Our new report, written by the Expert Group of Green Jobs by FOREST EUROPE, sheds light on the topic of Novel Green Forest Jobs. It summarizes the state of the art in literature reviews, the results from a survey sent to esteemed experts, and a workshop where participants discussed and exchanged knowledge. The take-home messages are tailored to policy makers, researchers, and academia/education, enabling you to get the most interesting information at a glance.

Enjoy reading and download it here!

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During the meeting, the focal points were the presentation of a report on Novel Green Forest Jobs and the formulation of policy recommendations to promote Green Forest Jobs to policymakers. Experts further discussed important topics like new and innovative roles of jobs in the forestry sector and attractive and engaging ways to communicate these stories to the world. They also talked about how to represent their work effectively at the upcoming IUFRO World Congress in Stockholm.

The second day of the meeting was all about finding better ways to measure the work and jobs in the forestry sector. Participants shared ideas and experiences to improve our understanding of employment in forestry. The meeting ended with a field trip to the nearby Arnsberg forest, where the experts learned about managing forests in the face of climate change and how to deal with forests that have been affected by disturbances like storms or fires.

Photo: Wald und Holz NRW

“We want to thank ‘Wald und Holz NRW’ for their warm welcome and excellent organization,” said Vera Steinberg, workstream leader of Green Jobs and Forest Education and policy advisor at FOREST EUROPE. “Their support made this meeting possible and helped us take important steps to attract the workforce of tomorrow, thus ensuring the sustainable management of our forests.”

The Expert Group Meeting on Green Forest Jobs shows what can be achieved when people work together. By sharing knowledge and ideas, we can build a future where forests thrive, providing benefits for both nature and people.

For further information, please contact:

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The webinar started with the introduction of the Novel Green Forest Jobs topic, by Ilaria Doimo from ETIFOR. 

She presented a survey carried out by Forest Europe, which focused on identifying the opportunities and challenges in Green Forest Jobs through feedback from different organizations and understanding the future development of Novel Green Forest Jobs. One of the key messages was that the number of jobs in traditional forestry has been decreasing over the past decade while new forestry (novel) jobs are emerging. This trend could be attributed to the development of bioeconomy, mechanization, digitalization, consulting, education, and cultural changes. 

The survey highlighted interesting trends and will be further developed to provide accurate information on the Novel Green Forest Jobs. It will be published in the spring of 2024 by Forest Europe.

The next speaker was Ewa Hermanowicz, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Communications Manager for Europe.

With a background in languages and international relations, she developed her own career, starting at FAO and then working for Bioversity International, followed by making movies on gender equality in India and working with National Geographic to showcase the magnificence of  Icelandic forests. Currently, she is preparing a movie on the wood chain from Congo, describing the challenges of the increasing wood demand and the need to combat deforestation.

Sharing her inspiring career, she highlighted that any kind of talent one has can be used in forestry; one only needs to know what they like, pursue it, and it will work out great!

The next panelist, Silvia Melegari, developed her career path in another branch of the forestry sector, specifically in the wood industry.

Having a background in law, she “accidentally” found herself in the wood industry. One of the decisive factors was her relocation to Brussels, where the main policy negotiations were happening. During her career, she worked with a Wood-based Panel Foundation, and now she is working with the EU organization of Sawmill and Wood Processing Industry and CEI-Bois. The main goal is to advocate for the family business in the EU parliament, work with other lobbying organizations, evaluate the changes that new legislation will bring to the industry, and advise their members accordingly. This is quite a challenging but exciting job, as the parliament is frequently changing, and they have to make sure that new politicians have the importance of the forest industry in mind.

Silvia provided a great example that forest jobs also require an understanding of human relations, and they support businesses in the wood industry.

The next speaker was Lioba Rath, who holds the position at State Forest Enterprise in Switzerland. She shared her experience of working in that part of the forestry sector, which is often called the “most conservative” one, and showed that even there, you can find innovative jobs as the sector is transforming. Same as the previous speakers, she ended up in the forestry sector accidentally, but this time in the digital support for the Enterprise. This includes her in all stages of work, starting from small tasks such as training on how to use measurement tools to high-level strategies such as planning the transportation of wood. 

She has been working just for one year but finds a lot of joy in the work she does. Lioba concluded her presentation with the call that there is a place for everyone, and the field needs it!

The last speaker was the current IFSA President – Isabelle Claire. She shared her path of education and development as a successful story of how the IFSA experience contributes well to the formal education received at the university. A striking example is her recently received position in CIFOR, where her forestry background and soft skills developed in IFSA are extremely useful. 

In addition to this, Isabelle used the opportunity to share youth perspectives on the current state of the forestry sector. It is visible that the sector is aging, and youth are less involved because of the low profitability and lack of training; thus, capacity building is needed. Some of the IFSA’s major projects in that area include the “TreE-Learning” platform and “Gender Open Letter.” 

Isabelle ended her presentation by pointing out that we need to invest in youth and women for the stability of forests and society!

For those who missed the webinar, you can watch the recording on the FOREST EUROPE YouTube channel here.

If you are interested in learning more about the forestry sector, Forest Europe is organizing another webinar on the 14th of March on the topic: “The roots of innovation – setting the course for innovation and sustainable growth in the forest sector.” For more information and registration please follow the link here.

The post IFSA reports on the FOREST EUROPE webinar “Shaping tomorrow’s workforce: Novel Green Forest Jobs” first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

FOREST EUROPE is organizing on 14 March 2024 webinar, “The roots of innovation – setting the course for innovation and sustainable growth in the forest sector.” This will be in the run-up to the International Day of Forests 2024, whose theme is ‘Forests and Innovation.’ The webinar is specifically for you if you are a member of the FOREST EUROPE signatories, observer organizations and countries, private sector, industry, students, research organizations, or just an interested person in innovation.

Join us as we engage with policymakers, practitioners, and start-ups to tackle different aspects of innovations with the goal of raising awareness around the topic and giving visibility to the innovations in the sector as we address policy gaps.

One more reason why you don’t have to miss: Start-ups involved in forest-related innovation will have an open space where they will present their initiatives in an open coffee style and interact with the audience.

Please register here!

Get more info about the webinar’s programme!

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The forest sector is known to have a very low representation of females employed (below 20 %). This gender gap is also seen in the traditional forest sector workforce. Coupled with the challenge of an aging workforce, the forest sector urgently needs to find ways of attracting more people, including women, to engage in forest-related activities. Innovative forest-based Green Jobs are a way of alleviating potential labor shortages. Providing a more gender-balanced workplace, improving occupational health and safety at work, making working time more flexible, and offering fair wages will immensely contribute to improving the image of the forest sector and attract women and youth.

Through this webinar, we would like to highlight the Novel Green Forest Jobs based on the findings of the activities of FOREST EUROPE’s Workstream on Green Jobs and Forest Education and, while doing so, also showcase the transition from the traditional forestry profession to the novel green forest jobs-women perspective and the gaps in the curricular.

Objectives of the webinar

• Build up on the previous webinar on “How the heck did I end up here?” from the FOREST EUROPE series “From the Roots to the Canopy”. (More information: www.foresteurope.org)
• Present the results from the survey on Novel Green Forest Jobs and the workshop on Novel Green Forest Jobs to be held at the WS3 Expert Group Meeting (EGM) in October 2023.
• Highlight the transition and the potential of Green Forest Jobs by showcasing success stories of female professionals who pursued the traditional forestry programmes but transitioned to different fields of Green Forest jobs, the reasons behind that, and the challenges and opportunities that are there for women.
• Highlight opportunities and gaps regarding Novel Green Forest Jobs in the forest-related curriculum.

[1] Green Forest jobs, as defined by FOREST EUROPE, refer to “Jobs that provide forest-related goods and services while meeting the requirements of sustainable forest management and decent work.

Find here the Webinar programme, and speaker bios.

Date: 12^th December 2023, 2:00 PM CET

Time: 90 minutes

Target group: Students from a forest-related programmes, universities, Expert Group “Green Jobs,” industry, interested public, FE interested observer organisations.

Moderator: Vera Steinberg (FOREST EUROPE)

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Vera Steinberg and Juliet Achieng.

The congress was organized by the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald Bundesverband e.  V. (SDW) and the European Forest Pedagogics Network with support from FOREST EUROPE. Matthias Schwoerer from the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Head of the Unit European and International Forest Politics opened the meeting by emphasizing on the importance of the topic while also conveying his expectations of the congress.  Vera Steinberg, who was a panelist representing FOREST EUROPE, mentioned that Forest Education is one of the key areas of FOREST EUROPE’s work within the workstream “Green Jobs and Forest Education”. Here, they strive to raise awareness about FOREST EUROPE’s contribution to the forest policy process at the Pan-European level, capacity building and showcasing Green Jobs in the forest sector. The workstream’s activities and goals are aligned with the need for having skilled personnel to adapt European forests to climate change and managing society’s increasing demands on forests. 

In collaboration with SDW, FOREST EUROPE organized a working space on “How should forest-based ESD be integrated in the European Forest Policy Process?” In the discussions, they reflected on the importance of ESD, identified what was missing from the policies and lastly how to address the gaps.  

The main messages from the discussion include: 

• Forest-based ESD should start at an early age and continue through one’s lifetime since there is no end to learning.  
• New learning models are needed, which give pupils and students sufficient time to interact and learn about forests. The curriculum should also offer opportunities for more outdoor activities and other extracurricular activities. 
• Forest-based ESD actions and initiatives should be streamlined to amplify the voices of the actors and increase impact.  
• The policy process is perceived as slow and difficult to influence but proactiveness in communicating the needs for ESD is needed to ensure that the messages reach the policy makers. This can be achieved by e.g., producing summaries for policymakers and actively approach them. 
• Always build on existing initiatives or political agreements such as the Sustainable Development Goals and build partnerships across departments, ministries, states, regions and countries. 

It is without a doubt that the congress offered a great opportunity to pool and expand the expertise of the participants, boost the existing forest education network, and increased the interest and awareness on forest-based Education for Sustainable Development. It was a privilege for FOREST EUROPE to collaborate with SDW who have been working on crucial forest topics including forest pedagogics for many years.

More information about the Congress is available here.

The post “Learning to create together ‒ How can Forest Education for Sustainable Development build partnerships and empower people?” first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

These questions will be addressed in the SILVA Network Annual Conference, held at the University of Sopron on April, 11 – 13^th 2023. The program includes inspiring presentations and a full-day excursion into the educational forests of Sopron University and the nearby national park.

It pays to be quick: An early bird rate applies until February 21^st. Please also keep an eye at the deadline for abstract submission if you are interested to present.

Please go to the SILVA Network website to register.

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