Trends in Brazil’s Forestry Education: Overview of the Forest Engineering Programs

Our study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of forestry programs in Brazil, including a comparative analysis with other countries while considering geographical factors. Over the past 25 years, the number of forestry programs in Brazil has increased from 43 to 75, leading to a rise in the ann...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forests 2023-08, Vol.14 (8), p.1644
Main Authors: Hakamada, Rodrigo, Frosini de Barros Ferraz, Silvio, Moré Mattos, Eduardo, Sulbarán-Rangel, Belkis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
academia
Climate change
Colleges & universities
Comparative analysis
Core curriculum
Deforestation
Education
Employment
Engineering
Enrollments
Forecasts and trends
Forest management
Forest products
forest science
Forestry
Forestry schools and education
Graduate studies
Population number
Professionals
professor
Science
Students
Trends
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Summary:Our study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of forestry programs in Brazil, including a comparative analysis with other countries while considering geographical factors. Over the past 25 years, the number of forestry programs in Brazil has increased from 43 to 75, leading to a rise in the annual number of graduates from 850 to 1500. Nevertheless, our findings reveal that only 60% of the available vacancies at universities are filled. On average, each institution enrolls 169 students (from 40 to 360 students per program). We also observed that, on average, each program employs 13 professors with a background in forest engineering (from 4 to 33). The results show that, among the professors from the ten oldest programs in the country, 78% had no prior professional experience outside academia, and 48% remained affiliated with the same university where they completed their undergraduate or graduate studies. There is a concerning and significant decline in the number of applicants for forestry programs, representing a strategic risk for the country. We identified a direct relationship between the number of programs, the population size, and the country’s total forest cover area when comparing Brazil with 12 other countries.
ISSN:1999-4907
1999-4907
DOI:10.3390/f14081644