About
What are Communities of Learning and Practice?
The US Forest Service International Communities of Learning and Practice build global learning communities of practitioners engaged in natural resource management issues.
What are USFS IP International Seminars?
In 2-3 week seminars based in strategic locations around the United States, participants meet with community members, government representatives, academic researchers, and the private sector to understand and exchange innovative approaches to shared conservation challenges.
The approach to the seminars program is to bring out the expertise in the room. We connect natural resource managers from all around the world and build a learning community where participants are not just learning from the US Forest Service and our partners, but each other. Field visits and panel discussions highlight key themes such as engaging communities, strengthening partnerships among diverse stakeholders, empowering women, and building resilience. All seminars conclude with robust application planning in which participants develop action plans for incorporating their new skills and competencies into their work at home.
By the end of a seminar, participants have seen innovative approaches to natural resource management that they hadn’t previously considered, developed a strong action plan for how to implement some of what they learned back home, and know that they have a global community of professionals to call on when they need help achieving these goals.
IP currently offers 12 annual international seminars:
- Natural Resource Law Enforcement
- Watershed Management
- Forest Landscape Restoration
- Climate Change
- Urban Forestry and Community Engagement
- Disaster Management
- Protected Area Management (in partnership with the University of Montana)
- Spanish-language Protected Area Management (in partnership with Colorado State University)
- Livestock Grazing Management
- Sustainable Tourism (in partnership with Colorado State University)
- Mining
- Community Resilience
Seminar Locations
Participants' Home Countries
2019 Participant Breakdown
About U.S. Forest Service International Programs
U.S. Forest Service International Programs promotes sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation internationally. By linking the skills of the field-based staff of the U.S. Forest Service with partners overseas, the agency can address the world’s most critical forestry issues and concerns.
Since international cooperation is necessary to sustain the ecological and commercial viability of global forest resources and to conserve biodiversity, most of our work is done in collaboration with other organizations. Our partners include:
- Other U.S. Government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, Millennium Challenge Corporation and Foreign Agricultural Service;
- Multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization;
- Non-government organizations, such as Wild Salmon Center and The Nature Conservancy
- Universities
We work in countries around the globe with our regional team staff divided into four areas: Asia-Pacific; Africa and Middle East; Russia, Europe, & Eurasia; and Latin America, the Caribbean, & Canada.
In addition to the regional teams, our programs cover a variety of cross-cutting themes, including Climate Change, Disaster Assistance Support, Illegal Logging, Migratory Species, Policy and Governance, Urban Outreach and Partnerships, and Wood Identification and Screening.
For more on the US Forest Service International Programs Anti-racism policy, click here.
For more on the US Forest Service International Programs Anti-harassment policy, click here.
For more on US Forest Service International Programs, visit our website!