Eberswalde university for sustainable development: with deep roots in forestry towards a "whole institution approach" in sustainability

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Eberswalde university for sustainable development: with deep roots in forestry towards a "whole institution approach" in sustainability

Introduction

The Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (Hochschule fur Nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde - HNEE) is a University of Applied Sciences in Brandenburg, near to Berlin. HNEE is Germany's greenest university with a unique profile focusing on sustainable development. Teaching, research and transfer at the HNEE are firmly connected with the principles of sustainability and based on the cooperation with regional and international partners in research and transfer and teaching. Priorities of the research are focused in the three areas: Sustainable rural development; Sustainable production and use of natural products, and Sustainable management of limited resources.

The basic principle of HNEE is sustainability, anchored in the mission statement: "Mit der Natur fur den Menschen" (With nature for mankind). Whilst the mission statement of the Ukrainian National Forestry University (UNFU) is: "Ad naturam vivere discimus" (We learn to live with nature). Thus, both universities have many thing in common: starting with deep roots in forestry, many similar careers and - most important - an ecologically based understanding of sustainability.

Are they maybe congenial partners? Let's have look at the HNEE, and then you may decide by yourself.

Our deep roots in forestry

1. The year 1992. In 1992, the "Rio summit" took place in Rio de Janeiro or, more precisely, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. It was the great visionary conference, which finally led with Rio+20 to the demand for a "great transformation" into a climate-friendly society without the use of fossil fuels and to the important climate agreements of Paris and Marrakesh.

2. The "green thread” developed from forestry tradition. At the same time, but only at the same time and by no means due to Rm, the Eberswalde University of Applied Sciences in Brandenburg started its business with 45 forestry students after the political change in Germany, exactly on April 1^st, 1992. Even then it started with a clear profile. By decision of the founding senate a "green thread" had to connect all faculties, all teaching programmes and all the fields of research. This "green thread" took up a long and essentially forest-based tradition.

The forestry scientist Georg Ludwig Hartig (1764-1837) had already formulated the first implementation of the principle of sustainability into forestry practice in 1804. In the second edition of his "Anweisung zur Taxation der Forsten" it says:

"...es lдЯt sich keine dauerhafte Forstwirtschaft denken und erwarten, Wenn die Holzabgabe aus den Wдldern nicht auf Nachhaltigkeit berechnet ist. Jede Weise Forstdirektion muss daher die Waldungen des Staates ohne Zeitverlust taxieren lassen und sie zwar so hoch als mцglich, doch so zu benutzen suchen, daЯ die Nachkommenschaft Wenigstens ebensoviel Vorteil daraus ziehen kann, als sich die jetzt lebende Generation zueignet" ("...no sustainable forestry can be thought of and expected if the wood delivery from the forests is not calculated on the basis of sustainability. Every wise forestry directorate must therefore have the state's forests assessed without loss of time and try to use them as highly as possible, but in such a way that the descendants can at least derive as much advantage as the now living generation; Hartig 1804, p. 1).

In 1821, through the initiative of Georg Ludwig Hartig, the "Royal Forestry Academy" was established at the University of Berlin (now the Humboldt University of Berlin), headed by Wilhelm Pfeil, Oberforstrat (senior forestry officer). Pfeil, on the other hand, soon thought to relocate the forestry training and founded the "Hцhere Forstlehranstalt" in Neustadt-Eberswalde in 1830 - and thus close to the forests and clearly practice-oriented. Even then, sustainability was a very important topic in forestry science: Pfeil dealt with it and ruthlessly tore apart, among other things, anyone he suspected of deviating from the path of sustainability in his then feared "Kritische Blдtter fьr Forst- und Jagdwissenschaft" (Pfeil 1822-1859).

Moreover, Eberswalde has a long tradition in applied forestry research based on long-term observation plots, starting in 1871. A preliminary landmark here was the foundation of IUFRO, the leading international network of forest research organisations 1892 in Eberswalde.

3. From the Faculty of the Berlin University to the University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde. Since then, forestry teaching and research have belonged to Eberswalde, until 1963, when for political reasons the university in Eberswalde (which belonged by then as faculty of forestry to the Berlin University) was closed by the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). While research was continued at the Institute for Forest Sciences Eberswalde (IFE), founded in 1954, with up to 700 employees* until its liquidation in the years 1990-1991, higher education in forest sciences has been concentrated at Tharandt near Dresden. At that time, sustainability was usually equated with ecological sustainability, i.e. "green", and until the mid-1970 s of the 20th century it was a rather marginal topic worldwide. Soon after the fall of communism, IFE staff members were involved in the (re-) opening of a forestry faculty at the Humboldt University of Berlin in Eberswalde, which finally led to the founding of the Eberswalde University of Applied Sciences, the current HNEE. In several intermediate steps, big parts of the IFE had been transformed in the Thьnen-Institut fьr Waldцkosysteme Eberswalde (Thьnen Institute for Forest Ecosystems Eberswalde) as a federal research institute, the present Landeskompetenzzentrum Forst Eberswalde (LFE) as a state research institute and the Eberswalde University of Applied Sciences, whose forestry department recruited many colleagues from the former IFE and which was closely linked to the predecessor institutions of the LFE through six joint professorships.

4. The current situation. Currently, the HNEE has two campuses with four faculties and a botanical garden, it offers ten bachelor programs and ten master programs (Table). In 2017 more than 2.200 students were enrolled in the different programs and the HNEE generated 438 graduates (Figure 1).

Table. Faculties and study programmes at HNEE

3. The ecological footprint

Since December 2009 the HNEE has been successfully EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) certified. EMAS is an EU-developed voluntary self-regulatory instrument on the environmental performance of an organization. Within the framework of EMAS certification, HNEE has established several objectives, among others:

• Economical handling of resources;

• Reduction of the environmental footprint;

• Transparency in all environmentally relevant processes;

• Efficient and ecologically oriented handling of energy and material;

• Information to the public on environmental management at the HNEE to meet the role model;

• Involvement of all university members and students (practice- oriented teaching and research on environmental management topics, regular surveys and other possibilities, ideas on environmental protection, etc.).

Having won the European EMAS award now two times (2010 and 2017) the HNEE is currently among the European leaders in the field of institutional environmental management.

In addition, since 2014, the HNEE is the first CO₂-free University in Germany which was reached by

• The reduction of fossil CO₂ emissions in the HNEE by saving energy, and using renewable energy. A balance of the CO2 emissions had been made with the EMAS,

• Compensation of the avoidable amount of CO₂ in a project, The aim of the project was the reduction of CO₂ emissions by the distribution of 80 fuelwood saving Upesi Stoves to replace inefficient three-stone-fire-places which compensate for 1.500 t/CO₂ in 3 years (gold standard certificates).

The faculty of forest and environment

The faculty of forest and environment is the oldest faculty at HNEE and consists of currently 19 professors, among them 3 research professors. The faculty offers five study programmes: a Bachelor in Forestry, another Bachelor in International Forest Ecosystem Management, a Master in Global Change Management, a double degree Master with Warzaw university of life sciences in Forest Information Technology, and a new Master on Forestry System Transformation, the latter three completely taught in English. The third-party funding at the faculty is around 1.7 Mio. € (2017). Research areas are Adaptive conservation management (e.g. transboundary biosphere reserves), new innovative inventory approaches and smart data gaining (forestry 4.0), forest adaptation to climate change, wildlife management, assessment of forest biomass, provision of ecosystem services, and service learning, among others. A Centre for Eco- nics and Ecosystem Management with extensive research projects on adaptive conservation management worldwide is attached to the faculty.

Conclusion

References

management education development

1. Berthold, C., Meyer-Guckel, V., & Rohe, W. (Hrsg.). (2011). Mission Gesellschaft - Engagement und Selbstverstдndnis der Hochschulen: Ziele, Konzepte, internationale Praxis. Retrieved from: https://www.stifterverband.org/mission-gesellschaft Hartig, G. L. (1804). Anweisung zur Taxation der Forsten, 2. Auflage, GieЯen und Darmstadt.

2. HNEE(HochschulefьrnachhaltigeEntwicklungEberswalde)(2018b).Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement.Retrieved from:http://hnee.de/nachhaltigkeit; [09.02.2018]HNEE(HochschulefьrnachhaltigeEntwicklungEberswalde).(2016). Ideen- und Wissenstransfer fьr eine nachhaltige Entwicklung. Transferstrategie der Hochschule fьr nachhaltige EntwicklungEberswalde.Retrievedfrom:http://www.hnee.de/de/Forschung/Forschung-Transfer-E1033.htm;

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4. Nationale Plattform Bildung fьr nachhaltige Entwicklung. (2017). Nationaler Aktionsplan Bildung fьr nachhaltige Entwicklung. Der deutsche Beitrag zum UNESCO-Weltaktionsprogramm. Retrieved from: http://www.bne-portal.de/sites/default/files/downloads/ publi- kationen/Nationaler_Aktionsplan_Bildung_f%C3 %BCr_nachhalti ge_Entwicklung_neu.pdf; [03.01.2018, Berlin].

5. Pfeil, W. (Hrsg.) (1822-1859). Kritische Blдtter fьr Forst- und Jagdwissenschaft in Verbindung mit mehreren Forstmдnnern und Gelehrten, Leipzig.

6. Umweltgutachterausschuss (2015): In 10 Schritten zu EMAS: Ein Leitfaden fьr Umweltmanagementbeauftragte, 2. Auflage. Retrieved from: http://www.emas.de/fileadmin/user_upload/06_service/PDF- Dateien/EMAS-Leitfaden-Umweltmangementbeauftragte.pdf;

7. Vahrson, W.-G., & Krдusche, K. (2018): Institutionelle Nachhaltigkeits-Transformation am Beispiel der Hochschule fьr nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde. In: Ibisch et al. 2018: Der Mensch im globalen Цkosystem. Eine Einfьhrung in die nachhaltige Entwicklung. Oekom-Verlag. 414 p.

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