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Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources
  • Menschen auf einem Berggipfel. Bodenlandschaft von Wolke bedeckt

Research and Teaching for the Foundations of Life

The Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) is one of the world’s leading centres for research and teaching on human-environment systems. Our work is guided by a sense of responsibility for the natural foundations of life – for people, plants and animals alike – across every spatial and temporal scale. We work locally, regionally, internationally and globally, and we also look to the past to make sense of the future.

Our research centres on five priorities:

  • Conserving the foundations of life: forests, water, soil, air, biodiversity
  • Natural resources: their use, protection and safeguarding
  • Global change: climate change, ecosystems, land use, globalisation
  • Natural hazards and environmental risks: resilience and adaptation
  • Transformation towards sustainability: change in social-ecological-technical systems
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News

Visit from Kazakhstan: Rector of Margulan University Welcomed at ENR

On 12 May 2026, a delegation from Margulan University Pavlodar (Kazakhstan), led by Rector Prof. Dr. Yerzhan Amirbekovich, visited ENR. In an opening meeting with Dean Prof. Dr. Heiner Schanz, Prof. Dr. Markus Hauck, and Dr. Choimaa Dulamsuren, the discussion focused on the increasingly international orientation of Kazakhstan’s higher education landscape, the country’s natural resources as a field for research and economic development, and opportunities to further expand the existing partnership in teaching and research.

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“Insights 2025” Now Available

The latest edition of the “Insights” report has been published. In it, ENR looks back on some of the many diverse activities and events at the faculty in 2025.

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Information from the Dean: Safety at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources

The ENR takes its responsibility to provide a safe study and work environment for all its members very seriously. To this end, the Dean’s Office, represented by Dean Prof. Dr. Heiner Schanz, sent a message to UNR students and staff on March 26, 2026.

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Professorships

Information and links to the 40 professorships at the faculty

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Master Earth Sciences

New study programme for the winter semester 2025/26

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Faculty Administration

Information and Contact

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Future Forests

The newly approved Excellence Cluster
“Future Forests – Adapting Complex Social‑Ecological Forest Systems to Global Change” is largely driven by chairs of the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources. Future Forests aims to analyse and develop adaptation and transformation pathways for forest‑based socio‑ecological systems of the future. The social‑science component concentrates on decision‑making under uncertainty and societal ambiguity concerning the protection and management of future forests. 

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Bei der Eröffnung der FowiTa: Dr. Heike Puhlmann, Prof. Dr. Friederike Lang, Prof. Dr. Thomas Seifert und Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schraml schneiden symbolisch ein Band durch.

Review FowiTa 2025

From 29 September to 2 October 2025, the University of Freiburg hosted the Forestry Science Conference (FowiTa) under the motto ‘Forest – New – Thinking’. Around 600 experts in forestry and environmental sciences as well as forestry practitioners from all over Germany gathered in Freiburg to discuss the future of the forest. In this interview, the organisers Prof. Dr. Friederike Lang and Prof. Dr. Thomas Seifert explain the ideas that emerged from the conference.

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