The sound of MESPOM and the dynamic nature of the international degree provide a comfort to me. For the past few years, after pursuing in a number of graduate programmes from Australia and Pacific, I feel this programme holds a value to anyone seeking international exposure in broader environmental issues. My life experiences from growing up in a small island environment, where adaptability to externalities is a constant demand of life, has influenced my interest in environmental issues. We have had many social and economic problems due to our reliance on limited natural resources and had varying priorities and constraints.

MESPOM volunteed for the Quality Assurance exercise by the European Commission and has been selected as one of six Erasmus Mundus courses (out of about 100 existing). The purpose of the exercise is to examine how the joint character of Erasmus Mundus courses contributes to their high quality. Here are some thoughts which I prepared for the first visit of the EC QA team to Lund.

Perhaps some of you have recently heard about the dilemma facing elephant management in South Africa, particularly the burgeoning population in Kruger National Park, and the proposal to reinstate elephant culling as a measure to control populations. If you are interested in this debate, and want to learn more, I wanted to let you know that we recently completed a 'Scientific Assessment of South African Elephant Management' which was submitted to the Minister of Environmental Affairs & Tourism in December 2007.

Selection of students for the 2008-2010 study period has been completed. Thanks to all who applied to MESPOM: almost 500 candidates from 86 countries of all the continents! Because of the limited capacity of our programme, we had to make many difficult decisions and could offer places only to a small proportion of truly outstanding applicants. All of the accepted candidates have by now been notified or will be notified in the next coupe of days. The candidates whom we could not offer a place will be formally informed by June.

My name is Njisuh Zebedee Feka from Cameroon. With over 240 ethnic groups, this country is generally referred to as Africa in miniature because of its diversity of ecosystems people and varied climate. Starting with stunning hot deserts and savannas in the north, the eco-zones change gradually to tropical humid forests to the south, with a fair extent of degraded low-lying mangrove forests. The landscapes on which these ecosystems flourish are also diverse –hills, mountains chains, plateaus, extensive low lands to the majestic volcanic Cameroon Mountain.

Europe has been a time for many personal landmarks - cooking meat or flying minus airport counters, for instance. Another recent first, but by far more important was an officially assigned class. In the past, it has been I who offered lectures to an audience that was captive to various degrees. Last year's class on Policy Memos was an official affair, but still entirely my idea and counts less as it was to my peers, each of whom could teach me a lot back. No, the classes I gave that week meant more. They were not my initiative, the students engineering undergraduates and it was part of their formal visit to IIIEE. Though it will not count towards their grades - that would be another landmark, but probably not more remarkable than landing a tenure teaching position.