Humboldt Research Fellowship for postdocs and experienced scientists

Pablo Rafael Urbina Aviles (Faculty of Environmental Sciences / Professorship for Tropical and International Forestry)

The agricultural economist and sociologist Pablo Rafael Urbina Aviles from Nicaragua has been a guest at the TU Dresden for one year since March 2021. With a climate protection scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he is researching participatory certification systems (PGS) in smallholder agriculture at the Chair of Tropical and International Forestry in the Faculty of Environmental Sciences.

Pablo Urbina has been working with smallholders to improve agro-ecological practices for a long time - first for the NGO Movimiento Ciudadano Frente al Cambio Climatico, and later with the Organic Agriculture Network, both based in Peru. With the help of the certification systems, production should be both climate-friendly and adapted to climate changes. The corresponding concepts are developed together with the farmers. “This approach creates trust,” explains Pablo Urbina. In addition, the exchange of knowledge between farmers and researchers enables new perspectives.

Before the climate protection scholarship acquired for 2021, Pablo Rafael Urbina Aviles took part in the 43rd UNEP / UNESCO / BMU Postgraduate Course on Environmental Management for Developing Countries (CIPSEM) at TU Dresden last year. The advanced training program has existed at the TU Dresden since 1977. The target group are specialists and managers from developing and emerging countries who work in the environmental sector. The integrative and interdisciplinary teaching approach should not only convey knowledge about global environmental processes and methods for sustainable resource management, but also the skills for a holistic way of thinking with regard to environmental problems and corresponding solutions. In cooperation with his supervisor Jürgen Pretzsch, senior professor for tropical forestry at the Institute of International Foresty and Forest Products, at the end of the course Pablo Urbina took stock of participatory certification systems in general and their effects in Peru in particular.

With the climate protection scholarship, Pablo Urbina will examine the application of PGS systems in two case study municipalities in Junin and Lima in Peru and further develop the methodology for implementation. In this way, smallholder agricultural production should be made more environmentally friendly, in particular climate-adapted and economically more profitable, with great value being placed on participatory knowledge development. "We are planning an international publication on the results of the study by Pablo Urbina," explains Prof. Pretzsch. In addition, Pablo Urbina is to present his findings at congresses. He has just submitted an article for Tropentag in mid-September.

More information:
Prof. Jürgen Pretzsch
Seniorprofessor Tropische Forstwirtschaft
Institut für Internationale Forst- und Holzwirtschaft
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