Cooperation between Witzenhausen and Prague:

a long-standing partnership

Zbyněk Polesný, Ph.D. (polesny@ftz.czu.cz)Associate professor, Tropical Botany and Ethnobiology

Department of Crop Sciences and Agroforestry

Students: 25 000, Staff: 1 400 Faculties:

• Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources

• Economics and Management

• Engineering

• Environmental Science

• Forestry and Wood Sciences

• Tropical AgriSciences

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Address:

Kamycka 129

165 21 Praha 6 – Suchdol

http://www.czu.cz/en/

Czech Republic

Prague

2004

Students: 520, Staff: 35

Study Programs:• 2 Bachelor (3 years)

• 6 Master (2 years)

• 3 Doctoral (3 and 4 years)

Departments:• Animal Science and Food Processing

• Crop Sciences and Agroforestry

• Economic Development

• Sustainable Technologies

Other Facilities:• Botanical garden

• Giant eland farm

• Laboratories

History of the Faculty

• 1st January 2013, Faculty ofTropical AgriSciences

• 2003, Institute of Tropics and Subtropics

• 1967, Institute of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture(independent educational and research unit)

• 1961, Department of the World Agriculture and Forestry at theFaculty of Economics and Management

Institute of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture

Group of Erasmus students of the Institute of Tropical and

Subtropical Agriculture CULS and professors of FB11

Witzenhausen (UniKassel)

Witzenhausen, July 1999

Tropical Crop Management

and Ecology MSc study

program

One of FTA’s 1st accredited

new study program which

reflected our experiences

from Witzenhausen and other

universities in EU

Witzenhausen – Prague joint course

• Management of Tropical and Subtropical Land Use Systems

• Initiated by Prof. Eva Schlecht and Prof. Adreas Buerkert

• Organized very 2 year at CULS Prague

• Since 2010: cca 100 German and cca 30 Czech students participated

• Course themes:

Tropical AgrobiodiversityAgroforestryResource EcologyOrganic Waste ManagementFarming Systems and Household EconomyLivestock SystemsPrecision and Conservation AgricultureNutrient CyclingDeforestationReforestation and recultivation of degraded soils

We first noted about

Tropentag conference in

Witzenhausen

Tropentag 2014 was

organized at CULS

Prague

• Ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology

• Molecular genetics

• Plant tissue cultures

• Biofuels

• Environmental technologies

• Food processing technologies

• Biological materials analysis

• Tropical Botany and Ethnobiology

Laboratories|Teams

• Agricultural education and extension

• Conservation and protection of agro-biodiversity

• Food safety and food security

• Sustainable agricultural technologies

Research areas

TriBE | Tropical Botany and Ethnobiology LabHead: Zbynek Polesny, Ph.D. (polesny@ftz.czu.cz)

Department of Crop Sciences and Agroforestry, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences,

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Research areas: ethnobotany, plant taxonomy, human ecology, wild food plants,

underutilized crops, agrobiodiversity, bio-cultural heritage, ethnoecology

Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour., Sapindaceae)

Projects 2018

Funded:(1) An ethnobiological documentation of underutilized species as potential sources of food, medicine and

materials in the context of different cultural groups and ecosystems (TRIBE Lab only), GA FTA, 2018, principalinvestigator: Zbyněk Polesný

(2) Food, Agrobiodiversity, and Diet (FAD): The Nutritional Ethnobiology of Minang and Mandailing IndigenousFood Systems in West Sumatra; The Neys-van Hoogstraten Foundation + Alfabet Scholarship, 2018, principalinvestigator: Lukas Pawera

(3) SusWalFood: Analysis and sustainable use of the nutritional potential and secondary plant components ofunderutilized plant species in Kyrgyz walnut forests; German Federal Ministry of Education and Research(BMBF), FKZ01DK17016, 2017-2019, role: international research associate (Zbyněk Polesný)

(4) Supporting bio-cultural diversity conservation research and education at Ilia State University, Georgia; CzechDevelopment Agency (CDA), 2018-2019, principal investigator: Zbyněk Polesný

Proposed:(1) ESCAPAdE: EraSmus Curricula in Applied PlAnt SciEnces. Programme: Erasmus+, Key action: Cooperation for

innovation and the exchange of good practices, Applicant organization: Montpellier SupAgro (France), role ofCULS: partner institution, contact person: Zbyněk Polesný (under review)

(2) Outgoing International Credit Mobility 06/2018-07/2020, 2 proposals (under review):

Georgia (Caucasus): 1 PhD student mobility (6 months), 1 Academic staff mobility (1 month)

Malaysia: 1 PhD student mobility (6 months), 1 Academic staff mobility (1 month)

Conferences 2017

Contributions:(1) Caspersen et al. 2017. Utilizing the Nutritional Potential and Secondary Plant Compounds of Neglected Fruit Trees and

Other Plant Species of the Walnut-Fruit Forests in Kyrgyzstan. Book of abstracts: Tropentag, 20.9.–22.9.2017. Universityof Bonn, Germany.

(2) Pawera L, Tumova B, Termote C, Polesny Z, Hunter D. 2017. Diversity of edible plants in food systems of Bugis, Mandar,Minang and Acehnese cocoa farmers in Indonesia. Book of abstracts: Living in a global world: ethnobotany, localknowledge and sustainability. The 58th Annual Meeting of The Society for Economic Botany, 4.6-9.6.2017. InstitutoPolitécnico de Bragança, Portugal, p. 83.

(3) Pawera L, Łuczaj Ł, Polesny Z. 2017. Could bio-cultural refugia safeguard important reservoirs of traditional plantknowledge in highly industrialized countries? A case study of the White Carpathians, Czech Republic. Book of abstracts:Living in a global world: ethnobotany, local knowledge and sustainability. The 58th Annual Meeting of The Society forEconomic Botany, 4.6-9.6.2017. Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Portugal, p. 156.

(4) Purba EC, Pawera L, Nisyawati, Silalahi M. 2017. Gastronomic ethnobiology of Terites: indigenous food specialty of BatakKaro people in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Book of abstracts: Living in a global world: ethnobotany, local knowledge andsustainability. The 58th Annual Meeting of The Society for Economic Botany, 4.6-9.6.2017. Instituto Politécnico deBragança, Portugal, p. 142.

Best Poster Award Received

Julia F. MortonAward

2017 Lukas Pawera, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

This award was created at the 1997.For the best poster at the SEB annual meeting.Students or young professionals (5 years or less post-doctoral experience).Award certificate and $500.Eligible young professionals should indicate their eligibility for this prize when they submit their abstract to the annual meeting.

Most Recent Publications

Published articles in SCI journals:(1) Pawera L, Łuczaj Ł, Pieroni A, Polesny Z. 2017. Traditional plant knowledge in the White Carpathians:

Ethnobotany of wild food plants and crop wild relatives in the Czech Republic. Human Ecology, 45: 655-671(IF=1.743, Q1/Q2/Q1, RIV=42)

(2) Pawera L, Verner L, Termote C, Sodombekov I, Kandakov A, Karabaev N, Skalicky M, Polesny Z. 2016. Medicalethnobotany of herbal practitioners in the Turkestan Range, southwestern Kyrgyzstan. Acta SocietatisBotanicorum Poloniae, 85(1): 3483. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5586/asbp.3483 (IF=0.917, Q3, RIV=17)

(3) Kucerova I, Banout J, Lojka B, Polesny Z. 2016. Performance evaluation of wood-burning cookstoves in ruralareas near Pucallpa, Peru. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 15(11): 2421-2428 (IF=1.096,Q4, RIV=7)

Published chapters within edited books:(1) Pieroni A, Pawera L, Shah GM. 2016. Gastronomic ethnobiology. In: Albuquerque UP, Nóbrega A, Romulo R

(eds.) Introduction to ethnobiology. Springer, New York, pp 53-62.

(2) Lojka B, Bortl L, Riva RR, Banout J, Lojkova J, Polesny Z, Preininger D, Ugarte Guerra J, Verner V. 2016. Multistrataagroforestry as an alternative to slash-and-burn farming in the Peruvian Amazon. In: Dagar JC, Tewari JC (eds).Agroforestry Research Developments. Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, NY, USA, pp 383-398.

Newly accepted papers:(1) Lara Reimers EA, Fernández Cusimamani E, Lara Rodríguez EA, Ruiz Hernandez JA, Zepeda del Valled JM, Pawera

L, Polesny Z. Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used in the Zacatecas state, Mexico. Acta SocietatisBotanicorum Poloniae (IF=0.917, Q3, in press).

(1) Casas Reátegui R, Pawera L, Villegas Panduro PP, Polesny Z. An ethnobiological study of insects used as a food byAwajún Amerindians in Amazonas, Peru. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine.

Conferences 2018

Contributions accepted:

(1) Sulaiman N, Ismaiel L, Pawera L, Aldarf H, Suliman M,Nahma H, Polesny Z. Ethnobotanical Study of MedicinalPlants Used for Making Herbal Teas in Coastal Syria.

(1) Vydrova K, Tumova B, Deno A, Polesny Z, Verner V,Pawera L. Economic Botany of Small-scale Cocoa Farmsin Sulawesi, Indonesia.

(1) Pudil P, Polesny Z. Diversity, Use and Consumers´Acceptance of Local Banana Cultivars in Ucayali, Peru.

Networking for the future

• We appreciate very much that our colleagues from abroad (includingWitzenhausen) chair the committees for MSc theses’ defences at our faculty

But there are other possibilities, e.g.:

• Joint project proposals in varioustopics

• Reviewers for PhD defenses

• Joint special courses in the tropics

• ….

Congratulations to Tropencentrum and thank you

very much for kind invitation to this event!