FSC Needs You(th): Education, Research, and Expectations
FSC is evolving, and we want to be meaningful for younger generations, to cocreate solutions to tackle the crisis their future is facing. We want to understand what youth knows about FSC, and what FSC can give to motivate them to interact with FSC as members, in working groups, as researchers, as auditors, as future decision makers. We will give panelists and audience the floor to challenge FSC in asking why they should engage with FSC, this to help FSC to understand what we need to offer.
In this interactive session, the International Forestry Students’ Association will first present findings from their global survey to identify when, where and in which detail they learned about and studied FSC and certification in general. IFSA will engage the audience, so that they contribute to these findings. Jointly we want to identify where FSC must offer support to lecturers to teach about FSC certification.
Young scientists from different disciplines will discuss why and what they plan to study about FSC, what their challenges are to invest time in FSC related research, in accessing data, funding and to find counterparts for interviews. We want to hear from Indigenous Youth perspective what they expect from FSC to make it attractive for them to give their time to FSC. We will show examples of the broad scope of FSC related research topics, job and other engagement opportunities, and celebrate youth engagement successful for FSC and for them.
Muhammad Pasha Assalafi, IFSA
Muhammad is a climate action advocate serving as the Head of the FSC Sub-Commission at IFSA. A Forest Management student at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), he led a youth-led tree planting initiative in Blora, East Java, resulting in over 7,500 trees planted in 2024. As Head of Commission at IFSA LC UGM, he actively represents youth in global forestry forums and multistakeholder platforms, advancing forest governance and sustainability through youth mobilisation and collaboration.
Jaime Iarin Victoriano Ascencio, IFSA
Jaime is studying Forest Restoration Engineering at the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo. He served as president of the local committee IFSA CHAUPEA and currently represents Latin America in the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA). He stands out for his commitment to ecological restoration, student leadership, and international collaboration, actively participating in environmental initiatives and dialogue spaces to strengthen climate action from the perspective of forestry youth.
Dr. Charline Depoorter
Dr. Charline is a postdoctoral researcher in the Sustainability Research Group at University of Basel (Switzerland) and Research Fellow at the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies at KU Leuven (Belgium). A political scientist by training, her research interests include transnational sustainability governance, global value chains, political economy, and global environmental politics. She currently investigates (public and private) regulatory instruments for sustainable global value chains, with an empirical focus on the land use sector.
Sarah Anne Stevens
Sarah is a PhD candidate at Leiden University, where she supports a comparative multistakeholder global governance project. Her personal work focuses on political, economic, and ecological changes occurring through the FSC's governance process. Sarah Anne formerly worked at Public Citizen, where she supported trade, human rights, and environmental advocacy. During her graduate studies, she volunteered as a researcher to support frontline communities whose human rights had been violated by development banks.
Laura Birbalaite
I am a PhD Researcher at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University, the Netherlands. With our research team of four, we are carrying out a comparative, in-depth analysis of capacity, effectiveness and legitimacy of multistakeholder global governance, which the FSC is a part of. In my own individual dissertation on the FSC, I am investigating how and in what ways the principles of care are lived and reflected in its governance. Prior to academe, I was primarily involved in environmental and social grassroots movements and community organising.
Maureen Kamau
Maureen Kamau is a first-year doctoral student at the University of Eastern Finland with a background in forestry and hands-on experience in natural resources management. Her master's thesis analysed climate adaptation strategies in boreal forest management based on FSC standards. Building on this, her PhD studies examine climate resilience in community-managed forests in the Global South and assess the impact of certification on carbon stocks. Maureen advances inclusive, science-informed approaches to forest policy and governance.
Dian Intarini
Dian Intarini, rooted in Javanese culture, is the Indigenous Peoples Manager for Forestry and Certification at FSC-International. She co-founded Indonesia’s Dala Institute and is affiliated with Gadjah Mada University, University of Hohenheim, and University of Twente. Dian has consulted for CIFOR/ICRAF and FSC, conducting research in Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Papua. Her expertise includes land tenure, community resource management, certification, Forest governance, food security, and rural development.
Event Details
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Tuesday 28 October
Time: 16:30 - 18:00 EST (Panama), 22:30 - 00:00 CET, 05:30 - 07:00 WITA (next day)