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Adress: Email: Phone: Working Group |
Department Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Room 2.106 Büsgenweg 3 37077 Göttingen songolo@uni-goettingen.de +49-551-39 33410 Global forestland policy and sustainability |
| Symphorien Ongolo |
| ORCID 0000-0003-1530-4640 |
| Cameroonian nationality |
| Website: (i) https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/576293.html (ii) http://aforpolis.org/ |
| 17.06.2015 | PhD in Political Science (Environmental Policy) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland. Dissertation title: The politics of forestland use in global environmental governance. | |
| 8.10.2010 | Master of Sciences in Environmental Sciences at the Montpellier SupAgro and AgroParisTech institutes, France; specialised in Political Economy of deforestation | |
| 4.09.2008 | Bachelor in Forestry science at the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Limoges – France; specialized in tropical forest management | |
| 05.08.2003 | Graduated in Forest and water management at the National School of Forestry (ENEF) of Mbalmayo, Cameroon. |
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Postdoc (Alexander von Humboldt Research fellow), Chair of Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, University of Göttingen, Germany. Tasks: Research Group leader “Forestland Policy and Sustainability”; establishment and coordination of the African Forest Policies & Politics (AFORPOLIS) initiative. A scientific network aimed at advancing cutting-edge knowledge and science-policy interactions on the dynamics of international forest policy in Africa. |
| 2016- 2017> |
Major: sabbatical year (parental leave), and minor: independent consultant with Biotope. Task: political analysis of deforestation, land planning governance and cocoa development in the Nawa region of Côte d’Ivoire. | |
| 2011- 2015 |
Junior researcher at the Institute for Environmental Decisions, ETH Zürich, Switzerland; associate researcher with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Yaoundé - Cameroon; and the Centre for Agricultural research for development (CIRAD) Montpellier - France. | |
| 2009 | Internship with the Montpellier SupAgro institute. Task (study): inside Korup national park: biodiversity conservation and local development in a protected area of South-west Cameroon. | |
| 2003- 2007 |
Fulltime forest officer at the Secretary General of the Ministry of forestry in Cameroon. |
| Since the 2011 I have been working with many scientists on several aspects of the politics of forest and land use change in global south especially in Africa. A selection of the related publications is available at google scholar here. |
| In the frame of my postdoctoral programme in Germany, I launched and lead a new research group on “Global Forestland Policy and Sustainability” at the Professorship of Forest and Nature Conservation Policy of the University of Göttingen that includes substantial contribution in students supervision. More recently, I have been appointed as coordinator of a new Working Party African forest politics and governance” |
| From 2012 to present, I have been active in teaching many aspects of international forest policy that includes forest regimes; governance and informalities; food security and forestland conversion; the politics of climate change and development, in France (Agro-Campus Rennes, AgroParisTech institute and the university of Montpellier), in Cameroon (university of Yaoundé 2, and the university of Dschang), in Germany (university of Göttingen). |
| One of our major international scientific activities has been the organisation of the IUFRO social sciences conference on “African Forest Policies and Politics” cycle. The first edition of AFORPOLIS conference held in Yaoundé, Cameroon from September 24 to 27 2018. About 150 participants from 27 countries met in Yaoundé to scrutinize the emergence and evolution of forestland policy in Africa. As regards with my contribution in international scientific publication services, I am Editorial Board Member of the international peer-review journal Forest Policy and Economics (Esevier) since 2017. I also provide referees’ comments and reviews for many international peer-review journals (Ecology & Society, Regulation & Governance, Development Studies Research, Journal of Sustainable Development, Forest Policy and Economics, International Forestry Review, Responsive Forest Governance Initiative (RFGI), Forests, Vertigo, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Land, etc. |