The Alumni Network Project

“Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management”

Over the past decades, international postgraduate training programmes in the field of environment and natural resources have developed substantially in the educational hub of Dresden, now consisting of a few hundred alumni, doctoral students and participants and short training courses. The alumni network project Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), aims at bringing together alumni from all over the world for strengthening interdisciplinary and holistic approaches on complex environment and development policy issues. The project is carried out by TU Dresden and UNU-Flores together with partners in Laos and Uganda.

The project partners

Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
National University of Laos, Laos
Makarere University, Uganda
United Nations University (UNU-Flores)
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Alumni seminars and workshops

As part of this project, two regional alumni capacity building and networking seminars are planned as foundation for building the alumni network. The two seminars will be conducted in Southeast Asia and East Africa. In addition, one strategy and action workshop is planned to be carried out in Germany to follow up on the regional seminars. Each of the three events will last one week and have, next to the main objective of networking, a specific thematic focus on integrated landscape approaches.

Southeast Asia regional alumni capacity building and networking seminar

Place:	Vientiane, Laos	Date:	25/09/2022 – 01/10/2022
Title:	Tools for actor-based management of conflicting interests in the land-water forest nexus in the Mekong region
Description:	This seminar will serve as training and professional exchange on integrative and actor-based management concepts for the sustainable management of natural resources at the landscape level, against the background of growing conflicts of use in the regional context of Southeast Asia. Practical experience is gained through field excursions and dialogue with landscape-based actors at different governance scales in the Mekong Region.

East African regional alumni capacity building and networking seminar

Place:	Kampala, Uganda	Date:	05/03/2023 – 11/03/2023
Title:	Enabling services from land and water resources through actor-oriented forest landscape restoration: Tools and best practice
Description:	A watershed is chosen as a case study for East Africa, where severe land use conflicts are occurring between agricultural use, conservation of protected forest and intensive grazing, and informal charcoal extraction. Land use dynamics are directly at the expense of dry forests and tree and bush vegetation, and indirectly at the expense of the water balance. Directly linked to this are negative socio-ecological impacts for the local residents. Through keynotes, poster presentations, simulation games, and a 2-day field trip, a participatory and practice-oriented technical exchange is aimed at.

The two regional capacity building and networking seminars address alumni from Southeast Asia and East Africa region with a stake in natural resources and environmental management (land, water, forest, biodiversity, etc.) and the resulting challenges for sustainable development in their home countries as part of their professional activities.

Strategy and action workshop for alumni capacity building and networking

Place:	Tharandt, Germany	Date:	17/09/2023 – 23/09/2023
Title:	Inception and strategic orientation of the alumni network Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management
Description:	Next to the strategic development, the workshop offers further education opportunities through practice-oriented excursions in the surrounding area of Dresden. Thematically, the focus follows the integrative and stakeholder-oriented management concepts of the two former workshops, including visits to rehabilitation measures in open-cast lignite mining in Lusatia, water resource management in the Elbe River basin and adaption measures to climate change in forestry in Saxony.

Staying close and cooperating with our former students worldwide is of high priority for us. Beyond scientific exchange and practical learning, the project aims at consolidating and expanding relationships and partnerships among the alumni within and across disciplines, sectors and organizations from politics, administration, science, civil society and the international development cooperation. We consider this project and its activities a great opportunity for academic discussions, mutual learning and strengthening our network for future cooperation.