Not Bot Horti Agrobo, 2013, 41(1):12-20 Print ISSN 0255-965X; Electronic 1842-4309 Available online at www.notulaebotanicae.ro Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca e Future of Professional Forestry Education: Trends and Challenges from the Malaysian Perspective Jegatheswaran RATNASINGAM1, Florin IORAS2, Claudia Cristina VACALIE3, Lu WENMING4 1Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; jegaratnasingam@yahoo.com 2Institute for Sustainable Studies, Buckinghamshire New University, Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, HP 11 2 JZ Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom; orin.ioras@googlemail.com 3Faculty of Siliculture and Forest Engineering, Transilania University of Braso, 1Sirul Beethoen, 2200 Braso, Romania; cris_d84@yahoo.com 4Chinese Forestry Academy, Wanshoushan Hou, Haidian District, Beijing 100091, P. R. China; luwenmingcaf@126.com Abstract e traditional forestry education schemes are no longer sucient to train professional foresters to manage the forest resources in a changing world. Even in forest-rich nations such as Malaysia, the challenges faced by forestry education are growing. e declining student enrolment and interests in the eld must be stopped, if the eld is to remain viable. e roles played by the forest have shied from purely commercial products exploitation to environmental and social centric. In this context, forestry education will need to be restructured to impart the necessary knowledge and skills to the foresters to enable them to perform up to expectation in the eld. Keywords: economics, education, environmental, forestry, training, social Introduction e forests of the world are complex ecosystems, sup- porting the simplest to the most complex life forms. Yet its biodiversity is both its strength and adversary, as forest produces (which includes timber and non-timber prod- ucts) are indiscriminately exploited by man for economic returns. Even, the environmental and recreational services played by the forests have become potential economic sec- tors to many countries, especially in the tropics (Ratnas- ingam, 2011). Although international agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the International Tropical Timber Organiza- tion (ITTO) continue to fund development projects with the aim of achieving sustainable management of the forest resources in many parts of the developing world, the suc- cess on the ground depends on the availability of a num- bers of dierent expertise and professionals in the host country. e necessary human capital to manage the forest and its resources must be developed through a proper edu- cation scheme (Ratnasingam et al., 2011). In many parts of the world, students are exposed to the forest very early in their schooling days through the teach- ing of geography and biology, but the depth of coverage is oen limited to the main produces and its contribution to the country?s economic wealth. Although, a focused ap- proach to forestry as a professional career study program becomes an option at the college and university levels, producing a sucient number of professional foresters is becoming a challenge in many parts on the world. ere- fore, this paper attempts to examine the trends and chal- lenges in forestry education worldwide, with an emphasis on the state of forestry education in Malaysia, which is re- garded as an emerging powerhouse in sustainable forestry practices and the value-added forest products sector (At- tah et al., 2009; Ratnasingam et al., 2008; Ratnasingam et al., 2011). Traditional Forestry Education Professional forestry education was introduced almost 200 years ago (Daramola, 2010) upon the realization of the importance of the forest and its resources. Since then, forestry education system has evolved incorporating learn- ing, researching and training activities for the human capi- tal development for the forestry sector. By the late 19th century, forestry one of the preferred choice of profes- sional career education as forestry and its related sectors became an important revenue earner for many forest-rich countries around the world (Daramola, 2010). In fact, for- est education can be schematically shown to encompass four levels of participation as suggested by Vanclay (1996), with each level playing a particular role in ensuring the success of the forestry sector (Fig. 1). Generally, forestry education at tertiary level is struc- tured to produce professional foresters. Leslie et al. (2006) stated that school leavers who selected forestry academic programs at universities were driven by the opportunity to work outdoors, their interest in managing biodiver- sity of natural environment, creating and managing wood Ratnasingam J. et al. / Not Bot Horti Agrobo, 2013, 41(1):12-20 13 2008). is consequential reduction in student enrolment in forestry programs has led to considerable uncertainty in the forestry fraternity worldwide (Nair, 2004). e declining student enrolment in forestry programs have been notable in countries, such as Great Britain (Burley, 2001), Canada (Innes, 2005), Australia (Vanclay, 2005) and United States (Green 2006; Nyland, 2008). Further, forestry institutions in small island nations such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea under the commonwealth group of nations have ceased operation (Kanowski, 2001). Even in African countries, forestry appears to be on the decline due to inconsistent student enrolments (Temu et al., 2006). Against the declining number of professional foresters produced in many countries, there is an increas- ing dependency on expatriate foresters in some countries. For instance, Vanclay (2005) pointed out that Australian employers have been increasingly appointing entry-level foresters from other countries as a result of insucient graduate foresters. On the other hand, the fate of forestry education in Asia, particularly in the South East Asian region appears to be more promising. With declining student enrolment in the Philippines and a stagnant student intake in Indo- nesia, all other nations in the region (Malaysia, Laos, ai- land and Vietnam) has seen rising student enrolments in forestry programs (Temu et al., 2005). As a result of the falling numbers of students in for- estry programs in many parts on the world, Arevalo et al., (2010) carried out a survey in European Union (EU) countries to evaluate the changing needs of professional foresters, and the ensuing reforms that university-level for- estry programs must undertake. It was found that employ- ers and universities provided similar assessments regard- ing the importance of competencies and the gap between their achievements in training professional foresters and the market needs. resource and potential to interact and work with the forest-based communities. Against this background, the traditional forestry programs prepared the students with a strong foundation in a number of core academic disci- plines, and subsequently trained them in the professional context for the forestry sector (Brown, 2003). In many forest-rich nations, forestry education has re- mained with this traditional model, usually introduced by the colonizing nations or having been emulated from oth- er nations in the region. With the global change in forest cover and its role, the traditional forestry education model appears to be ill equipped to produce the necessary hu- man capital to cope with the emanating challenges (Rat- nasingam et al., 2011). Inevitably, forestry education is in transition all over the world, and under growing pressure to remain relevant as a professional career education. Challenges in Forestry Education Forestry education in many universities throughout the world is currently suering from serious drawbacks. Hence, it is no surprise that the future of forestry educa- tion in tertiary institutions has attracted overwhelming debates since the late 1990s (Arevalo et al., 2012). e core contention in these debates is whether forestry educa- tion is acceptable as university academic program or is suf- cient as a technical subject of a non-university diploma level (Innes and Ward, 2010). Several critical reasons have continuously cited for the problems faced by forestry education. High on the list of reasons is the reducing interest in forestry academic pro- grams. School leavers have a tendency to choose careers with high salary, such as business, nance, engineering and computer and information technology (ICT), which of- fers a grand life style that may not be realized by choosing a career in the forestry sector (Leslie et al., 2006; Nyland, Fig. 1. Participation Levels in the Forestry Education System Ratnasingam J. et al. / Not Bot Horti Agrobo, 2013, 41(1):12-20 14 Besides that, the number of female students in forestry programs is generally small (Arevalo et al., 2012; Leslie et al., 2006; Storch, 2011; Temu et al., 2005). Women are generally not so keen to pursue forestry programs, which is dominated by men in many parts on the world. Storch (2011) revealed that even when women are in forestry service, they are primarily employed in administrative and support roles, while the professional women foresters are oen given specialist roles such as research or rst-line ju- nior management positions. Vanclay (1996) postulated several reasons that contrib- uted to the changing fate and challenges faced by profes- sional forestry education throughout the world. Among the important reasons cited were:  e increasing world population which will create a greater demand for forest resources, which could be in the range of 80% of the present net productive capacity;  e decreasing global biodiversity by at least 12% over the next two decades;  e critical reduction of clean water, food, space and other resources;  e excess in domestic and industrial waste;  e ensuing climate change due to greenhouse gasses emissions and other atmospheric pollutants; Accordingly, professional foresters are ill-equipped to meet the above challenges based on the present forestry education programs, which contributes to the redundancy of such expertise in the prevailing condition. Meanwhile, Arevalo et al. (2012) attributed the growing gaps between the existing forestry education and the market needs, to several factors:  e apparent shi towards the social, cultural and ecological values of the forests;  e globalisation and internationalisation processes which allows many multinational industries and environ- mental agencies / groups to operate easily across borders;  e growing competition from graduates from other nature, life and botany-related disciplines;  e changing demands of employers with respect to the competencies and experiences that are sought from forestry graduates. Despite the growing discontent, forestry programs in many parts of the world have not been restructured to meet market demands. In reality, there is an ample evidence to suggest that many of the forestry programs still resemble the Oxford syllabus, which is older than a century (Van- clay, 2007). To put it in another way, forestry academic, teachers and trainers have not fully adopted to keep up with these changes. Guariguata and Evans (2010) report- ed that forestry graduate students from tropical countries have been unable and ill-equipped to t with local stake- holders in technical and economic aspects, participatory approaches to forest resource use and respond eectively to global forestry paradigms. Further, many forestry insti- tutions in the African continent are lagging behind in the forestry curricula (Temu et al., 2005). Surprisingly the situation is no better in the developed nations, where in some universities in the United States of America, forestry programs are oered at the environmen- tal sciences schools as young people tend to show greater anity for environmental movements (Nyland, 2008). e survey by Arevalo et al. (2010) showed that univer- sities in European Union (EU) countries have signicant gaps in forestry courses, such as environmental services, bioenergy, products trade and marketing, economics and governance, as the European universities emphasized more on generic competencies such as the capacity to learn. e forestry programs lacked applied components and pro- duces graduates who do not have idea of what to do with their qualications in economic terms. Miller (1992) re- ported that besides the reducing numbers of graduates, forestry-related employers in the United Kingdom have noticed declining quality among graduates. Under such circumstances, potential employers preferred applicants with some business acumen, marketing knowledge as well as the ability to work well with people. Leslie et al. (2006) claimed that the argument for a need for professional for- estry qualication was unfounded, as graduates from other disciplines were also capable of doing the tasks of forest- ers. In the United Kingdom for instance, the private sector prefer to employ forestry degrees but the Forestry Com- mission believes that forestry graduates are not necessary for management positions within the organization (Leslie et al., 2006). In recent years, many European and North American universities have highlighted the dwindling numbers of government employment opportunities for forestry graduates, which forces the graduates to seek em- ployment outside the forestry sector. Although there are employment opportunities in the private forestry and non- governmental organizations, these are limited and require specic skills (Temu et al., 2005). e fact that despite the signicant change in attitude towards the forests, in an ef- fort to preserve its complex biodiversity, environment and the wildlife sanctuaries, these have not been translated into greater employment opportunities for forestry graduates. It is therefore apparent that the needs of the market for professional foresters are changing. Although there is a global need for forestry graduates, there appears to be a lack of job opportunities for forestry graduates. Accord- ing to Ratnasingam and Ioras (2006), the fastest growing job opportunity for forestry graduates are in many non- traditional sectors, such as non-governmental forestry and environmental pressure groups. e observable trend in the job market for professional foresters was presented by Temu et al. (2005), as illustrated in Fig. 2. In retrospective, professional forestry is in transition, and whether it adapts and survives in the new market re- alities will very much depend on the restructuring of the forestry education in many parts of the world. Perhaps, an analysis of the forestry education program in a developing country would provide the necessary directions for change that could be emulated elsewhere. Ratnasingam J. et al. / Not Bot Horti Agrobo, 2013, 41(1):12-20 15  Executive and Sub-professional Group - Diploma course at the Forestry College in Kepong - Probationary sub-professional ocers? orienta- tion course - Probationary sub-professional ocers? operation- al course - Course in law and court procedure - Course in logging  Professional and Managerial Group - Probationary professional ocers? orientation course - Course in law & court procedure  Ad-hoc Courses at the Timber Research Laboratory - Sawmilling course - Seasoning / Drying course - Preservative treatment course ese courses at the Forestry Department were su- cient to train the relevant human capital for the forestry services in the country at that time, which was primarily focused on the extraction of timber resources and other forestry produces for the British colonial masters ( Jomo et al., 2004). In fact, the close correlation between the forest- ry education programs that existed and the primary role of the forest to the nation, underlines the notion that forestry will always remain in mainstream economics throughout e Malaysian Experience in Forestry Education Professional forestry education in Malaysia was in- stalled by the British colonial master?s in the early 1900s, in what was called Malaya at that time. It appeared that the forestry service at that time was dominated by those who had undergone a short term education and training in any forest-related courses and was awarded a certicate of competency (Ratnasingam and Ioras, 2006). e Forestry Department in Peninsular Malaysia (FDPM) oered a wide range of forestry education from introductory train- ing programs to continuing education programs, which was aimed to serve as a re-freshening program to meet the demand of the forestry services in the country at that time (Singham, 1977). e courses oered were categorized to cater for specic target groups, which were:  Industrial and Manual Group - General forest labourer certicate course - Specialized forest labourer course  Clerical and Technical Group - Certicate course for foresters - Advanced courses for foresters and forest rangers - Specialized courses for foresters and forest rangers - Logging training course - Timber grading course - Workshops for clerks serving in forest oces Fig. 2. e Forester?s Professional Challenges Ratnasingam J. et al. / Not Bot Horti Agrobo, 2013, 41(1):12-20 16 2005) and 3rd (2006-2015) Industrial Master Plans, creat- ed the demand for wood technologists. is led to the in- troduction of the Wood Science and Technology program in 2006, which aimed to produce skilled human capital to take the responsibility to transform wood materials into added-value products. Although, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) had a long standing diploma program in wood technology since 1973, it was felt that there would be no overlaps between the new program established at the Faculty of Forestry at Universiti Putra Malaysia and the ever expanding industrial-base with a workforce of almost 75,000 would be able to absorb these graduates (Ratnasingam et al., 2011). Soeradji (1977) pointed out that professional foresters are usually concerned with pro- viding the wood material, and not with the conversion/ processing of forest products. Further, specialized wood technology knowledge was deemed not necessary for for- esters to carry out their tasks in the eld. In 1998, another professional forestry education pro- gram was established at the School of International Tropi- cal Forestry at University Malaysia Sabah. ere were four programs oered at the school, namely: International the world, amidst it?s continuously changing focus (Rat- nasingam and Ioras, 2006; Ratnasingam et al., 2011). Professional forestry education in Malaysia began in 1976, when the Faculty of Forestry at University Putra Malaysia (UPM) was established (Hadi, 1977). e for- estry curricula at the faculty has been restructured to meet the changing demands of the sector, both public and pri- vate (Tab. 1). Although in many parts of the world, student enrol- ment in forestry programs are on the decline, this is not the case in Malaysia. Fig. 3 show that there is a general upward trend in student enrolment in the forestry pro- grams, although the pattern cannot be categorized as be- ing consistent. One of the most important reasons for this encouraging student enrolment is the fact that there is an ever increasing cohort of students supplied from related diploma programs from other institutions and the prevail- ing education policy that makes tertiary education acces- sible to all ( Jomo et al., 2004). e rapid expansion of the wood-based industry, par- ticularly the added-value product manufacturing, through the implementation of the 1st (1986?1995), 2nd (1996? Tab. 1. Forestry Education in Faculty of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia (UPM) Time Frame Focus Major Concern Programs Oered Total Graduates 1957-1980 Timber Production and Agriculture Expansion Socio-Economic Development Forestry 94 1981-1990 Sustainable Forest Management Forest Resources Conservation Forestry 218 1991-2000 Forest Conservation Mitigating Environmental Degradation Forestry 718 2001-2010 Biodiversity Conservation Genetic Resources Conservation Forestry Wood Science & Technology 1582 2010 onwards Plantation Forestry Raw Materials Supply Base Expansion Forestry Wood Science and Technology Parks and Recreation Management 254 Fig. 3. Number of Graduates from Faculty of Forestry, UPM (1977-2012) Ratnasingam J. et al. / Not Bot Horti Agrobo, 2013, 41(1):12-20 17 m3 of wood resources have also been imported to cater for the needs of industrial processing within the country (De- partment of Statistics, 2012; Ratnasingam, 2012). In retrospective, it appears that the forest area per pro- fessional forester has been steadily declining over the years, which explains the relatively low rate of recruitment of for- esters by the Forestry Department in the country (Fig. 4). On the other hand, there should be ample opportunities for wood technologists to nd employment in the wood- based industry as the number of mills per graduate wood technologist stands at a staggering rate of 30:1 (Fig. 5). However, a report from the German Agency for Tech- nical Cooperation (GTZ) on the demand for professional forestry graduates for the forestry sector in Peninsular Ma- laysia, Sabah and Sarawak revealed ndings to the contrary of the general perception. e employment prospects for forestry graduates during the period 2006-2010 in the up- stream and downstream sectors are depicted in Fig. 6(a) and Fig. 6(b) respectively. Based on the GTZ report (Hann-Schilling, 2004), it was found that the employment opportunities for profes- Tropical Forestry, Nature Parks and Recreation, Forest Plantation and Agro-Forestry as well as Wood Fibre Tech- nology (Trockenbrodt, 2003). e number of student en- rolment in these four programs increased progressively to 140 over the years (Kammersheidt et al., 2007). ere appears to be an ample evidence to support the notion that the forestry education in Malaysia has been shaped by the foreseen demand for professionals from the rapidly expanding forestry sector in the country. Wellman (1987) and Hadi (1997) emphasized that it was essential that the number of students graduating at the end of their forestry studies matched as near as possible the require- ment of the country. In fact, Malaysia has carved a niche as a leader in sustainable forest management in the tropi- cal region, and fuelled by an expanding forestry industries, the projection for potential employment opportunities were encouraging. With almost 20 million hectares of land under natural forest cover coupled with almost 4.8 million hectares of land under plantation tree crops such as rubber, oil palm and forest plantations, it was appar- ent that forestry will remain a vibrant economic sector in the country for many years to come (Kammesheidt et al., 2007). Forestry Education in Malaysia?Myths and Realities e fact that most of the 11.82 million hectares of pro- duction forests have been heavily logged at least once, and hence are poorly stocked with commercial species above the legal diameter cutting limit does not augur well for the future supply of wood resources in the country. Inevitably, plantation wood resources, especially Rubberwood (He- vea brasiliensis M?ll.Arg.) has dominated the added-value wood products sector catering for almost 2.5 million m3 of the wood resource needs. In recent years, up to 0.5 million Fig. 4. Forested Area per Professional Forester in Malaysia (1977?2010) Fig. 5. Number of Wood-Based Mills per Wood Technologist in Malaysia (2007?2010) Ratnasingam J. et al. / Not Bot Horti Agrobo, 2013, 41(1):12-20 18 oen do not choose forestry as the preferred eld of study in universities, and thereaer to pursue a professional for- estry career. It is therefore apparent that forestry education in Ma- laysia is also in transition, as it is faced with a younger gen- eration that appears to be less enthusiastic about forestry and the environment, coupled with its low-paying and lim- ited career growth prospects. In the meantime, the saving grace appears to be the interventionist education policy in the country, which ensures that the student enrolment in forestry programs stay above the minimum, thus making such programs viable. Forestry Education for the Future Against the background of globalization, democra- tization of education, the rapid progress in science and technology and the growing environmental concern, it is undeniable that higher education sector, which includes forestry education, will have to be transformed (Andersen et al., 2002). Due to importance of forestry, the traditional forestry education will have to shi towards social forestry, com- munity forestry, and environmental conservation, with re- newed emphasis on the social, economic and environmen- tal aspects of the forest (Ratnasingam and Ioras, 2006). Hence, a review of the forestry education curriculum is sional foresters were limited in Peninsular Malaysia, but was more promising in the states of Sabah and Sarawak, which had very vibrant upstream forestry activities. On the other hand, potential downstream sector employers preferred graduates who have expertise in industrial pro- duction processes, factory management, machinery tech- nology, automation and product design, which are courses not well covered in the existing curricula (Hann-Schilling, 2005). e dilemma faced by forestry graduates in Malaysia has been highlighted previously by Ratnasingam et al. (1997), Ratnasingam and Ioras (2007, 2009), Ratnas- ingam et al. (2010). e prevailing mismatch between the market needs and the graduate?s capability were restricting employment opportunities in the forestry sector, so much so that a large part of forestry graduates had to seek em- ployment in other non-forestry sectors. Although eorts have been taken to address some of these skills mismatch, the restructuring of the curricula is far from satisfactory so much so that marketing forestry programs is becom- ing increasingly dicult in a country that is forest-rich. In reality, the forestry sector is Malaysia has emerged as a low-wage sector, with limited potential for value-addition (Tab. 2). is oers limited career growth prospects to the younger generation, who are accustomed to many other high salary sectors that are more lucrative to pursue. In- evitably, the bright minds among the younger generation (b)(a) Fig. 6. Employment Prospects for Forestry Graduates in the Upstream (a) and Downstream (b) Sectors in Malaysia Tab. 2. Employment Statistics of Forestry and Wood Technology Graduates Year Forested area per capita (ha) Forestry revenue (US$ million) per forester Value added per employee (US$) Average monthly salary (US$) with ve years of experience No. of foresters per 1000 workers employed No. of wood technologist per 1000 workers employed 1995 0.90 0.2 14,000 570 7 5 2000 0.80 0.1 11,000 650 5 4 2005 0.78 0.06 10,000 750 4 3 2010 0.74 0.02 9.300 890 3 3 Source: Ratnasingam et al. (2010) Ratnasingam J. et al. / Not Bot Horti Agrobo, 2013, 41(1):12-20 19 estry 75(5):501-511. Arevalo J, Mola-Yudego B, Pelkonen P, u M (2012). Students? view on forestry education: A cross-national comparison across three universities in Brazil, China and Finland. Forest Policy Econ 25:123-131. Arevalo J, Pitk?nen S, Gritten D, Tahvanainen L (2010). Market- relevant competencies for professional foresters in European graduate education. Internat For Review 12(3):200-208. Attah A, Ioras F, Abrudan IV, Ratnasingam J. 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Professional Education in Forestry. Commonwealth Forestry Association. (http://www.nau- frp.org/pdf/Professional%20Education%20in%20Forestry. pdf ). essential for the development of a restructured forestry program which is both relevant and of acceptable quality to serve the public and private forestry sectors. Curricu- lum development for forestry education must be linked to natural resources development, potential business ven- tures and trade, environment in the community, scientic research, and respective country?s need for forestry train- ing, research and innovation agenda (Nair, 2004). In fact, participants from 29 countries at the international work- shop on forestry education in 2007, agreed to move to- wards holism and away from industrial-based forestry edu- cation models. ey also recommended that foresters be re-trained in new approaches to forest management and review the objectives of forestry education in the light of future developments (Guariguata and Evans, 2010). With the steady growth in community-based forestry and private forest ownership, on-line forestry education can serve wider audiences and deliver such programs in an innovative and ecient manner. is concept has been practiced in Cornell University?s Forest-Connect program called as ?webinar series?. e outcome from the web sur- vey showed positive response from the participants, who were encouraged to seek additional information as a result of viewing the webinar (Allred and Smallidge, 2010). ese ndings suggest that a successful forestry educa- tion must be exible to cope with the changing needs of the forestry sector. Although the social, economic and en- vironmental realms of forestry practices remain the same, its focus changes according to local needs, which the pro- fessional forester must be capable of coping with. Failure to demonstrate this exibility, from the perspective of the curricula as well as the academics, would render both ir- relevant to the forestry sectors at large. 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