FCN Forest pedagoigcs Subgroup Meeting in Vienna

Vienna, April 2024

In the second half of April, Forest of Experiments team leader Ajša Alagić visited Vienna, where an international team of FCN-Subgroup-Forest pedagogics members met at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management. The meeting brought together 14 members of the team from different European countries from Norway to Cyprus.

We started the meeting by getting to know the new members and exchanging good practices and reflecting on current activities and challenges. We made an overview of the developments at the last Forest Educators Congress in Bonn and the results of the survey and engagement with policy makers as a product of the Congress.

We have spent a lot of time working on the programme for the next conference, which will take place this September in Yundoli, Bulgaria, with the theme "European Forests stressed by Fire, Drought and Storm - A challenge for Forest Pedagogy!" (During three days of lectures, workshops and activities directly in the forest, all participants will have the opportunity to engage with the latest issues in forest pedagogy. They will have the opportunity to discuss the challenges among forest educators related to working and presenting the problems of forests stressed by natural disturbances such as fires, droughts and storms.

In the final part of the meeting we reviewed our Joint European Strategy for Forest Pedagogy and discussed improvements and open issues. We then went on to review the current projects that members of the group are carrying out in relation to forest pedagogy.

Meetings like this are certainly welcome to keep things moving forward and developing in forest pedagogy, and we hope to be able to hold as many more of them as possible in the future!