Love the Forest – Sweden
“Love the Forest” (Älska Skog in Swedish) is a multi-stakeholder partnership project about the Swedish forests. The main activity is a contest for elementary schools where students can express their visions and ideas about the Swedish Forests and imagine how they see forest resource use in the future.
Biogeographical Region
Boreal, North
Ecosystem Services
Tourism, recreation and spiritual values
Initial Pioneer Innovations
Hierarchy
Innovation Stage
Articulation
What is the innovation about?
Love the Forest is based on the working model “Young people speculate” where elementary school students meet the “Love the Forest” partners. During these meetings the students can express their visions and ideas about the Swedish Forests and showcase how they see forest resource use in the future. This way they have the opportunity to influence their surrounding environment and its future.
What makes this innovation a good example?
This innovation is a form of a communication and education project bringing together different Swedish forest stakeholders (forest industry, researchers, civil society and policy-makers) with one of the most important groups of society, namely schoolchildren. During the “Love the Forest” project, schoolchildren learn more about the present and future importance of forest ecosystems and the role of forests for society.
Where is the case study innovation located?
The project “Love the Forest” started in 2016 as a joint initiative of the Universeum Science Centre and a number of Swedish forest enterprises and forest associations. The competition is held in Gothenburg, with participating schools from a number of different districts. In 2018 we are working with 19 schools and have 475 schoolchildren The competition’s partners have offices throughout Sweden.
Why was the innovation established?
The Swedish forest has played a key role in Sweden’s economy for centuries. The forest is our greatest natural resource and Sweden’s land area is 70 percent covered by forests. It is essential for the Swedish economy that the forestry sector continues to drive the economy forward.
Who is benefiting from the innovation?
The project “Love the forest” provides benefits from several perspectives. Firstly, the project represents an exciting new working method for teachers and students which enriches the students learning content and structure. Teachers have their own professional development and through “Love the Forest” are also given the opportunity to work across the curriculum including different subjects (biology, social science), with a focus on the competition’s mission.
Does the innovation need particular policies, stakeholder, or market conditions to work?
The contest requires a high level of commitment and resources from the partners who run the project together with Universeum. The forest companies and associations involved have to devote considerable time to the mission should be worded in a way that reflects society’s challenges, while choosing a participatory approach to work with and understand the target audience, in this case schoolchildren and teachers.