esto, él menciona como estos conceptos están siendo enseñados en el curso de campo de ELTI titulado: ¨Servicios Ambientales y Restauración de Bosques Tropicales¨, el cual se lleva a cabo en el Proyecto Agua Salud de STRI y es ofrecido a una audiencia internacional de profesionales de la restauración de Latinoamérica.
September 14, 2015 | ETFRN News
Since 2009, ELTI's Neotropics Program has supported the establishment and development of the Association of Livestock and Agro-Silvopastoral Producers of Pedasí (referred to by the Spanish acronym APASPE), which is Panama's first community-based sustainable cattle ranching association. This article highlights ELTI's work to establish APASPE with alumni of ELTI's Training Program, as well as the initial successes and hurdles and the long-term successes and challenges faced by APASPE members. The article was published by the European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN) News 57, entitled "Effective Forest and Farm Producer Organizations".
July 11, 2015 | ELTI Online Training Program
ELTI's Online Training Program launched a Spanish and Portuguese version of the six-week introductory course entitled, Tropical Forest Restoration in Human Dominated Landscapes of Latin America, on Monday, July 13. The course was advertised for two weeks for participants within the Neotropics, during which time 618 applicants applied for only 40 spaces. Learn more about ELTI's Online Training Program.
June 17, 2015 | PARTNERS
This article describes ELTI's six-day field-based training course in Panama entitled, "Ecosystem Services and Tropical Forest Restoration." The course takes place in ELTI's focal training site located within the Agua Salud Project in the Panama Canal Watershed (PCW). The Agua Salud Project is a research initiative of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). (Article in English)
March 10, 2015 | Iberoamerican and Caribbean Society for Ecological Restoration 4th Congress Website
ELTI fue aceptado para liderar un simposio sobre estrategias e innovaciones necesarias para el fortalecimiento de capacidades para la restauración ecológica en el IV Congreso Iberoamericano y del Caribe de Restauración Ecológica, el cual tendrá lugar del 12 al 16 de abril de 2015. Este evento presentará el trabajo que ELTI viene realizando con capacitaciones en campo, capacitaciones en línea, y actividades para el desarrollo de liderazgo así como las estrategias y los enfoques para la construcción de capacidades llevado a cabo por los aliados de ELTI en la Fundación CIPAV, el Centro de Investigaciones Ambientales del Nordeste (CEPAN), Ecologic, TNC Brasil y el Laboratorio de Ecología y Restauración Forestal (LERF) (Página en Español)
March 1, 2015 | TRóPICOS
This article describes ELTI's establishment of a focal training site at STRI's Agua Salud Project site, which is being utilized to train land-use decision makers on tropical forest restoration in modified human-landscapes via field-based training courses that incorporate Agua Salud science into lectures and visits to demonstration sites. (Article in English and Spanish)
October 12, 2014 | La Estrella de Panamá
This article focuses on how increased forest cover in pastures and working more in harmony with nature does not only improve ecosystem services (water, biodiversity, soil fertility, mitigation of storm damage, etc.) but also increase on-farm production,the advantages of which farmers and ranchers have come to recognize. (Article in Spanish)
September 29, 2014 | STRI Website
ELTI's tropical forest restoration in cattle ranching landscapes course and community based leadership development was featured in the STRI News, a weekly newsletter regarding STRI's tropical research endeavors in Panama. (Article in English)
August 6, 2014 | This Week at Yale YSE
ELTI joins President Salovey, alumni and in-country partners in Brazil to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the State University of Southern Bahia as a first step in exploring the development of a focal training site on forest restoration in this region of the Atlantic Forest. (Article in English)
July 3, 2014 | Balitek-KSDA website
Lessons from Panama for the Samboja Special Forest Zone. (Article in Indonesian)
Pembelajaran dari Panama untuk KHDTK.
June 26, 2014 | Balitek-KSDA website
This article is in Indonesian.
Melalui Pelatihan Lapang Rehabilitasi dan Restorasi Hutan, Balitek-KSDA Diseminasikan Hasil Penelitian.
June 15, 2014 | Inquirer.net
ELTI joins a group of scientists and NGO members to assess the mangrove damage in Eastern Visayas after the super typhoon Haiyan, in order to provide evidence-based policy recommendations on the PhP 1 billion mangrove rehabilitation program of the Philippine government. (Article in English)
June 4, 2014 | "Yale and the World" Press Release
ELTI recently launched an online training course on forest restoration in Portuguese which was completed by twenty-six environmental leaders hailing from ten states within Brazil. During this six-week course, participants from diverse sectors across Brazil such as government agencies, NGOs, private companies, academia, and public-private partnerships worked to develop preliminary management plans for the implementation of forest restoration projects. (Article in English)