The International Forestry Students' Association (IFSA) elects new liaison officer

Desmond Teh, a student at National Taiwan University, has been elected the new liaison officer (LO) for the International Forestry Students' Association's partnerships with The Center for People and Forests and The Forest Dialogues. 

IFSA, an international organization that seeks to connect forestry students from around the world, has an expansive network of partnerships that they leverage to pursue a more sustainable world. "Our vision of 'a world that appreciates forests' describes the dream of having all people and societies on the earth recognize the full worth of forests," is recorded on their website as a guiding vision for the organization.

"The Center is beyond excited to work with the talented minds of IFSA," Dr. David Ganz, the Executive Director of RECOFTC commented. "Their members include some of the most passionate youth in forestry and their network and energy is boundless. IFSA will inhabit a prominent role in efforts to fight the degradation of our natural world in the years to come."

IFSA, RECOFTC and The Forest Dialogues are currently expanding upon recent collaboration. In August, IFSA was a key actor in the People and Forests Forum 2018 held in Bangkok, Thailand where members of the organization pitched a platform to engage urban centers and interested youth through the recording of fruit trees in populated areas. 

All organization realize, however, that even better collaboration is possible. "Everything starts with something small," Desmond Teh told RECOFTC. 

"There might be a lot of hard situations that we will face," he continued, "but as long as we stay positive and never give up, every single seedling will grow into a tree... just like youngsters," he concluded