European network forest pedagogics FREE Forestrelated environmental education next step: establish a

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European network forest pedagogics (FREE
Forest-related environmental education) next
step? establish a FCNSub Group FREE
International Meeting of the FAO-ECE Forest
Communicators Network Bilbao / Spain, May 13
15, 2008 Th. Baschny Vienna
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Performance

• Thomas Baschny - forester
• Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry,
  Environ-
• ment and Water Management (Ministry of Life)
• Division of Forest Resources, Communication and
• Budget
• Section Forest-related environmental education

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Performance

• Forester (forestpractice more than 25 years)
  
• Certified forest pedagoge (Waldpaedagoge)
• Responsibility
• forest pedagogics (Waldpaedagogik)
• assistance in forest-grants-management
• phytosanitary and forest seedsmanagement
• Additional roles
• Coordinator of the European FP Network
• Member of board in the Union of Austr. Foresters
• State representant in the Association of the
  Austrian
• Waldpaedagogen

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European Network FP

• The start
• 2004 Formation of an initiative group
• Europe Network Forest Pedagogics
• (Vienna initiative) an impulse of the
• Ministry of Life between Germany and
  Austria
• Initiators
• -) Thomas Baschny, coordinator -) Albert
  Knieling
• -) Klaus Radestock
  -) Robert Vogl
• -) Dirk Schmechel
• 1 st April 2005 Official start of the Europe
  Network
• Forest Pedagogics in Eberswalde (near Berlin)

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European Network FP

• The maingoals (2004 2007)
• Quality assurance
• Transfer of knowledge
• Ensuring the framework conditions
• Webside
• www. forestpedagogics.eu
• (www.waldpaedagogiknetwork.eu)
• Annual meetings Sopron, Gmunden, Burfelt

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European Network FP

• Opening event in Vienna in February 2007
• with representatives from Brussels and Euro-
• pean Forestry Ministries (Austria, Czech
  republic,
• France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Slovakia,
  UK)
• Follow up meeting in January 2008 in Vienna
• (Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany,
  Slovakia)
• RESULT (there is a need of a FP network!)
• Working document for a common european
• Framework on Forest pedagogics (as a basis for
• further cooperations) and the Next steps for
• developing it further

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Principles of FP / FREE

• FP addresses all social, environmental and
  economic
• dimensions of sustainability
• FP fosters the understanding of
  human-environmental relations
• FP is based on knowledge about forest ecosystems
  and experience in sustainable forestry
• FP promotes the understanding of the concept of
  sustainable development through the example of
  sustainable forest management
• FP demands an holistic approach and it considers
  wold-wide coherences
• FP contributes to education for sustainable
  development
• FP requires active and cooperative educational
  methods

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Objectives of FP/FREE

• Educational goals and added values for education
• communicate values like
• - respect for nature - consideration to
  fellow-being and
• life-being - responsibility - tolerance, -
  solidarity
• between generations - global and long-term
  thinking
• and acting
• improve
• - creativity an imagination - cooperative and
  action competences - interdisciplinary thinking
  - curiosity and concentration - social behaviour
• offer
• - free space for self-discovering-leraning
• - nature-near living spaces, natural habitats,
  rich biodiv.

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Social and economical goalsobjectives for
sustainable forestry

• raise awarness
• - for the benefits of sustainable forestry
• - for the value of non-wood forest products
  and services
• (benefits for society)
• - for the places of employment in the forest
  sector and
• the forest-based industriy
• provide added values to rural development (f.e.
  employment, tourism, income,)
• foster interactions and exchanges between rural
  an urban areas/people
• Improve relationship with environment at local
  level

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Environmental objectives, forest-related
objectives

• foster understanding of the multifunctional role
  of forests
• improve understanding about forest management and
  forestry
• Raise and develop awareness for the need to make
  forests and their management fit for the
  challenges and risks ahead (as climate change,
  water resources, energy, biodiversity, protection
  of soil)

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Reasons for this initiatives

• FP has a huge potential to contribute to the
• objectives of the EU-FAP
• There is high relevance to the objectives 2 and
  3
• Improving and protecting the environment and
• Contributing to the quality of life
• and there is also a relevance to the objectives 4
  and 1
• Fostering coordination and communication
• Improving long-term competitiveness
• The EU Forest Action Plan particularly throught
  its key
• action 10 Encourage environmental education and
• information calls for specific activities in
  this regard.

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Reasons for this initiatives

• The working programme (2007-2011) for the
• implementation of the FAP (key Action 10) of the
• SFC (Standing Forestry Commission) covers the
• following two activities
• -10.1 Exchange experience between MS on
  environmen-
• tal education and information campaigns
• -10.2 Review activities of MS in promoting
  education on
• sustainable forest
• The working programme also indicates that the
• FCN should be the instrument to exchange
• views and report results into the SFC (AGFC)

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SUB GROUP FREE

• Establish a Sub Group FREE of the FCN with
• the specific tasks to
• develop a strategy for cooperating and commu-
• nicating on FP at the European level
• report on the findings to the SFC and AGFC
• submit a proposal to the FCN about how to
• carry out the review
• put the review into practice (survey, work-
• shop), evaluation of the review
• Address results and reports to SFC and AGFC

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Possible concrete activities

• refine the conceptual framework of FP
• compile best practices examples of
• countries
• establish an information-platform (web-side)
• about material, publications, seminars,
• congresses
• coordinate and organise of an annual
• international FP-congress (2008 Luxem-
• bourg 12-13 June)
• conception and organisation of international FP
• projects or campaigns