The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) hosted a webinar on 4 March titled ‘Beyond the forest: Career paths in forest health’.

The webinar was organized together with FISNA (Forest Invasive Species Network for Africa) and NENFHIS (Near East Network on Forest Health and Invasive Species) and was the first of the series ‘Voices of future forest health leaders’ which aims to explore insights from emerging leaders in forest health.

Young forest professionals and researchers from Tunisia, Morocco and South Africa participated in the webinar, including two FABI students, Nigel Kombora and Aviwe Simandla, who spoke briefly about their projects and discussed their experiences in research, including the challenges, opportunities, and rewards. 

Nigel’s project is a collaboration between FABI and the ICFR which investigated the impact of defoliation on Eucalyptus dunnii growth using artificial defoliation trials and 3PG (Physiological Processes Predicting Growth). Aviwe’s project assessed the risk of potential introduction of insect pests of pine and eucalypts into South Africa based on pathways and trade data.link