Profile & Career

Programme Profile

The topic of Sustainable Forest and Nature Management is of global importance. Sustainable forest and nature management systems play an important role in developing the European green transition: 

  • to reverse the biodiversity loss  
  • for adaptation strategies 
  • as a nature-based solution to mitigate climate change  

The demand for wood for meeting renewable energy targets and raw material for the industries continues to increase. However, mobilising enough wood to satisfy this growing need could come at a significant environmental, financial and institutional cost. Forest management approaches will need to continuously ensure that forest ecosystems are able to continue to conserve biodiversity and guarantee the provision of a range. 

SUFONAMA is thus an intense response to present global challenges, pursuing and combining the best teaching across borders, eliminating obstacles to collaboration, offering the best within the EU to promising students wanting to engage with sustainable forest and nature management challenges. 

 

The Programme is Based on Three Key Areas

The programme is characterised by strategic work with a long-time perspective. The long-time perspective is necessary for utilisation of forests and natural areas; hence the programme evolves around finding the balance between the sustainability of ecological systems and human requirements. Through three key areas you gain knowledge of:  

  1. the function, the productive opportunities and the ecological sustainability of biological systems 
  2. economics, financial management and optimisation as well as methodologies for planning and considering interests 
  3. tools and skills for handling ‘the human dimension’ – general management, project management, negotiation and conflict management.  

Knowledge within these three areas will enable you to develop professionally sound solutions that can be put into action in a complex world of conflicting aims and interests that must be socially acceptable and in line with developments in society. 

Graduate Profile

The main objective of the programme is to qualify you for coping with the huge challenges in contemporary forest and nature management in countries where the forest-nature paradigm has shifted in recent years.  

The aim is to provide you with a firm theoretical foundation and understanding of the new paradigm in sustainable forest and nature management, including  

  • the social and environmental contexts,  
  • ability to apply theory and to implement and sustain an integrated management of forest and nature areas,  
  • and intercultural competences to function professionally in a complex international context of conflicting aims and interests.  

During your studies, you are extensively exposed to theory and practice of sustainable forest and nature management. 

Career Opportunities

As a SUFONAMA graduate you will be provided with the best research-based forest and nature management teaching in Europe. You will also be provided with several central control and management tools and a broad range of economic, ecological and social competences. This forms a good foundation for a possible management career in the private or public sector.   

As a graduate, you will be well prepared to immediately apply for a job in forestry and nature management practice, e.g.  

  • in forest industries,  
  • consultancy,  
  • NGO, ENGO or international organisations,  
  • ministry, government agency, or district forest office,  
  • or to pursue a career in research by preparing a PhD. 

The programme is typically aimed at positions as academic employees or as managers in private, commercial companies, in national or international organisations relating to the utilisation/protection of forests and other natural resources, or in a public authority office/agency/company working with area management. 

Read more about the programme structure.  

Degree Awarded

As the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters in Sustainable Forest and Nature Management (SUFONAMA) is an integrated study programme, graduates obtain a double degree fully recognised in all the participating countries.  Students must complete 120 ECTS through their chosen mobility tracks:  
  • 60 ECTS at University of Copenhagen the first year of studies 
  • 60 ECTS at their second-year university the second year of studies. 
Getting a double degree means that graduates receive two national degrees – one degree from each university where they have completed 60 ECTS.   See which degree is awarded from each university in the table below: 

University Degree Awarded
University of Copenhagen MSc in Forest Ecosystems, Nature and Society
Bangor University MSc in Sustainable Forest and Nature Management
University of Göttingen MSc in Sustainable Forest and Nature Management
University of Padua Laurea Magistrale in Forest Science
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences MSc with a major in Forestry Science