Partner agencies

The Agrarian Research Institute of Mozambique (IIAM)

The Agrarian Research Institute of Mozambique, abbreviated as IIAM, is a public research organization under MINAG, created by a Decree nº 47/2004, of 27 of October by the Ministers Council, with administrative and scientific autonomy. The attributions of IIAM are:

        Give scientific support and advice to the Ministry of Agriculture and other public organizations on the design of policies for agricultural sector in Mozambique;

        Conduct research in the areas of agricultural, forestry and animal sciences as well as on socio-economy and agribusiness field under the MINAG;

        Pro duction, documentation, training and technology transfer.

IIAM is composed by central and local research unities. At a central level, IIAM has the General Directorate and four technical Directorates namely:

        Directorate of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DARN);

        Directorate of Animal Sciences (DCA);

        Directorate of Training, Documentation and Technology Transfer (DFDTT); and

        Directorate of Planning, Administration and Finance (DPAF);

At a local level, the experimental units of IIAM are grouped in four Zonal Centers, namely:

        South Zonal Center (CZS) – that deals with research in the semi-arid region of the south of Mozambique;

        Central Zonal Center (CZC) – that conduct research in the central region of Mozambique, covering Beira Corridor and Zambeze valley;

        Northeast Zonal Center (CZNordeste) – that deals with research in the Nacala corridor and part of the Pemba – Lichinga corridor;

        Northweast Zonal Center (CZNoroeste) – that conduct research in the plateau zone and covers partially the corridor of Pemba-Lichinga.

The vision of IIAM as per the new strategy is “to be a research and innovation organization of excellence, dynamic, motivated that contributes to the satisfaction of the food needs, development of agribusiness and sustainable use of natural resources”. The mission is “to generate knowledge and technological solutions for sustainable development of agribusiness and food and nutritional security”.

IIAM gives an important contribution to the forestry sector by providing information for decision making on forest resources development, utilization and management. In the new strategy, the objective related to forest sector is “Contribute to productive and sustainable use of natural resources and biodiversity”.

IIAM is engaged in the following main programs:

        Evaluate and monitor the loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation;

        Develop systems for collection, characterization, conservation and use of germoplasm;

        Develop the knowledge for management and sustainable use of natural resources;

        Increase the use of wood and non-wood forest products, and develop technologies for agro-industrial processing.

IIAM has 1,087 civil servants, from which 19 are Ph.Ds, 59 have a master level and 104 are BScs.  The remaining are auxiliary and administrative staff. Most of the Ph.Ds are from agricultural science, allocated to the Agronomy and Natural resources Directorate (DARN). Regarding forest research only one researcher has a PhD level, six are masters and seven are bachelors.  It can be seen that IIAM has shortage of qualified human resources.

Regarding financial resources, the remunerations in 2009 were about 1,863,698 €, the costs for goods and services 637,722 € and investments in infrastructure and equipments about 401,905 €. The total costs in 2008 and 2007 were less than in 2009. Similarly, to human resources that are few and need better qualification and specialization, the financial resources allocated to forest research are limited and not enough to conduct effectively the research to achieve the goals of the organizations.

Strengthen the capacity, is essential not only in terms of human resources but also in terms of infrastructure and equipments to conduct research. Therefore, this project constitutes an importance opportunity for the agrarian research, more specifically the forest research in Mozambique since its main goal is to strengthen the capacity of IIAM and UEM in terms of human resource and laboratory equipments that will allow us to respond effectively to the demands of the government, private sector, communities and other stakeholders.

Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique
Av. das FPLM No 2698
Caixa Postal 3658
Maputo
MOZAMBIQUE
Website: www.iiam.gov.mz

The Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering (FAEF) in Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM)

The faculty of agronomy and forest engineering (FAEF) in Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Maputo is responsible for higher education in forestry. Two undergraduate courses (B.Sc. equivalent) are offered, namely in agronomy and forest engineering as a response to the growing demand of the country’s agrarian sector through teaching, research and extension services. In addition to the undergraduate level, FAEF has presently about 200 postgraduate students enrolled in six M.Sc. programs.

Faculty has three departments: plant production and protection, rural engineering and forest engineering. Last mentioned is responsible for graduating foresters. Additionally, FAEF has established two centers: Machipanda Agro-Forestry Center, located in Manica province, and the Biotechnology Center in Maputo, jointly run with other UEM faculties. The department of forest engineering (DEF) is structured in four divisions, namely i) silviculture, ii) forest economics and management, iii) timber harvesting and transport, and iv) wood science and technology.  Moreover, the aforementioned Agro-Forestry Center is part of DEF and has an estimated area of 992 ha of planted forest.

The department of forest engineering has 17 lectures (eight Ph.D., six M.Sc. and three B.Sc.), 6 technicians, 1 secretary and 1 courier. The facilities include six labs, two forest nurseries and an experimental area growing eucalyptus. Research is one of the three key activities of DEF. At least, 30% of the DEF working period is assigned to research duties, which involve steady collaboration among lectures, lab technicians as well as students.

The division of wood science and technology (WST) is responsible for research concerning technology and forest products utilization, especially wood. In terms of personnel, it has three wood technologists with doctoral degree, two research assistant with B.Sc. in forestry and one lab technician.

The division has a long experience in wood research. For example, in the last 10 years, the outcome includes 13 peer-reviewed articles, 12 short communications in seminars/workshops, and over 20 under and postgraduate thesis. Peer reviewed articles involving WST staff covers a broad range of topics such as wood anatomy, drying schedules, physic-mechanics, wood machining, wood panels, wood natural durability and related matters.

Additionally, WST has collaborated several projects with international institutions such as the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Lulea Technology University (Sweden), Universidade de Pinar Del Rio of Cuba and Universidade Federal de Paraná (Brazil).

Lately, native lesser known/used timbers from Mozambique are in the core of research agenda. However, the above-referred publications report prospective end uses of only five species. Therefore, the department is looking forward to a comprehensive study since over 50 lesser-known timber species still lack or are short of technical information related to its end uses.

Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
Faculdade de Agronomia e Engenharia Florestal,
Campus Universitário
Av. Julius Nyerere, Edifício Número 1
Maputo, Moçambique
E-mail: dir.faef@gmail.com
Website: www.agronomia.uem.mz

Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla)

Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) is an independent, governmental research organization and one of the leading forest research institutes in Europe. In recent years, the overall budget of the institute has been 53 million €, of which about 70% has been direct government funding. The total number of staff is about 800, of which 350 are researchers. More than half of the researchers hold a doctor's degree (Ph.D.), 19 of them professors.

The main purpose of Metla is to promote, through research, the economically, ecologically and socially sustainable management and utilization of forests. Metla conducts research and generates research information about the forest nature and environment, the different uses of forests, and about forestry and the forest cluster.

Metla’s activities have the following areas of strategic influence:

        Entrepreneurial and business activity based on forests

        Forests and the community

        Sustainable silvicultural chains and

        A forest economy- and forest environment -based knowledge pool

Some of the top research areas of Metla include forest inventory systems, forest growth and yield modeling, simulation and optimization, properties and utilization of wood, bioenergy research and database creation and management.  Metla has substantial capacity in relation to the generation of reliable scientific and technical publishing and extension services.

Metla has long-term experience in international cooperation including capacity development in forestry research in developing countries like Zambia and Tanzania. Now there are three on-going ICI -projects where Metla is leading Finnish institution. The number of EU funded projects in progress is about 20 annually. Owing to its modern equipment and facilities as well as strong internal support services, Metla offers an excellent framework for the coordination of challenging international research capacity development projects.

Finnish Forest Research Institute
PB 18
FI-01301 VANTAA, FINLAND
tel: +358-29-532-2111
fax: +358-29-532-2103
email: kirjaamo@metla.fi
website: www.metla.fi