Global Forests Focus of Yale Executive Education Program

An executive education program focusing on the condition and dynamics of global forests will be offered in the spring by Yale University’s Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry.

The program, which will consist of two week-long courses at Yale in March and April, will provide executives in forestry and forest-related companies, industry and the financial community, as well as members of the media, with the latest research in forest science and management, issues and trends.

“The courses are designed for busy professionals who don’t have the time for a graduate-degree program, but need the background to understand and meet the challenges of conserving and managing the world’s forests,” said Chad Oliver, director of the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry and Pinchot Professor of Forestry & Environmental Studies at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “The participants will emerge from the courses with a common understanding, which will raise the quality of discourse and forest practices.”

In “Executives Learning About Forestry,” which will run from March 25 to 30, executives moving into forestry-related businesses or organizations will get an overview of forest biology and management as a basis for understanding forest resources and management techniques, tools and perspectives.

“After completing the course, they will know the location of, markets for and the varieties and uses of wood around the world, as well as understand the concerns of environmentalists on a myriad of issues,” said Oliver. “It will give participants a fundamental understanding of the potential of the forest industry.”

In “Foresters Becoming Executives,” which will be offered from April 15 to 20, foresters stepping into mid-level executive and senior management positions will be exposed to the latest thinking on national and global forest issues.

“Young forest managers are very good about knowing how to manage forests in a given area,” said Oliver. “But at a higher management level, they’ll need to make the right decisions about allocating resources and investments and learn not to apply the same approach that was successful in Idaho to Chile. The course will also give managers the pedigree to interact confidently at the board level.”

Both courses will include discussion of forestry and biotechnology; illegal logging; forest health and invasive exotic pests; forest certification; carbon sequestration and carbon credits; the future of cities and the effect on forests; sustainable forestry and consumption; tropical forest issues; energy, wood and the future; payment for environmental services; reserves, integrated management and intensive plantations; and rural forest communities.

Oliver will co-teach the courses with Lloyd Irland, a senior lecturer and senior research scholar at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Oliver is a renowned expert in the field of forest stand dynamics and has taught mid-career short courses in the Northwest and the eastern United States to international public and private audiences for over 20 years. Irland was a research economist with the U.S. Forest Service and was Maine’s state economist for five years. He is actively engaged with major land-use and industrial-competitiveness issues in the Northern Forest of New York and New England.

In addition, guest lecturers and other Yale faculty experts will round out discussions of emerging issues. “One of the goals is to introduce participants to a range of ideas and to foster the development of a network of professionals that they can rely on throughout their careers,” said Oliver. “You’re going to be taught by the best and in a way that’s proven to be successful.”

The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies was founded in 1900 and is the oldest professional school of forestry in the United States. For more information, contact Barbara Ruth at 203-432-5117 or barbara.ruth@yale.edu. For registration materials, visit www.yale.edu/gisf.