Andrés Arnalds 70 ára

Andrés með Monique Barbut, framkvæmdastýru Eyðimerkursamnings

Sameinuðu þjóðanna og Landgræðsluskólanemum vorið 2014

Elsku Andrés.

Innilega til hamingju með stórafmælið. Við hjá

Landgræðsluskólanum þökkum kærlega fyrir afar gott samstarf í

gegnum árin. Við eigum þér mikið að þakka og þú hefur verið okkur

starfsmönnum og nemendum Landgræðsluskólans innblástur við

okkar störf.

Kær kveðja

Starfsmenn og nemendur Landgræðsluskólans

“Such a great opportunity to have known you Andres Arnalds; a man

with an amazing passion for the environment"

Wishing you a happy 70th birthday and best wishes as you are

retiring from your job!”

Emmanuel Mwathunga frá Malaví, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2017

“Cool, calm and collected. This is what defines Andres Arnalds.

Wow! such an authority in soil conservation.

I wish you a happy birthday and a peaceful retirement with

new possibilities.”

Osman Fusen Yong frá Ghana, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2014

“As person: He is good person, smiling always, have always time for

discussion or joking with students.

As lecturer: Good lecturer that transmits easily knowledge to his

students. We learnt land care and a lot from him.

Through you, I wish happy 70th birthday to papa Arnalds.”

Mohamadou Habibou Gabou frá Níger, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2013

“Andres Arnalds taught about Rangeland Ecology and SDGs to

2017 fellows of UNU-LRT!

I highly appreciate his job, he is professional scientist, lecturer and as

well best person!

I wish Andres Arnalds - be happy and be healthy!

Enjoy with professional job!

With warm wishes,

from Uzbekistan Akbar”

Akbar Akhmedov frá Úsbekistan, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2017

“I was the one of the six LRT fellows in 2009. Toward the end of the first 3 months of the program we split into 2 groups, Land

restoration and Land management. I was in the land management group and Andres Arnalds asked us to present at his class

some of the experiences about land management in your country. Tigist Araya from Ethiopia, Fred from Uganda and I

presented, and Andres was very happy with our presentations and told us that what great presentations, land management

actions in different levels. We looked at each other and realized what Andres told us. Because Tigist’s presentation was about

some policy works regarding land management, Fred’s was about contribution of people from academia on land management

and my talk was about local people’s initiative on land management. That was really encouraging and also satisfying moment

for three of us. We had very good discussion after that class.

I have learned from Andres that he is not only a scientist, but he is a boundary spanner-bridging science with actions. Fred

(former fellow) and I were very lucky to attend the community meeting with Andres in one of the cities in the eastern part of

Iceland during our project period. During this meeting I observed that he is the respected person among the community people

and people love to talk to him. He explains things in a fun and easy way 😊.

Andres’ questions for me about Mongolia and about my project work were very helpful, made me to think and his valuable

advices to read some literatures were very useful for my project work and for my work after I returned back to home.

It was in the fall 2014, I was waiting for my friend in my car with my son and I saw Andres walking by my car. First, I couldn't

believe in my eyes and then said to my son I think I know this person, if I am correct, he was my teacher at the Land

Restoration Training program in Iceland. I just got out from my car and asked Andres "Are you from Iceland?" It was so nice

talking to him and he told me that he used to live at Aggie Village when he was studying at Colorado State University where I

was also living at that time. Thank you, Andres, for the nice picture. I have so many things to learn from Andres!!!”

Chantsallkham Jamsranjav frá Mongólíu, LRT fellow frá 2009

Chantsallkham Jamsranjav & Andrés Arnalds í Colarado árið 2014.

“Arnalds, when I first met you ten years ago, in 2008, you advised me

to know more about soil if I was to achieve the goal of land

restoration. And you were happy when I came back to do a Master´s

degree focusing on soil. You contributed a lot in building my career.

Your hard work and footprints will forever stay in Uganda, Africa and

the world at large. Thanks a lot for being such a lovely teacher. I wish

you amazing retirement. Joel”

Joel Charles Owona frá Úganda, LRT fellow frá 2008

“Andres has a special desire for Fellows to develop themselves

professionally. At his personal level, he links Fellows with

international scientists working on Land Care. Andres, is true

mentor, not just a teacher!

We wish him good health in his old age.

Thanks and my warmest regards to you all!”

Alhassan Nuhu frá Ghana, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2016

Emily Mutota, Taimi Sofia Kapalanga, Joel Charles Owona & Andrés Arnalds í felti á

Reykjanesskaga árið 2008

“I Paulina Peter Lokongo wish Happy birthday and prosperous living to

Andres Arnalds may he blow many more candles throughout his life and the

Almighty Lord to keep him and his family. I thank Andres for his dedication

and publications to soil conservation service it's never easy to get people

staying in the workplace for long until they retire, he was such an adviser

and mentor to me and other students, I loved to read his publications on

soil conservations especially healing the land.

Well done Andres,

Thanks, Paulina”

Paulina Peter Lokongo frá Úganda, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2011

“Your seeds of knowledge are growing everywhere around the world. I

would like to say thank you for your contribution to broaden our

knowledge of SLM behalf of one of the seedlings. Happy birthday and

wish you all the best.”

Ikhbayar Tsevelmaa frá Mongólíu, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2017

“Andres instilled positive thinking and self believe in me. You are a source

of my inspiration to be confident and believe that I can achieve my goals,

if I am patient and focused. I remember you kept on reminding us now

and again that "...restoration projects need patience, because the actions

we are implementing now may bear fruits after several years".

Happy Birthday to you Andres!”

Principal Mdolo frá Malaví, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2016

“Andres is a man - who really loves the work he is doing and I think this

is because he loves all people, he is doing his work in order for all people,

all generations could live in good environment and planet. And I think

while teaching us he transferred this "love" in us also, i.e. made us to feel

in love with our environment, for saving and keeping it for future

generations.

Thank you dear Andres! Wishing you long and happy life”

Robiya Nabieva frá Tadsjikistan, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2018

Vettvangsferð á Reykjanesskaga með Landgræðsluskólanemum, 2009

"Dear Andres, being lucky as you are is my dream. It is not given to any

to serve his country with devotion and passion as you did. Since we met

in your beautiful country I am thinking about means and methods to

contribute as you did to my country development. From then I decided to

do all my best towards my lovely country without waiting for reward

hoping to at least fulfil half of what you did for your country.

YOU ARE MY INSPIRATION. Go with your head up knowing that you

achieve your goals.”

Harouna Abdou Djibo frá Níger, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2017

“I met Andres in UNU-LRT programme 2015 and at the SER 2018

conference. Thanks for Andres as a teacher, for his patience and

kindness, for a deep understanding of his work. In his lectures I

felt love and a lot of knowledge. Andres is my ideal person as a

teacher.”

Nadira Kalchak frá Kyrgyzstan, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2015

“Dr. Andres Arnalds has been an important influence on my professional career. I am indebted to him for

being a source of invaluable facts on how to foster community involvement and linking knowledge to

action.

Personally, I consider him as one of the individuals who influenced me to use my artistic skills in my

research at the UNU-LRT. I will forever be grateful for the inspiration that encouraged me to compose a

song about the research.

I remember attending two international conferences with Dr. Andres where I had to make presentations on

my project work. As a first timer, I was a bit nervous, however he encouraged me to be confident, network

with other participants and make the best out of the conferences. Truly, his advice helped me.

He has helped set up a network between African UNU-LRT fellows and Landcare international. We hope to

make the best out of this network.

Thank you Dr. Andres for your service to mother earth and humanity.”

Beatrice Dossah frá Ghana, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2017

Jónína, Andrés & Beatrice á Landcare ráðstefnu í Japan árið 2017

“I wish Andres the best of the best things on this planet Earth in his

coming years. In my view, Dr. Andres is very humble and humorous. I

was feeling as if I am in home when I see his smile. He shares his love

for everybody like the sun shines for everything on the planet Earth. If

anyone needed to see a smiling face, Dr. Andres was there to give it

freely and make his/her day better.”

Birikti Sibhatu Bahta frá Eþíópíu, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2018

“Andres Arnalds the smiles and love you exhibited was of a perfect

father. On this day as you celebrate your birthday and retire from

service may you live to see more great grandchildren and let some of

them visit Uganda. Be blessed!”

Richard Komakech frá Úganda, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2017

“To Andres Arnalds:

Knowing you was part of my memorable beautiful Iceland. I have a memory of a father, a lecturer, a

mentor and a manager. I think about land literacy like I own all the land, I think about stakeholder

development like I am a professional.

Thanks to you, you helped me to transform from an ignorant young woman to a responsible

knowledgeable complete human.

I am always thankful to have met and known you.

Have a good healthy life forever and ever, grow more wisdom for yourself and your family.

Happy birthday

All the love from Lesotho”

Moselantja Molaoa frá Lesótó, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2017

Andrés Arnalds & Moselantja Molaoa á útskriftarathöfn Landgræðsluskólans árið 2017.

“Dear Andres,

You have worked tirelessly to train the world about nursing our mother, earth. You’ve surely been

such a wonderful mentor. I am proud of being one of your students at the Land Restoration

Programme. Your class was one I eagerly looked forward to, knowing how priceless the knowledge

would be. And oh that you shared such knowledge freely for the benefit of all. Thank you for your

efforts.

Your work with the Soil Conservation Service has been amazing, achieving so much with little

resource but a great innovation. You’ve made Iceland proud, greener and prepared to face climate

change squarely.

You certainly deserve the best. I will strive to do my part, just like you have taught me and as you

turn 70, my heart leaps with joy as I join the World to wish you a wonderful birthday.

Happy birthday Dear Andres Arnalds”

Evelyn Mugume frá Úganda, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2014

“HAPPY 70th BIRTH DAY TO DR. ANDRES ARNALDS

It is with great and satisfying pleasure to be associated with comments on one of the GREAT

PROFESSIONALS and TEACHER, and ADVISOR. I know Dr. Andres Arnalds as a passionate and humble

man. I like his passion to see a student progress in thinking on a topic. This reminds me of his lectures

where he would emphasize on comments from us students. To me that was great ANDRES!!

I remember ANDRES asking us ‘Who initiates research?’ His direction was to let us know the importance of

taking into account knowledge at community level and use it in research rather than top down approach in

research. I hope I got it right!

It is good news to hear he is turning 70, early December, 2018. It is both good and sad that he is retiring.

Good to rest after dedicating his life to the SCSI. Sad that fellows may miss him.

I WISH ANDRES HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY AND ENJOYABLE RETIREMENT TIME. YOU ARE ALWAYS PART

OF MY UNU-LRT HISTORY IN ICELAND.

GOD BLESS YOU DR. ANDRES ARNALDS!”

Harrington Nyirenda frá Malaví, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2015

“About Andres, what I can vividly remember about his statements of

encouragement to Fellows in our year 2016 is that:

"You need to achieve together; this is what makes learning meaningful".

Andres always wanted Fellows to venture into the International platform -

prepare Technical Papers and submit to conference on Land Potential.

What a wonderful mentor; Long Live Andres”

Charles Otim frá Úganda, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2016

“I got to know Andres when he taught us, and within that period, I got to

know him as knowledgeable, caring and enthusiastic person. He strives to

help students develop not only intellectually but in most aspect of their life

that will build their career. Thank you for your steadfast commitment.

God bless you and be with you”.

Nana Esi Assiredua Aidoo frá Ghana, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2018

Útskriftarathöfn Landgræðsluskólans árið 2010

“My name is Daginnas Batsukh from Mongolia, belong to a group of UNU-LRT 2018 fellows. I am

very happy to have studied at Land Restoration Training Programme in Iceland. During my stay in

Iceland, I met the great lecturer and scientist Andres Arnalds. His way of teaching and co-teaching

with young lecturers was amazing and it showed me the advance of learning from each other.

After a couple of days, I stayed in Iceland and it was the same time for searching my individual

research project ideas, I met Andres in the canteen of Keldnaholt. We talked about the tourism sector

of Iceland and even more about other topics. He invited me into his room and shared information,

research materials, and useful links. It was a great contribution to my individual research project and

even personally, I saw how super helpful and simple person he is.

It was a pleasure to be taught by Andres and very appreciatable for sharing experience and

knowledge with us. Big thank you to Andres. Takk fyrir.”

Daginnas Batsukh frá Mongólíu, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2018

“Andres Arnalds,

As a lecturer on the UNU LRT Programme, you taught that, for land restoration knowledge to

effectively drive land restoration actions, land restoration research should be linked to the

knowledge which land restoration practitioners require to take land restoration actions.

You emphasized that linking land restoration knowledge to action is one way in which the

knowledge of land restoration practitioners can be increased to effectively deliver land restoration

services.

Even though you retire from active service today, your ideas on linking knowledge to action, are

influencing land restoration actions in the home countries of UNU LRT former fellows.

Enjoy your retirement”

Emmanuel Lignule frá Ghana, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2017

“Since I finished the fellowship I got a Master´s degree from Hohenheim University, Germany. After

that I got PhD position in Justus - Liebig University of Gießen.

During the past years, I applied the knowledge that I learned from UNU LRT team. I deeply thank

all of you for sharing your valuable knowledge.

I also wanted to write a few sentences about Andres Arnalds. I always remember him as one of the

most patient and kind teachers of UNU LRT team. Even, I got inspired about land care projects and

NGO activities after his classes. I wish him all the best and most memorable birthday of his life!

Greetings from Germany”

Yulduzkhon Abdullaeva frá Úsbekistan, UNU-LRT fellow frá 2014