The IUFRO Special Programme for Development of Capacities (SPDC), the Long-term Ecology & Resource Stewardship Laboratory, University of Oxford, U.K. in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Forestry and the Beijing Forestry University are organizing a 3-day training workshop on systematic review in forest science with focus in traditional forest knowledge.

Rationale
The need for quantitative and qualitative scientific evidence for policy and management has significantly risen in recent years as the world is becoming increasingly interlinked with complex problems awaiting adequate policy and management decisions at all levels. This holds also true for the land use sector where forests and trees play key roles in the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of landscapes, particularly against the backdrop of the most pressing problems in the 21st century such as poverty, food security and sustainable development. In this context, it is important that sufficient evidence is generated from the body of globally available scientific research for the purpose of informing policy decisions and actions about forests and forest-related land-uses.

Objectives of the Workshop
This Training Workshop will present tools for systematic reviews which aim to support good decision-making. Using a participatory approach, participants will learn how to prepare systematic reviews that assess the evidence base for priority policy and practice questions. Special focus will be placed on using traditional forest knowledge and its role and relevance in contributing to solutions of today’s forest-related problems.

The course introduces participants to the skills and methods required for systematic reviews of forest-related science, including framing answerable questions that address policy and practice concerns; finding the best available evidence to answer the question; recognizing the limitations of available studies and the problem of bias; critically appraising the evidence for its validity and usefulness; planning a systematic review process; and devising active dissemination strategies to publicize the review results.