Kleinhans Fellowship for Neighborhood Forestry Analysis

The following deadline for functions is February 28, 2025, and functions shall be accepted began August 31, 2024.

As governments around the globe acknowledge the significance of native stakeholders in forest administration and conservation, they’re more and more devolving decision-making authority over pure assets to native communities.

Nonetheless, whereas the variety of neighborhood forest enterprises (CFEs) is growing, many CFEs are struggling to handle their forest assets sustainably whereas additionally making a revenue and guaranteeing the equitable use of their monetary returns. This battle is exacerbated by intense stress to transform their forests.

CFEs face a number of challenges together with weak organizational capability, lack of entry to finance, restricted business-administration expertise, problem competing with unlawful forest merchandise and the absence of markets for sure lesser-known species.

The Rainforest Alliance has an extended historical past of working with forest communities which have established their very own regionally managed enterprises, offering them with coaching and technical help on sustainable forestry practices, value-added processing, enterprise administration, market entry and extra. Recognizing that sound scientific inquiry will help to information technical help for native growth, our Kleinhans Fellowship helps analysis that seeks options to the challenges confronted by the neighborhood forestry mannequin.

Place Abstract:

The fellowship offers funds for analysis that’s oriented towards fixing real-world issues as outlined by CFEs. Furthermore, the planning, implementation and dissemination of analysis outcomes shall be carried out in participatory method to make sure that it has sensible worth for communities and helps to tell their motion plans. See an inventory of earlier Kleinhans Fellows »

Analysis Matters

The Kleinhans Fellowship offers a two-year stipend of US$20,000 per 12 months to assist analysis that addresses one of many following matters:

1. Markets for lesser-known species and non-timber forest merchandise (NTFPs). Most neighborhood forestry merchandise are unlikely to achieve worldwide markets, however home markets in lots of tropical forest international locations are being flooded with unlawful wooden merchandise, making it exhausting for professional operations—particularly CFEs—to compete. The absence of markets for lesser-known species and NTFPs additional impedes optimum forest administration and is a vital hurdle that should be overcome if CFEs are to change into economically viable. The fellowship helps analysis that systematically paperwork and analyzes the creation and upkeep of home markets for diversified forest merchandise, helps decide what drives success and recommends future actions.
2. Biodiversity administration practices. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest administration commonplace requires practices that preserve biodiversity, such because the safety of Excessive Conservation Worth Forests and the creation of riparian buffers. The Kleinhans Fellowship helps analysis that explores the feasibility of implementing such practices on the neighborhood stage and their results on the financial viability of CFEs.
3. Social group and governance. Technical help applications are sometimes restricted of their potential to spend money on organizational capability constructing. The fellowship helps analysis that investigates modes of social group and highlights each issues and revolutionary, replicable options for CFE governance. Matters of curiosity embrace equitable participation and transparency in decision-making and benefit-sharing; human useful resource administration and enterprise coaching; and governance points reminiscent of CFE bylaws, compliance and authorized standing.
4. Multi-community enterprises. With out entry to financing, CFEs usually get mired in debt, are beholden to high-risk, high-cost lenders and can’t spend money on creating their companies. CFEs are sometimes inspired to work collectively to combination provide, make investments collectively and entry financing, however it may be troublesome to place these methods into follow. The fellowship helps analysis that examines multi-community enterprises, paperwork and analyzes their successes and failures, and makes suggestions for future funding within the growth of such ventures.

Geographic Scope

Researchers of any nationality or residence are eligible for the Kleinhans Fellowship; nevertheless, the analysis itself should be carried out in Latin America.

Award Quantity

The fellowship offers a grant of $20,000 (US) per 12 months for 2 years. Please observe that the fellowship won’t subsidize tutorial tuition or charges, nor will it cowl the price of buying transport autos or gear that’s pointless or unreasonable.

Sharing Outcomes

To make sure that subject initiatives profit from the fellowship’s analysis, the Kleinhans Fellow will take part in a workshop with neighborhood members and regional Rainforest Alliance employees on the finish of the fellowship interval; this gathering will present a possibility to share outcomes and discover the implications of the findings on our work with particular communities. The guy can even be anticipated to submit a remaining report that summarizes outcomes and classes for a basic viewers and publish his/her findings in a peer-reviewed journal.

{Qualifications}:

Candidates should have a grasp’s diploma in forestry, ecology, botany, environmental science or an acceptable associated subject. Doctoral candidates or post-doctoral researchers are most well-liked, though candidates could substitute related expertise for higher-level levels.

Software:

Purposes shall be accepted beginning six months earlier than the deadline, on February 28, 2025:

• A proposal that doesn’t exceed seven typed pages in size. The proposal ought to embrace an summary, a assessment of the related literature, detailed methodology and a dialogue of the venture’s sensible functions
• A price range
• A duplicate of the candidate’s curriculum vitae or resume
• Two letters of advice
• An inventory of previous, present and potential funding sources for each the applicant and the venture

Candidates are required to submit their accomplished software by electronic mail to Deanna Newsom at [email protected] or by common mail to:

Rainforest Alliance
Kleinhans Fellowship
27 East twenty eighth St
eighth ground
New York, NY 10016
United States