(1) within the RAINFOR network many of our partners are training a number of post-doctoral associates and PhD students from Latin American countries, in Brasil, the U.K., Netherlands, and France, providing significant opportunities for young researchers to start and establish their careers, and eventually move into research leadership;

(2) a already completed project led by RAINFOR researchers (Pan-Amazonia funded by the European Union) has provided field and analytical technique training to more than 40 Masters level students at Manaus and Caxiuana (Brazil) and Santa Cruz (Bolivia), and developed two-year guided research projects for 9 Masters and PhD students from Brasil, Colombia, and Peru;

(3) the regular RAINFOR-supported field campaigns to monitor permanent forest plots throughout the basin provide further experience to young, national scientists at different levels of scientific expertise. Manuals for field methods have been translated in Spanish and Portuguese and are freely available online;

(4) our new Moore Foundation project to determine Amazon carbon fluxes also involves training and development. To help kick-off the project in August 2008 we ran a training course at Estacion Biologica Los Amigos in Madre de Dios, Peru. 23 participants from Latin America and Europe gained experience in using tree plots for assessing and monitoring the structure and function of tropical forests.

(5) To initiate a new phase of intensive carbon cycling measurements across the Amazon, also funded by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, we ran a 10-day workshop at the University of Oxford (UK). Participants received extensive training on the methods and equipments to be implemented at the “intensive process” sites. Given the fieldwork focus of the previous workshop at Los Amigos (Peru), the Oxford workshop concentrated instead on developing a sound understanding of equipment functioning, data organization and data entry requirements. In addition, basic data analysis procedures were described and participants were encouraged to develop mini-projects which they could potentially conduct as part of their ongoing work at the field sites.

 

RAINFOR members supported the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP) in Iquitos, Peru for training people interested in the carbon cycle of Amazonian forests. Two workshops were organized “Statistical Analysis to support the design of carbon inventories” and “Integrated measurements of carbon fluxes in Amazonia” which emphasised basic concepts related to the measurement and analysis of the carbon cycle in tropical forests. The workshops were funded by the IIAP, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the ESPA program of NERC-ESRC-DfID.