The International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA) is a global network for students in Forest Sciences, Forest Management and other related fields that aims to bring undergraduate and graduate students together through annual meetings, exchanges and forums. IFSA also provides a platform for students to express their opinions and concerns as it sends students to regionally and internationally known conferences related to forestry.
The local IFSA UBC committee was established in 2011 by passionate and inspired UBC students who had attended the 39th IFSS (International Forestry Students’ Symposium) in Finland.
IFSA UBC regularly organizes community events and activities that highlight international and local forestry concerns and we collaborate with the rest of the Faculty of Forestry to promote a greater sense of community. Such events and activities include foraging trips, panelist discussions about the annual COP conferences, writing contests and much more! Further, every year, IFSA UBC sends delegates to IFSS and organizes regional IFSA meetings with other local North American committees.
IFSA VISION
IFSA’s vision of “a world that appreciates forests” describes the dream of having all the people and societies on the earth recognize the full worth of forests and fully understand forests, grasping their implications and being grateful for their multi-fold contributions to humanity.
Forests may be understood in different ways and appreciated for different reasons. At IFSA we value the importance that forests represent for all of our members — the social, environmental, and economic values that are the pillars of sustainability. Appreciating forests for their provisions of natural beauty, timber, shade, water purification, non-wood forest products, habitat, biodiversity, recreation, carbon sequestration, energy and much more, IFSA members are realizing this vision.
This vision leaves flexibility for different groups to be considered “a world”, e.g. Local Committees (LC), IFSA, groups formed based on a common thematic interest related to forests, the whole world including all people and societies. “A world” can be interpreted at different scales and sizes of groups of people.
IFSA MISSION
To enrich our members’ education through international events, networking and intercultural exchange.
IFSA HISTORY
It all began in Great Britain in 1973 with an annual meeting of forestry students: the International Forestry Students Symposium (IFSS).
The event was held there for thirteen years and the goal was to provide forestry students with a platform where they could meet their counterparts from other countries, discuss their ideas and views and create an atmosphere of solidarity and inspiration. During the following years the symposium attracted more and more students. The first accomplishment of these meetings was the creation of INFOCENTER; an office established to co-ordinate the exchange of information among forestry students.
During the 18th IFSS in Lisbon, Portugal in 1990, the participants decided to expand the co-operation between forestry students beyond the annual symposium. At the constitutional assembly of IFSA, the founding member associations approved provisional statutes and elected the first representative organs. INFOCENTER was relocated and took on the official role as IFSA’s communicative and informational organ.
The following year, the 19th IFSS was organized in the Netherlands. This symposium turned out to be a great success with 112 participants from 38 countries; it was the first time that students from all continents were represented. The following symposium was organised in Italy (1992). Here the third General Assembly (GA) designated a central organ, the Secretariat, to be responsible for the association’s bureaucratic tasks, internal communications and all INFOCENTER duties. The Secretariat, thus, fully assumed its role as IFSA headquarters.
IFSA became a truly world-wide organisation when the new statutes were finally approved in 1994 at the fifth GA during the 22nd IFSS in Switzerland. The association was officially registered as a charity organisation with its seat in Göttingen, Germany. Five years later, with the adoption of the revised Statutes, Decrees and By-laws, the general assembly moved the seat to Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
