IFSA...or how amazing we, forestry students, are!!!

Hello everyone!!!

Last week, 28April-5May, I have been traveling, together with other 50 forestry students from all over Europe, inside Austria and Hungary. The reason...the celebration of the Southern European Regional

Wonderful picture of all the participants

Meeting  (SERM) of the International Forestry Students Association (IFSA). You want to know what IFSA is? So, is "the global network for students in forest sciences. It unites approximately 3000 students in about 73 member associations (called Local Committees) in over 54 countries. IFSA is a non-governmental, non for profit and non religious organization, entirely run by students and for students."!! (http://www.ifsa.net/main.php). 

However, do not think that IFSA it only consists on some occasional gathering of hippie students that like climbing trees, nature in general, partying and drinking. Of course is all that!!! :)) But much more too!!! For instance, it plays a very important communicative role between students by offering a place where they can share information about open job positions, they can discover different study programs and facilities all around the world, and of course, it is also really helpful when organizing local, regional, and international student meetings, so they can exchange their knowledge and experiences!!! And that is the reason why I am writing this post today.

I will shortly introduce to you the event, so I think you will have a better idea of what IFSA represents, and how lucky we, forestry students, are in comparison with any others!! At least I am not aware of any other university careers that created such complex and active organization at the international level, and which it has been successful in trying to organize similar events regularly.

SERM 2013 was co-organized by the Local Committees (LC) of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna (Austria), and of the University of West Hungary in Sopron (Hungary). The organizers worked hard during the last year looking for sponsors willing to collaborate in the creation of an absolutely stunning program. The general impression that I got is that this is probably the hardest part when organizing these events. Do not forget that we are talking about students, and that is not always easy to make people take us seriously when you are asking about money. However, I must admit that in this occasion they have been really successful!!! Just have a look at some of the sponsors: 1) Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management; 2) Austrian Federal Forest Agency, which is the biggest forest owner in the country; 3) Central office of Austrian Hunting Associations; 4) Lieco, which is part of the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation; and 5) Stihl Hungary. GOOD job guys!!

Opening ceremony at BOKU

We started the week in Austria's capital, Vienna, and later on we traveled through the wetland areas along the Danube river, the forests that protect Vienna's well-known drinking water sources, we also explored an ancient underground salt mine, we experienced bird watching around the Lake Neusiedl/Fertö, but we also spent sometime discovering the local facets of the Austrian and Hungarian cultures. So as you can see, forestry and culture were the two main things in the program...wonderful!!

Alpine forests

International Evening

Other typical events in every IFSA meeting are:

Typical wine tavern in Austria

- the International Evening: where students are supposed to present their country's special traditions, drinks and snacks, and they are supposed to do it wearing some traditional clothes. Since I was representing France in the meeting (I am currently studying there), on my table there was some tasty cheese, three bottles of wine (white from Alsace, red from Bordeaux, and rosé from Côtes du Rhone), and all these delicatessen went together with some good Austrian bread (unfortunately we could not get any baguettes). Concerning the outfit, we were wearing the traditional clothes from our school in Nancy: a kilt and a pink t-shirt!! The students have not been capable yet to explain me the reason of such singular match!!! Quite nice evening, and I think that French wines and cheeses were a complete success since almost nothing was left in the end!

- IFSA Development Fund tombola: in order to promote the participation in IFSA meetings of forestry students coming from the least developed countries, we were supposed to bring some typical souvenirs or goodies from our respective countries, and then, a tombola was carried out between all the participants.

So, I hope that by now you know, at least a little bit better, what IFSA is and what it represents for forestry students. I really enjoyed it!! I met lots of new friends (including three future students of the Master of Science in European Forestry), I discovered new and interesting things about forestry in two other countries that up until now were quite unknown to me, and to sum up, I went through new cultural and personal experiences!!!

Hope you like it!!

Marc.