[Topic] The inaugural meeting of the Kyushu University Local Committee (IFSAQ) of the International Forestry Students' Association (IFSA) was held.

2025.04.07 Topics

With all the participants at the inaugural meeting

On Thursday 23^rd January 2025, the inaugural meeting of IFSAQ, the Kyushu University Local Committee (LC) of IFSA, was held.

IFSA is an international network of students studying forestry or with an interest in forestry from around the world, and it promotes education, cooperation, and sustainable forest management. There are currently branches in 64 countries and 141 universities. IFSA also has partnerships with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), with which the Faculty of Agriculture of Kyushu University signed academic exchange agreements in November 2024, to support the next generation of forestry experts and promote global forestry education.

The Global Gateway Office of the Faculty of Agriculture at Kyushu University organized a short-term overseas student exchange program (summer course) in the Republic of Indonesia in August 2023 and August 2024. Ten students from different years and research fields who had the opportunity to interact with overseas IFSA members during the summer course felt the desire to 'establish an IFSA LC at Kyushu University to further expand opportunities for international exchange', became the founders of IFSAQ, for which the inaugural meeting to establish IFSAQ was held.

IFSAQ Founding Members (in alphabetical order)

Ms. FUKUOKA Yumika (3rd year student at the Undergraduate School, Microbial Bioresources Lab.)
Ms. ITO Risa (3rd year student at the Undergraduate School, Food Hygienic Chemistry Lab.)
Ms. IWANO Junna (2nd year student at the Graduate School, Forest Policy Lab.)
Ms. KATAHIRA Honoka (1st year student at the Graduate School, Forest Policy Lab.)
Ms. ODA Natsuki (1st year student at the Graduate School, Marine Resource Chemistry Lab.)
Ms. SHIMIZU Machika (3rd year student at the Undergraduate School, Agricultural Machinery and Production Systems Design Lab.)
Mr. TOSHIMA Shintaro (1st year student at the Graduate School, Forest Management Lab.)
Mr. TSUZAKI Takahiro (1st year student at the Undergraduate School)
Ms. VERGIL SALGADO Mariana (2nd year student at the Graduate School, Forest Policy Lab.)
Mr. YAMAGUCHI Enrique Shigenobu (1st year student at the Graduate School);

At the inaugural meeting, the following people from overseas IFSA attended online: Tri Nadia Asrini (Asia Pacific Regional Representative, Indonesia), Fiana Eka Aprilia (Membership Counselor, Indonesia), Lutfiyyah Roihanah (Representative of IFSA LC Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia), Sheng Hao Luo (Representative of the National Taiwan University Forestry Student Association, Taiwan) and Seongmin Park (IFSA Korea Representative, South Korea) attended online.

Also attending from our university were: Prof. NAKAO Miki (Dean of Faculty of Agriculture), Prof. HIROMASA Yasuaki (International Education Navigation Center), Prof. KOGA Shinya (Faculty of Agriculture, Director of Research Forest), Assoc. Prof. KASAHARA Tamao (Faculty of Agriculture), Assoc. Prof. KITA Hiriko (Faculty of Agriculture), Assoc. Prof. KUSUMOTO Buntaro (Faculty of Agriculture), Assoc. Prof. FUJIWARA Takahiro (Faculty of Agriculture), Ms. MIYAZAKI Kaori (Administrative Staff, Faculty of Agriculture), Ms. OBATA Yuriko (International Office staff, Faculty of Agriculture), and Ms. SHIOTSUKA Mayumi (International Office staff, Faculty of Agriculture) attended in person and online.

The inaugural meeting was held in English and was moderated by Mr. TOSHIMA Shintaro. After an opening address by Ms. SHIMIZU Machika, representative of the founding members, there was an introduction of guests, and Prof. NAKAO Miki and overseas IFSA members gave congratulatory speeches. In Agenda 1, Ms. ITO Risa delivered a presentation on the outline of IFSA and the founding statement, and the establishment of IFSAQ was approved. In Agenda 2, Ms. SHIMIZU Machika explained the IFSAQ's Statutes, and there was a lively discussion with specific questions from overseas IFSA members. In Agenda 3, the proposed officers of IFSAQ were presented, and the following people were elected:
Manami Shimizu as President,Yuka Fukuoka as Vice President,Risa Ito as Internal Executive Officer,Takahiro Tsuzaki as Public Relations Executive Officer,Junna Iwano as Research and Community Service Executive Officer,and Vergil Salgado Mariana as DEI Executive Officer.
Next, Prof. NAKAO Miki, Ms. SHIMIZU Machika (IFSAQ President), and Ms. FUKUOKA Yumika (IFSAQ Vice President) signed the necessary documents for the IFSA membership application.
In Agenda 4, Ms. FUKUOKA Yumika delivered a presentation on the IFSAQ action plan.
Finally, Assoc. Prof. FUJIWARA Takahiro and Prof. HIROMASA Yasuaki, who led the summer course, gave their congratulations on the establishment of IFSAQ, and the inaugural meeting closed.

From now on, IFSAQ plans to carry out activities related to forests and the environment, as well as exchange with IFSA members from other countries, while also making use of the university's experimental forest as an official student organization of the Faculty of Agriculture at Kyushu University. As activities for 2025, they are planning to participate in the Asia Pacific Regional Meeting (APRM) to be held in South Korea in July, and the International Forestry Students' Symposium (IFSS) to be held in Indonesia in August. Furthermore, there are plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign to cover the travel expenses of the students who will be sent from IFSAQ.

Through the activities of IFSAQ, we hope to promote international exchange led by students, and to lead to international action by students towards solving global environmental issues. IFSAQ is currently recruiting new members regardless of year or faculty. If you are interested, please contact us at the address below.

At the meeting, we had a signing session for the application of the IFSAQ.

Reference sites

Contact

IFSAQ
Mail：ifsaq.japan★gmail.com
Please replace ★ with @ in the email address
Instagram：ifsaq_kyushu

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