The Domaine d'Haugimont serves as a venue for learning, experimentation, and research for members of the Namur academic community. It also contributes to training programs in several fields (school education, continuing education for teachers, agronomy, forest management, and animal husbandry).

Haugimont - Formation

At UNamur

Several programs include field trips to Haugimont as part of course modules: 

  • in veterinary medicine, at the educational farm located on the 
  • in biology and ecology (forest tour, identification of indicator plants, identification of tree branches, fish population survey as part of the “Salmon 2000” project)
  • in history (environmental history)
  • in geography
  • in geology (lab work for the geophysics course)
  • in economics (Master’s degree in International and Development Economics—Population, Environment, and Governance)
  • in smart rurality

In the coming years, UNamur intends to strengthen the role of the Domaine d'Haugimont in training students, across disciplines, in the field of ecological transition.

The Landscape Observatory

The Landscape Observatory was established in 2013. Managed by the UNamur Center for Continuing Education in Science and Mathematics (CeFoSciM), it serves as a unique research and teaching resource in French-speaking Belgium and represents a pioneering scientific initiative in landscape analysis. It features tools (educational panels, relief models, historical, topographic, and large-scale maps, etc.) that help describe, understand, and interpret the landscapes of our regions and their evolution. Landscape changes and their causes are thus explained, using the “laboratory” territory represented by the municipality of Faulx-les-Tombes, where the Domaine d’Haugimont is located. 

Haugimont - Formation - Observatoire du Paysage

Since 2018, the observatory has partnered with the Local Action Group (LAG) “Pays des Tiges et Chavées” to highlight the exceptional quality of the landscapes in the municipalities of Assesse, Gesves, and Ohey—the territory covered by this Local Action Group. Housed in two rooms of the guesthouse, the Landscape Observatory caters to a wide range of audiences: students from UNamur and other universities, teachers in continuing education, school groups, and the general public. 

The Landscape Observatory organizes Landscape Workshops as part of the University Certificate in Landscape Analysis. Learn more.

Other courses

The Sheep Research Center plays a key role in training farmers in the sheep and goat sector in Wallonia. It also contributes to the education of Belgian and French agronomy students through internships, training programs, and final projects.

The forestry section of the estate serves as a field site for theses conducted at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech and La Reid. 

It also serves as a training site for tree marking for agents of the Walloon Region’s Department of Nature and Forests (DNF), thanks to the installation of a “marking scope” by the non-profit organization Forêt Nature.

Haugimont - Formations

Visits and training sessions for Walloon parliamentarians, as well as for all Walloon higher education institutions and Walloon government agencies involved in forest management (DNF, DEMNA, ...) are also planned starting in September 2024 as part of the PRW 108 project funded by the Office of the Minister of the Environment and titled: “30 Years of Pro Silva Silviculture at Haugimont (UNamur): Ecological and Economic Assessment—Lessons and Prospects for Resilient Forests in Wallonia.” Visits are also offered to humanities students from schools in the region.

Training sessions and events open to the general public

Among the courses open to the general public related to the management of natural environments for conservation purposes: