Elizabeth Forwand, a Duke University graduate student whose goal is to work with communities to help them better manage forests, has won a Luce Scholarship for 2007-08.
The Luce Scholars Program provides stipends and internships for 15 young Americans to live and work in Asia each year. The program was established in 1974 by the Henry Luce Foundation of New York City to increase awareness of Asia among future leaders in American society.
Forwand, of Cambridge, Mass., is pursuing dual Master of Environmental Management and Master of Forestry degrees at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. She is expected to graduate in May, and will leave for Southeast Asia later this summer.
The region will be a great place to hone her skills in community-based forest management, Forwand said, because its forest economy is booming and many of its towns and villages are dependent on forest products for their livelihoods.
"I'll be working with local citizens, governments, businesses and environmental groups to help them manage forests for multiple benefits, such as clean water, food production and flood protection, as well as products like timber or botanicals that come from forest plants," she said. This style of community-based management can help prevent or reduce problems like illegal logging and deforestation, she said.
She does not yet know where in Southeast Asia she will be stationed.
"Liz is a remarkable student. But what's even more remarkable is her commitment to using her scholarship for the public good," said Norman L. Christensen Jr., professor of ecology and founding dean of the Nicholas School. Christensen is Forwand's academic advisor.
At Duke, Forwand has co-taught a student-initiated graduate-level course on community-based environmental management and helped organize a seminar on Native American land management issues.
In 2005, she was awarded a Doris Duke Conservation Fellowship to study rural land-use planning in Bozeman, Mont. Doris Duke Fellowships are awarded annually by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to graduate students who show outstanding promise as future leaders in nonprofit or governmental conservation in the United States.
Forwand also has completed summer internships in conservation science and policy at the San Juan County Land Bank in Friday Harbor, Wash., and the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colo.
She received a bachelor's degree in human biology and conservation science from Stanford University in 2002.