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Description
The challenges the project addresses relate to the climate crisis and the growing social needs for leisure and recreation in the forest. The State Forests organisation (Lasy Państwowe), which is the largest manager of public forests in Poland, does not hold a dialogue with the society on the changing functions of forests (from production to protection and social functions). Over the past few years, public interest in forests has increased significantly. At present, there are 140 local watchdog initiatives in Poland dealing with forest protection. The main problem is a lack of sufficient substantive support for local forest watchdog groups, which would allow them communicate with the State Forests more effectively. Citizens are not familiar with professional language, do not understand the content of documents containing sector-specific terminology and do not know their laws. As a result, they feel alone, unsupported and treated negatively by officials. In our project we will support 25 local forest watchdog groups, which will be provided with expert help in using legal tools in the dialogue with the State Forests, in assessing the quality of forest management and nature protection, in establishing partnerships with local authorities, and in using Geographic Information System (GIS). We will help them develop projects on nature protection, analyse Forest Management Plans and propose changes to them. We will carry out training, and implement media campaigns (both nationwide and local). The project partner is the Natural Forest Foundation, which has experience in working with social initiatives.
Summary of project results
The project was needed because in many places throughout Poland, residents of large and small towns demanded a change in the way forests are managed in their neighborhood. Residents consolidated into groups that, having no knowledge of forestry, nature or public administration, or having such knowledge but to an insufficient extent, needed guidance from organizations that themselves participate in forest management and that had supported other groups of residents in earlier years. Residents were repeatedly disappointed with how the state forest manager treated their demands and themselves - with a sense of superiority and ignorance, placing emphasis on the last of the three statutory functions of the forest - natural, social and production. The project was supposed to bring a breakthrough both on the social side (professionalization of activities, gaining specialist knowledge and support of scientists, building social alliances, effectiveness and efficiency) and on the state side (change in the way social demands are treated, legal changes to legalize social demands in existing forest management plans).
During the entire project, we provided approximately 300 consultations, organized and conducted 24 meetings and individual training with all groups for which written recommendations were issued, and we conducted intervention visits to 3 groups. We conducted analyzes of digital maps. We have prepared and made available to groups 24 interactive maps containing 930 images. We have also created 3 individual maps with a specialized scope. The lawyer provided 15 opinions for 5 groups. The database of administrative letters contains 74 letter templates. We helped in the editing of administrative letters 7 times. We conducted 13 online meetings for selected groups and 13 online training for all groups.
As part of media support for guard groups, we have created a Forest School run by specialists in media communication strategies and social campaigns. Activities within the Forest School carried out the process of transfer of knowledge and competences in the field of effective forms of promotion, reaching target groups, organizing advocacy campaigns and building communication models aimed at implementing the participation of the social side in decision-making processes regarding the implementation of forest management in naturally valuable or important for society in forest areas.
We have prepared 25 groups (approx. 100 people) for activities and dialogue with foresters.
People in watchdog groups have become professionalized as a result of the support of natural experts. They themselves started looking for local experts and cooperate with them, look for legal solutions based on applicable regulations, and are able to use interactive maps to identify the natural values of the forest. They identify threats themselves based on information about the forest and develop an action strategy based on them.
As part of the project, watchdog groups formed alliances with the local government, residents or politicians. In total, we involved 1,000 people in activities, and they engaged more people during walks, meetings and debates.
We have developed a network for exchanging information and planning joint activities of watchdog groups,
We reached 250,000 media recipients with an appeal to get involved in the defense of forests in 25 mini-campaigns; The reach in social and traditional media during the Lasy Się Liczej campaign reached over 4 million recipients.
We have achieved additional products in the form of:
- field research and expert reports - 20 reports documenting the need to protect forests for which guard groups are fighting
- legal assistance - 15 lawyer opinions
- additional training and online meetings (26), which resulted from the individual needs of project groups
- written recommendations and instructions for forest protection - 24 extensive documents created after individual training
- 75 templates of letters and applications for use by watchdog groups