Loca­tion: The stu­dent will be based at the Insti­tute of Inter­na­tio­nal Fore­stry and Forest Pro­ducts at TU Dres­den in Tha­randt, coope­ra­ting with the BMUB IKI pro­ject “Pro­duc­tion-dri­ven forest land­scape resto­ra­tion under REDD+ through pri­vate sec­tor – com­mu­nity part­nerships as Asian-regio­nal learning exch­ange”, with several and pro­lon­ged stays in the pro­ject site.
Pro­ject descrip­tion: The rese­arch pro­ject, fun­ded by the Inter­na­tio­nal Cli­mate Initia­tive (IKI) of the Federal Minis­try for the Envi­ron­ment, Nature Con­ser­va­tion, Buil­ding and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), aims to deve­lop part­nerships bet­ween com­mu­nities and the pri­vate sec­tor to res­tore degra­ded forests in Laos, Thai­land and Viet­nam, and thus impro­ving the live­lihood of the rural people. Locally adap­ted busi­ness models bet­ween small­hol­ders and the pri­vate sec­tor are inves­ti­ga­ted, sup­por­ted by NGOs, local govern­ments and uni­ver­si­ties. By using the cli­mate policy tool of “Redu­cing Emis­si­ons from Defo­re­sta­tion and Forest Degra­da­tion” (REDD +), rese­arch is plan­ned, e.g., on forest fire reduc­tion, pro­duc­tion, har­ves­ting and pro­ces­sing of dura­ble wood and bam­boo pro­ducts, as well as repla­ce­ment of fos­sil fuels with forest bio­mass pro­ducts. Les­sons from the pro­ject shall be incor­po­ra­ted into policy recom­men­da­ti­ons, know­ledge and trai­ning pro­ducts, and publi­ca­ti­ons.
Tasks: The doc­to­ral stu­dent will do rese­arch on a topic rela­ted and use­ful to the BMUB IKI pro­ject under the above cited working title. The topic may be fur­ther spe­ci­fied wit­hin the pro­ject scope, con­side­ring the can­di­date’s back­ground and inte­rest, and the super­vi­sors’ gui­dance. In agree­ment, fur­ther tasks in the field of rese­arch and teaching can be assi­gned by the direc­tor of the insti­tute.

The can­di­date should have a uni­ver­sity degree (Mas­ter) with excel­lent or good per­for­mance in fore­stry or other disci­pli­nes rela­ted to the pro­po­sed rese­arch. Rese­arch / work expe­ri­ence in the tro­pics or sub­tro­pics, with pre­fe­rence in SE Asia, and sci­en­ti­fic publi­ca­ti­ons are an asset. Pro­fi­ci­ent Eng­lish lan­guage skills, oral and writ­ten, is requi­red, other lan­guage com­pe­tence (Viet­na­mese, Ger­man) is an advan­tage, as well as good inter­cul­tu­ral com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills and social com­pe­tence, pre­fe­r­a­bly in the Asian con­text. The suc­cess­ful can­di­date should be highly moti­va­ted and wil­ling to spend several months in the rese­arch sites.