On Monday, 30 September, the new Bachelor's degree course in "Socioecological Forest Management" (SÖW) was launched with 17 students at a festive colloquium on the forest campus of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE). This degree programme is associated with a new approach to thinking and working in forest management.

The Vice President for Teaching and Studies at HNEE, Prof. Dr Uta Steinhardt, welcomed the numerous and renowned guests from the forestry and sustainability scene as well as the first 17 students of the new degree programme to the packed Pfeil Auditorium for the celebratory colloquium. Among them: the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, Steffi Lemke. In her speech, she congratulated HNEE on this innovative degree programme and emphasised the importance of the course and its integration into the ministry's existing funding programmes.

Peter Wohlleben, one of the originators of the degree programme, described the development and the idea behind the degree programme. Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Pierre Ibisch emphasised the role of the numerous funding and cooperation partners. Together with Dr Daniel Johnson, he also presented the new approach of socio-ecological forest management. They emphasised the complexity of forests as ecosystems that simultaneously provide numerous ecosystem services for the well-being and survival of humankind. As socio-ecological systems, they are therefore indispensable in the climate crisis. Economist Dr Daniel Johnson and ecologist Prof Ibisch showed how the management of these services is one of the central issues of sustainable development and environmental justice.

The Socioecological Forest Management (B.Sc.) degree programme is a full-time course with a standard period of study of six semesters. The course teaches a new perspective on forests. Forest ecology, ecosystem theory and socio-ecological systems serve to protect, explain and research forests together with forest owners and managers. The goal of socio-ecological forest management is human well-being on the basis of equitable management. The starting point for all considerations is forests as self-sustaining and dynamically changing ecological systems and their best possible functioning under the conditions of the climate crisis. The programme director is Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Pierre Ibisch. The degree programme is coordinated by Christoph Nowicki, who is significantly involved in the development and establishment of the degree programme.

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