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Commonwealth
Forests | | |
 Enrolment
A trend that is apparent in some parts of the Commonwealth is the falling numbers of
individuals seeking to study for a traditional forestry degree. This trend is not restricted to the
Commonwealth, and is now recognised as a global crisis facing the professional education of
foresters (Van Lierop 2003, Miller 2004). While many Commonwealth countries, particularly
the small island nations, have no forestry education capacity, others are closing their
institutions (such as the Oxford Forestry Institute). Great Britain has seen a dramatic drop in
applications for traditional forestry courses, from 325 in 1996 to 156 in 2003 (Burley et al..,
2004). Figures for Canada are similar to those in the UK. The number of students enrolled in
forestry programmes has decreased from 1,881 in 1995-1996 to 1,463 in 2003-04 (Innes 2004),
and if the students studying in areas such as natural resources conservation and wood
science and technology were excluded, the drop in numbers would be far greater. At the
same time, this trend is not nearly so apparent in the allied sciences and increasing numbers
of individuals now practising forestry do not have a traditional forestry degree.
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