Community Forestry Research Fellowships

The U.S. Community Forestry Research Fellowship Program provides fellowships to graduate students to support their field work in communities in the United States. The awards are up to $15,000 for dissertation fellows, up to $7,000 for masters fellows, and $2,000 for pre-dissertation fellows.

What is Community Forestry? The program defines community forestry as efforts by people united by common interests to use and conserve their local forest resources. Community forestry thus covers a broad spectrum of resources and activities, from sustainable timber harvesting to non-timber forest product production, from riparian restoration to urban street-tree maintenance, from forest labor issues to collaborative processes of conflict resolution and the preservation of cultural resources.

The program accepts proposals dealing with the broad array of issues and resources in community forestry, including, but not limited to, collaborative processes and conflict resolution, social networks, political ecology of forest communities, urban forestry issues, watershed restoration, park creation and management, forest labor issues, non-timber forest product production (floral greens, basket-making materials, wild mushrooms, maple syrup, etc.), and revitalization of local life-ways and cultures. Questions concerning issues of social justice and equity are especially welcome.

Eligibility: Students at any institution of higher learning may apply for a fellowship. The applicant must be enrolled in a degree-granting program in the social sciences, economics, environmental science, forestry, agriculture, or natural resource management, policy and planning at their home institution. Applicants must be engaged in research that deals directly with or is explicitly relevant to U.S. forest communities. Field work must be participatory; Fellows must work actively with members of the community in which they are conducting research to engage them in the research process.

Deadline: Applications must be received by February 1, 2007.

For more details about the program and information on how to apply, please see our website: http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/community_forestry/