Landscape Ecology Education Network (LE Net @ international level)
Our aim is to formulate a strategy for the development and promotion of landscape ecology principles, theories and tools through courses, workshops and discussion forums that can strengthen the education and identity of the future landscape ecologists generations of scientists. The strategy includes initiatives that at a global level can promote the special holistic experience of landscape ecological management subject to complex social regulations.
IALE aims to develop a strategy for LE Net @ international level, but much work and efforts are still needed on:
- making LE_Net relevant for people working in very different regions
- encourage discussion on international education and capacity building
- exchanging experiences and initiatives
- continue the development of Summer Schools
- e-learning
- sharing materials and online courses
- financial support:
- of related courses
- of related education forums
- Involvement of Landscape Ecology experts on active teaching
It is expected that IALE will continue to support concrete activities, like workshop and summer schools in its regions, fellowships for young researchers to attend IALE and others related meetings. Education activities are directly linked to promote and support new chapters in Latin America, Africa, Asia among other regions as a truly geographical representativeness is pivotal to the development of a truly International IALE that can broaden up the vision of Landscape Ecology.
Activities:
It is important to stress that up to date national level chapter’s serve as a forum for exchange ideas and research interests and to promote related courses and workshops. In this sense, US-IALE's student activities coordinated by student representatives in tandem with high level workshops organized before the US-IALE meetings are an example of the benefits and impacts of the activity. In Europe a Task Force Group was created to strengthen the European educational initiatives for landscape ecology in 2005 chair by Maria Kosavá, from Slovakia and supported by a long list of European IALEmembers. Today responsibility of this group is on the hands of Janez.Pirnat@bf.uni-lj.si and the European IALE chapter. Examples of the European activities are PhD’s summer schools like the ones organized in: Faro 2005, Salzburg 2009, and this year Evora, Portugal 2012. IALE International promotes pre-conferences courses before the WC like the ones organized in Darwin 2003, Wageningen 2007, and Beijing 2011.
The education activities allow young scientists from around the world to make contact with more established scholars to reflect upon current issues in Landscape Ecology in a critical way, other than specific training and capacity building the network activities contribute to:
- enable young scientist to develop and discuss their own thinking in the context of other approaches and perspectives.
- train young scientists in formal and informal rules of scientific communication
- focus on the tools and methods of Landscape Ecology, with theoretical considerations applied to different Landscapes and geographical realities and contexts.
Other than high level training the aims of the Education Network are:
linking existing teaching projects and initiatives- coordinating and assessing teaching and training on an international platform
- promoting the needs for teaching in Landscape Ecology
How do we make LE_Net global?
We need to help and support on continue developing innovative ideas, training and thinking for the young generations of future landscape ecologists.
Contact
- Sandra.Luque@irstea.fr (National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture, France)
- Diane.Pearson@cdu.edu.au (Charles Darwin University, Australia)
