Start-up meeting and web based prepatory course

The programme starts with a start-up meeting and a web-based course during three months in your home country or neighboring region.

The start-up meeting takes place shortly after the admission of participants and aims to meet the programme team and the participants and to discuss the course components – not least the Change Project and possibilities in joint projects.

The web-based course takes about 15 weeks. Individual online studies are combined with virtual meetings with opportunity to ask questions and discuss the online activity in the last month.

Each participant will need to spend up to one day per week to keep up with the pace and the interactive meetings. (Participants in first course round used 2–8 hours per activity/week). The time needed for each activity is dependent on each participant’s previous knowledge in the specific subject and may therefore vary slightly.

Learning objectives and expected outcomes

There are five course modules, each with one to four activities. These are listed in the table below together with the learning objective of each module and each activity.

(The table may be easier to read if you download it as a pdf below.)

E-course	Activity	Objective
1. Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) – local solutions for global challenges		Describe the role of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) in the Sustainable Development Goals. Explain challenges with scaling FLR programs and why progress is slow.  Identify the rational for this ITP program, and describe its’ outline.  Include relevant parts of succeeding classes in your change project idea.
	1.1 Locally Controlled Forest Restoration (LoCoFoRest) – A Governance and Market Oriented Approach to Resilient Landscapes	Discuss how the objectives, outline and components of the LoCoFoRest program relate to your Change Project (CP) idea.
	1.2 Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) definitions, constraints, and possibilities	Reflect on the drivers for FLR in your CP area, and how policies for local participatory forest management could be improved accordingly.
	1.3 FLR in two billion hectares have many faces	Explain basic features of a forest, drivers for deforestation and how FLR depend on the local contexts .
	1.4 The market as a driver for sustainable and resilient FLR	Explain the relation between producing competitive products/services and sustainable FLR.   Reflect on how consideration to social aspects and ecosystem can be included from the start in FLR in your CP.
	1.5 The Change Project (CP)	Understand the purpose and structure of the ITP Change Project enough to include relevant parts of course 2-4 in your CP idea.
2. LoCoFoRest in a new bio-based economy		Explain the need for economic sustainability in FLR and reflect on how the entrepreneurial environment in your country/change project area can be improved.  Analyze possible sustainable forest-based value chains in your Change Project (CP) area, and technical.
	2.1 Creating an environment that sustains entrepreneurs	Reflect on how your CP idea is related to and depending on a positive entrepreneurial environment.
	2.2 The new market system – Strategies for making products and services from FLR competitive and LoCoFoRest scalable	Describe a forest-based market system and its value chain – from smallholder and forest management to the final product/services and the final customers.  Describe possible market systems in your change project.
	2.3. Lean Start-Up and the Integrated Approach – Strategies for making products and services from FLR competitive and LoCoFoRest scalable	Explain the concepts of ”Lean Start-up” and “the Integrated Approach” and discuss how these concepts can support scalable business in locally controlled forest restoration.
	2.4 Can a booming wood building sector become a driver for LoCoFoRest?	Discuss how a major market opportunity for forest-based products can be a driver for restoration of degraded forests.
3. Ecosystem services and multifunctional landscape values with LoCoFoRest		Define ecosystem services (ES) related to the forest landscape in your proposed Change Project (CP).  Explain why support to ES is important in your CP and how they contribute to improved livelihoods and economies.
	3.1 Ecosystem Services (ES)	Define ES important in your CP area, and explain how they rely on trees and forests in your project area.
	3.2 The role of restored landscapes for water resource management	Describe the interactions between water, trees, forest and landscapes, and reflect on how FLR affect water in your CP area.
	3.3 Tools and methodologies that support restoration of forests to multifunctional landscapes	Explain the benefits of restoring the multiple functions of landscapes, and reflect on methodologies which could be used in your CP area.
4. Social and governance aspects of LoCoFoRest		Reflect on what social and governance aspects need to be acknowledge in your proposed Change Project (CP) to create a positive entrepreneurial environment and successful and scalable FLR which support ES  Discuss relevant governance tools and strategies that support restoration of your CP area to a multifunctional landscape.
	4.1 The social spectrum	Reflect on the relevant stakeholders in your CP, their role, how they contribute to FLR and what conflicting interests they may have related to FLR.
	4.2 Multistakeholder processes	Describe the benefits and challenges with multistakeholder processes and start considering a stakeholder process which would benefit your CP.
	4.3 Policy, legislation, and extension	Start considering what policies, legislation and extension needs to be changed, improved or developed in your CP area or country, to support your CP.
5. LoCoFoRest Change Projects
	5.1 Method and Structure	Draft your CP-plan by identifying and including relevant learnings from E-course 1-4 in your CP idea.

• Last Updated: 10/4/2023