FCN Subgroup Forestpedagogy meets in Ljubljana!

Wednesday, March 18 , 2020 233

From 25th – 26th November 2019, the Subgroup Forestpedagogy held the annual meeting in Ljubljana, hosted by the Slovenian Forestry Institute. 17 persons from 13 different European states participated.

The main topics of the agenda were the evaluation of the European Congress of Forest Pedagogues in Latvia in 2019 and the planning of the congress 2020 in Luxemburg. The results of the online-evaluation for the congress in Riga underlined that the participants appreciated especially a high amount of very useful practical examples, new ideas and the professional key notes.

In the meeting, the subgroup decided to change the internal working-structure of the working-group from a four-headed steering-group to a leading structure with one leader and one deputy leader, supported by a secretary. For the years 2020 until the end of 2022, the Subgroup elected:

• Leader: (Coordinator) of the Subgroup: Dirk Schmechel, Section 8 - "Knowledge-Transfer, PR, Forestpegagogy" - Bavarian State Institute of Forestry – Germany / BDF (Union of German Foresters) - Member
• Deputy Leader: (Deputy Coordinator): Liga Abizare, State Forest Latvia
• Secretary: Thomas Baschny, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism -Austria (also secretary of  the Union of European Foresters)

The UEF treasurer Anna Petrakieva (Vice president of Union of Bulgarian Foresters) will be the official representants from Bulgaria for the future as subgroup member.

Therefore, the UEF is very prominent present in the Sub-Group.

In a frame-program, very well arranged by the Slovenia Forestry Institute, the Subgroup members were able to learn more about the beautiful old-city of Ljubljana and about the city forests of Ljubljana.

Unfortunately the 15^th European Congress 2020, which was foreseen to take place in Remerschen, Luxemburg, from 11th to 14th of May 2020 with the topic „Forests for Human well-being – how Forestpedagogy contributes”is due to the very dynamic development of the Corona virus in Europe postponed to autumn 2020 or spring 2021.

The UEF Presidency