Education in The State Forests

Educating society within the scope of forestry and environment is one of the main priorities of the State Forests. The SF’s educational offer is aimed at children, youths and adults including people with disabilities. This is all about popularization of forestry and sustainable forest management knowledge.
14.07.2016

Educating society within the scope of forestry and environment is one of the main priorities of the State Forests. The SF’s educational offer is aimed at children, youths and adults including people with disabilities. This is all about popularization of forestry and sustainable forest management knowledge.

Thanks to the forest education more and more people are aware of multiple benefits of sustainable forest management, environment protection and reasonable forest use. There are more and more people that enjoy forests. Moreover, the awareness of joint responsibility for the environment condition also grows.

In the field

In order to understand and become acquainted with forest, it is not enough to read about it and see it in photographs. That’s why outdoor education is so important. It gives the opportunity to see, touch and listen to forest for oneself.

 

Photograph:Tomasz Banaszkiewicz

For the purpose of education foresters created almost 6,5 thousand infrastructure facilities. Almost 1,5 million people visit them every year. Here are types of facilities used in the State Forests for the purpose of the forest education:

  • 66 forest education centres
  • 1013 educational paths (didactic)
  • 301 forest education rooms
  • 545 educational shelters (so called “green classes”)
  • 106 dendrology parks and gardens
  • 1840 education points
  • 2676 other facilities

The most popular are forest educational paths, where foresters conduct classes for various age groups all year round. You may also visit them individually. Forest districts prepared also forest education rooms and educational shelters. The offer of the forest educational centre broadens and every forest district has its own ‘Programme for Forest Education of Society in Forest District’.

Significant part of people that use educational infrastructure facilities constitute school groups. Foresters are aware that the future of our forests will soon depend on young people, that’s why children and youths are particularly invited. Long-term experience in forest education confirms foresters’ conviction that younger generations absorb knowledge very well and are the greatest allies of penalties for those, who litter forest and set fire to grasses.

Within the area of the Promotional Forest Complexes (PFCs) topics related to the forest education are extremely important. There were established many educational paths showing foresters’ works and activities as well as education rooms which present the environmental richness. Forest parking lots, shelters and leisure spots give greater opportunities to discover the beauty of our forests. One-third of people, who make use of SF’s educational offer, visits the Promotional Forest Complexes.

In Media

The educational function is also delivered by the State Forests Information Centre (CILP). Its publications (a/o Głos Lasu and Echa Leśne magazines) are aimed at people interested in the forest management and nature protection. Information regarding the meaning of forest in human’s life can be found in numerous catalogues, brochures and folders published by the State Forests Information Centre. Many regional directorates of the State Forests have their own publications too.

Additionally, the education conducted with use of the Internet becomes more and more significant. The State Forests informs broadly about its activity and promotes environmental knowledge on the website www.lasy.gov.pl.
„Las Rysia eRysia”, created in cooperation with National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management became remarkably popular Forest Educational Vertical Portal. Designed from the very beginning with the forest and environmental education in mind, it offers an insight into forest biodiversity and forest management and its impact on environment and climate with use of multimedia tools.

„Las Rysia eRysia” has three web sites:

-       For primary school children, classes 4-6,

-       For junior high school youths

-       For teachers

Contents in those websites are adjusted to various group of recipients. For students, authors prepared games and plays, multimedia presentations, multimedia encyclopedia of Forest entitledLeśnoteka, competitions, blogs, galleries and forum. Teachers can find here class scenarios based on the portal’s content. The substantive side of this portal was created by foresters who conduct educational classes in SF’s centres every single day.