Welcome to the european network for forest pedagogy
This internet-platform forestpedagogics.eu intends to develop as an europeanwide forum for information and communication about forest pedagogics. It wants to show important data, activities, materials and networks of foresters, forest pedagogs an other actors in forest-related education for sustainable development.
The 6th UNECE - Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” of the ministers of education and of the environment (Belgrade, Oct. 2007) underlines the importance of education on the environment and on sustainable development:
“Confirming our vision for the future, which is of a region that embraces common values of solidarity, equality and mutual respect between people, countries and generations, confirming the importance of the principle of sustainable management of natural resources, poverty eradication, and sustainable consumption and production, and enhances justice and civil rights, gender equality and the rights of children, reaffirming the importance of education for sustainable development as a tool for capacity-building that enables people to make this vision a reality.”
Principles of the forest pedagogy
- is qualified Forest-related environmental education.
- FP addresses all social, environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability
- FP fosters understanding, interactions and relationships of human-environmental relations in the context of sustainable development
- FP is based on knowledge about forest ecosystems and experience in sustainable forestry
- FP promotes understanding, use and application of the concept of sustainable development through the example of sustainable forest management
- FP demands an holistic approach and it considers world-wide coherences
- FP contributes to education for sustainable development (ESD- UN-Decade) and cooperates with other partners engaged in environmental education or education for sustainable development
- FP requires active and cooperative educational methods and approaches
- FP esteems, promotes and offers forests as healthy and excellent learning-locations for outdoor-education
Educational, social and forest-related Objectives
Educational objectives and added values for education:
Forest Pedagogy communicates values like
- respect for nature
- consideration to fellow-being and life-being
- responsibility
- tolerance
- solidarity between generations
- global and long-term thinking and acting
- improves:
- creativity and imagination
- cooperative - and action - competences
- interdisciplinary thinking
- curiosity and concentration
- social behaviour
- offers:
- free space for self-discovering-learning
- nature-near living spaces, natural habitats, rich biodiversity
Social and economical objectives, objectives for sustainable forestry:
Forest Pedagogy raises awareness
- for the benefits of sustainable forestry
- for the value of non-wood forest products and services (benefits for society- mental, practical, emotional)
- for the places of employment in the forest sector and the forest-based industry
- provides added values to rural development (F.E. employment, tourism, income etc.)
- fosters interactions and exchanges between rural and urban areas/people
- improves relationships with environment at local level
- promotes the continuing use of wood as renewable material (to gain social acceptance for timber harvesting and forest management)
Environmental objectives, forest-related objectives:
- develops awareness, sense of responsibility and interaction for the role of forests and forestry (risks and potentials) ahead climate change
- fosters interests and cooperations to make forests, their products and their management fit for other challenges and risks ahead (as: water resources, energy, biodiversity, protection of soil)
- improves understanding of forest management and forests multifunctional benefits