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Department of Forestry and Environmental Management.

Background

The Department of Forestry in the Faculty of Environmental Sciences is the first to offer BSc level courses in Forestry in Malawi.  Its first two programmes have been tailor-made to address the immediate needs of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs.  TA four year generic programme has been launched (2003) in an attempt to respond to the long term capacity needs in the environmental sector in the country.    The Forestry Department at Mzuzu University is geared to respond to training needs and face on challenges of pioneering BSc Forestry training in Malawi in Responding to dynamic institutional and policy changes that taking place.

Mission

The mission of the Forestry Department is to ensure the application of sound technical and scientific knowledge to forestry development in Malawi through research, teaching and dissemination of knowledge and provision of expert services.

Services

We offer a BSc Forestry degree programme which takes 4 years for school leavers and 2 to 3 years full-time for serving officers.  We also offer refresher and tailor-made short courses in various fields of forestry or environment.
The Department of Forestry also carries out outreach programmes and research in support of institutional and policy dynamics in the fields of environment and forestry.

Research programmes

The goals and content of the research programmes will reflect a comprehensive national agenda for strategic and applied research. This will follow an orientation towards a systems approach.  Together, the programmes will aim at understanding and explaining the basic processes in addition to determining and predicting the potentials of forestry.

Description

Research priorities will fall under six major programmes categorized as follows:
-Forest Governance and Community Forestry
-Forest Ecology and Management
-Non-Timber Forest Product
-Policy and Cross-sectoral Issues
-Biodiversity and Conservation
-Tree Improvement