College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Forestry

Michigan State University (MSU) Department of Forestry Professor David MacFarlane has been selected for the Fulbright Global Scholar Award for 2024-2025. The prestigious Fulbright Global Scholar Award encourages international connections and fosters understanding and cooperation across nations.

MacFarlane will spend a portion of his sabbatical leave in the 2024-2025 academic year collaborating with scholars at institutions in Mexico and Italy.

MacFarlane intends to advance an emerging concept called “Climate-Smart Forestry,” which emphasizes connections between forests, society and climate. Climate-smart forestry focuses on enhancing human health and community resilience through adaptive forest management, increasing carbon storage in forests to mitigate climate change, and using forest resources sustainably to substitute for non-renewable energy and materials.

“Governments, communities and private landowners worldwide are searching for ways to increase the climate change resilience of forest ecosystems that support human well-being. Climate-smart forestry needs to be advanced from a concept to a science and practice to meet the needs of the diversity of climates and cultures across continents,” said MacFarlane.

MacFarlane will be working with scholars at the Mexican Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV), in Merida, Mexico, and the Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, in Padova, Italy. He hopes that his work as a Fulbright Global Scholar will connect the two countries, as they have strong similarities as well as important differences as case studies for climate-smart forestry.

MacFarlane said Mexico and Italy serve as perfect partner nations for this research and teaching collaboration, due to their diversity of forest ecosystems. MacFarlane’s previous work has been focused in the Yucatán region of Mexico, an area facing serious problems with deforestation – specifically coastal mangrove forests.

“Coastal mangrove forests are of critical importance globally and are highly sensitive to the effects of climate change, being affected by sea level rise, extreme storms, increased wave heights, and air and sea temperature variations,” said MacFarlane.

Italy’s foresty diversity is largely due to its geographic position as a peninsula in the center of the Mediterranean.

“Italy has a long history of forest management in a predominantly agricultural landscape, long cleared of much of the original forest cover, a context mirroring many European nations. Lessons learned in Italy about climate-smart forestry could be broadly applicable across the European continent,” said MacFarlane.

About Fulbright U.S. Scholars

Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators, and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. Fulbright Scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs, and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.

The Fulbright Global Scholar Award allows U.S. academics and professionals to engage in multi-country, trans-regional projects. As a truly worldwide award, U.S. scholars will be able to propose research or combined teaching/research activity in two to three countries within two different world regions.