Highlight of the 20th anniversary of the forestry pedagogy celebrations was the international conference
5. October 2021The Climate caravan “Forest in a cart” – the new tool used by the Bulgarian forest pedagogues. – Bulgaria
26. November 2021
Forest biodiversity preservation on the example of forest pedagogy activities – Slovakia
Author: National Forest Centre, Slovakia
P
roject has been developed and realised by forest pedagogues of National Forest Centre during 2019 – 2020 years and it was focused on the possibilities of preservation the biodiversity of forest ecosystems and informing the public about the latest knowledge in this area in relation to climate change.
The results and the recommendations of forestry research were presented through forest pedagogy activities in order to increase environmental awareness.
Target group of the project were forest pedagogues from all over Slovakia, who participated at 2 days seminar in Kysuce region (northern part of Slovakia).
In addition to the theoretical workshop, forest pedagogues visited 2 places (areas), suitable for the demonstration of forest pedagogy activities, during a professional excursion. The first was research and demonstration facility „Kysuce -Husarik“, where the research project, focused on transformation of dying spruce forests into more ecologically stable multifunctional ecosystems, runs. It includes an educational trail with information about individual experiments. Another visited place was forestry educational trail – „Kysuce children´s forest trail“, situated in the area of folk museum. The trail is designed for sensory perception, whose activities are generally known to forest pedagogues.
The educational programs mentioned below have used the environment for forest pedagogy activities:
- Biodiversity - diversity, variety and diversity of life on Earth ( form: forest walk for adult)
- >Health status of forests and mission of forestry research (form: forest walk)
- Threat to forests in Slovakia (form: forest quiz)
Within the project was developed study textbook focusing on climate change and forest biodiversity preservation as well as set of 6 worksheets (see pictures below) on this subject where the mentioned forest pedagogy programs are described. Worksheets are intended for different target groups and named:
- THE FOREST CAN BE ALSO SICK (for family) – forest walk to point out harmful factors influencing the health condition of spruce stands and to describe remedial measures to improve their condition
- SPRUCE AND SPRUCE STANDS (for adult) – forest walk to describe the spruce tree species, point out the causes of its death, inform about forestry measures to mitigate the death of spruce trees
- CLIMATE CHANGE (for seniors) – forest walk to explain what climate change is, to point out the impact of climate change on forest ecosystems and present forestry measures to mitigate the effects of climate change
- FOREST EXPLORATION (for children 5+ age) – forest walk to describe the profession of scientist – researcher and present research activities on the forest example
- SPRUCE LICORICE (for children 6+ age) – forest walk to understand the danger of overgrowth of licorice on spruce trees and the need to solve this problem