Pauline Tavel: associations at the heart of the forests
March 10 2025Pauline Tavel, a 2nd year engineering student at the Nancy campus and president of the French branch of the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA), has combined her passion for forestry with her involvement in the voluntary sector. Interview with this student committed to forests.
Hello Pauline. Before telling us about your role in the association, can you introduce yourself and tell us about your background?
After obtaining my high school diploma, I did two years of preparatory classes at the Lycée du Parc in Lyon with the aim of becoming a forestry engineer at the Office National des Forêts (ONF). I sat the exam, but unfortunately I was not admitted to the Institut Agro Dijon, the school that trains agricultural and environmental engineers. So I went for a 3rd year of my bachelor’s degree and took the B exam. I joined the Agro Dijon Institute as a civil servant and then AgroParisTech Nancy the following year. Today, I am in the 2nd year of the engineering course in the field of “Productions, sectors, territories for sustainable development oriented towards forest management”.
Why did you choose to join the AgroParisTech campus in Nancy?
I chose to join the Nancy campus because I am interested in the forestry specialization and the course is historically renowned in the world of forestry. The added value of this course is the practical fieldwork. In the context of this field of study of forest management, it is very important to have the opportunity to do exercises and practical cases and not just follow theoretical courses in the lecture hall. There is also a lot of student life on campus. Many clubs with a wide variety of activities are part of ADEF, the association of forestry students. We have baking, sewing and sports clubs. We are given the opportunity to create activities; our only limit is our creativity.
I am actually president of the French branch of the IFSA, or International Forestry Students’ Association. It started out as an international association for forestry students from several countries. Its aim is to encourage links between forestry students in France and abroad through trips, visits and joint activities. At the local level, the aim is to introduce students, and the general public, to the world of forestry through awareness-raising activities such as film debates. Participatory projects are also organized in conjunction with the association Centre permanent d’initiatives pour l’environnement (CPIE) to popularize scientific knowledge, and conferences with researchers are held on a regular basis.
Do you have a project planned as part of the bicentenary of the École forestière de Nancy?
We are going to welcome around twenty foreign students from European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. We hope in this way to promote Nancy’s forest heritage and introduce it to these students from abroad. We also have a joint project with the École Nationale Supérieure des Technologies et Industries du Bois in Épinal: the creation of an urn to collect the thoughts, hopes and wishes of AgroParisTech students and alumni regarding the foresters of tomorrow. This urn will be made available at the closing ceremony of the school’s bicentenary.
Where do you see yourself in a few years' time?
On the field! As a civil servant, I will be heading to the Office National des Forêts (ONF) to work on the silvicultural balance (the balance between wildlife and the forest). This balance between fauna and flora is one of the major current problems in our forests and with my sensitivity to wildlife management, it is only natural that I turn to this work theme.