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

Abstract

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.

Trends in Brazil’s Forestry Education—Part 2: Mismatch between Training and Forest Sector Demands

“…Besides this, 100% of the organizations studied recognized a shortage of professionals prepared for the current job requirements. In addition, all organizations pointed out that new graduates lack training in soft skills [10]. The survey also showed that new professionals displayed an adequate technological background (58%) and were autonomous in learning (58%), possibly related to a result pointed out by 65% of the interviewees who recognize a lack of adequate training in the management of operations and field activities for new professionals.…”

“…This sector hires a significant proportion of forest engineers in Brazil-circa 35% of graduates [19]; nevertheless, the group of forestry-based companies could be overrepresented. Another possible limitation is that in the fourth survey, we decided to collect the opinion of professionals currently employed in a job related to the forestry program, which represented most new graduates in Brazil (about 85%) [10]. Therefore, the opinions of unemployed professionals (about 6%) or those that are working in other fields (6%) could point to other aspects to improve in the course curricula at universities.…”

“…In Brazil, the forest sector represents important numbers in the economy, accounting for 1.1% of the GDP and 6.9% of the industrial GDP, in addition to generating more than 3.8 million direct and indirect jobs [9]. New forestry programs are implemented each year in universities in Brazil with an increase from 43 to 75 programs between 2008 and 2022, while the number of trained forest engineers rose from 850 to 1850 a year [10], reinforcing the importance of this profession from a strategic viewpoint for the country. Nevertheless, the increase in the number of programs and graduates may not necessarily result in qualified professionals to meet the job market demands, since the quality of training programs at institutions may not be adequate.…”

Trends in Brazil’s Forestry Education—Part 3: Employment Patterns of Forest Engineering Graduates from Two Public Universities in the Last 15 Years

“…Forestry schools emerged in 1811 in Germany, seeking to manage the use of forest resources that had been exploited in a disorderly way [1]. In Brazil, the first program was started in 1960 at the Federal University of Viçosa (Minas Gerais State), and currently there are 75 programs in the country, training around 1500 professionals per year [2].…”

“…For instance, the area occupied by planted forests encompasses 3 million ha in the southeast, while in the northeast, planted forests cover only 1 million ha, despite the significant potential of the latter. Furthermore, the number of forest engineering programs varies [2] from 24 programs in the southeastern region to 12 programs in the northeastern region.…”