by FAO STAFF
The Seventh Session of the Conference of FAO expressed the hope that the Fourth World Forestry Congress would be made the occasion for arousing public interest in forestry, and for bringing to as large a portion as possible of the peoples of the world a consciousness of the value of forest resources.
Wood from the trees of the forest is a universal material. It has been called the "material of a thousand uses" but a hundred thousand might be a nearer estimate. It ranks at the top of the all-round raw materials. Yet, throughout history, in almost all regions of the world, man through ignorance, lack of foresight, and often cupidity, has robbed the forest or destroyed the land which rightly belongs to it, and in so doing has not infrequently contributed to his own destruction.
Besides its function as a source of one of the world's most versatile raw materials, the forest constitutes an association of soil, water, plants, and animals all closely dependent one on another. They help both to build and hold together the soil, the humus contributing organic material while the protective tree cover and other vegetative growth checks erosion. Lastly, forests are the natural habitat for many kinds of wildlife, and to man provide retreat and recreation in many forms.
Within the last decade most nations have made a serious effort toward forest, soil and water conservation, as well as the creation of new forests. International action, too, for the first time applied on a really worldwide scale, has begun to bear fruit. But it is essential that concurrently with the initiative and concerted action of professional foresters and all those concerned with forest resources, there should be a movement to educate the public at large, and in particular the youth of all countries, in the economic values of the forest, its influence on climate, water and soil, and above all how it can be conserved most profitably in order to fulfill its multiple purposes. 1
1
Acknowledgment for ideas is made to Paul W. Schoen FAO Consultant, and M. Marrou, Documentation Section, Direction Générale des Eaux et Forêts, Paris, France. The United Nations agency primarily concerned with education is UNESCO.
Adult education
The uses and functions of forests are essential to all, and this may be understood by the few. But it is only when the facts are shown in their living and close relationship to a country's population that they can be truly and generally appreciated. The economic factors are to a certain extent recognized by woodland owners and workers directly dependent on the forest for their livelihood. But even in communities and localities situated near forests, which derive benefit or profit directly or indirectly from them, there is often little or no understanding of the direct link between the condition of the forests and individual prosperity. The all too common tendency is unthinking acceptance of benefits where woodland is plentiful, and elsewhere complacent adjustment to shortages, even where these are avoidable and result only from inertia. These points of view should be replaced by an active appreciation of forest values through the assignment of general or specific responsibilities to government, public and private agencies.
Adult education has to deal with three main classes of people:
1. the forest owner, tenant or operator - that is the individual who is in direct and personal contact with the forest and whose interest lies in turning tree growth into profit, whether tangible or otherwise;2. the worker in the forest or in wood-using industries who, although dependent on the forest for his livelihood, generally accepts his tasks without great interest or knowledge of their purpose;
3. the great bulk of the population, the general public, whose direct relationship with the forest is tenuous or even destructive, and who does not normally associate the forest with any attributes that affect personal standards of living.
Although it is clear that many governments rightly concentrate effort on schools, where a program of education can be more effectively and lastingly introduced, the stimulation and direction of adult interest should not take a minor place. Until the schoolchildren who have been taught the values of forest resources have grown up to be active and influential citizens, only an adult education program can meanwhile influence the present generation of individuals who are responsible for much of the destruction of a nation's tree cover.
Moreover, many countries already contain groups of adults of varying influence whose interest in these matters has united them into associations working for the protection, conservation and propagation of forests. It is therefore desirable to encourage such public-spirited and often disinterested private agencies by government assistance in the sponsoring of an adult education program, in which they can well be given definite responsibilities.
In the main, the problem of adult education lies in dealing with uninformed and uninterested persons. Communities physically associated with forest areas can be reached and their interest aroused by direct appeal; the woodland owner, and the forest or timber industry worker can be swayed by publicity showing the direct effects on their property and their livelihood of wasteful methods of use and forest destruction. But the general public requires more specialized handling; means of arousing interest must obviously vary with the part of the world and the social environment, the type of forest that exists and the kinds of land usage by which certain classes of the population may be affected. Among the categories of people to be reached may be some who regard forest destruction as necessary to their livelihood; an added difficulty in dealing with these is, in many instances, their illiteracy. Education must be simple, clear and intelligible to the average person, even to the illiterate. It must reach the widest possible number of people. Only thus can it offer real hope for the future.
In the education of the public at large, effective action can be undertaken in three ways. In assessing their respective merits, the principal consideration is the degree to which public interest, once awakened, can be kept alive. A number of examples are reported by countries of praiseworthy attempts to awaken interest having been made, only to be abandoned later or allowed to flag through lack of real co-operation on the part of the general public, through a lack of incentive to keep the interest active, or of an inspiring and guiding force fostering a feeling of continuity of purpose.
First, then, it may be the Government that should develop an educational program. The Government presumably possesses a detailed and up-to date knowledge of the nation's forest production and wood requirements, as related to national and international needs. The problems of stimulating popular appreciation of the relationship between the forest and general welfare can be solved by direction and by legislation. But the consequences of adopting only these measures may be negative, and they can seldom be expected to encourage real interest and a sense of responsibility, or foster individual and collective initiative toward the sound husbandry of forest wealth.
Secondly, action may be left to private interests. But this may lead to constructive action only where self-interest or self-preservation offers an incentive. Where a response is aroused it is likely to be only local, and miss the main objective of any such effort, which lies in reaching the maximum number of individuals and organizations.
There remains the third and obvious choice, that of concerted effort by both government and private interests working together on co-operative plans and inviting general participation within recognized spheres of responsibility. This is the strongest line of approach, and the one most likely to lead to success.
The role of government lies in over-all leadership and encouragement toward a desired objective. Such a role, fitting to an agency in full possession of the facts of the problem, avoids duplication of effort which may be inevitable when individual initiative alone is allowed to take the lead. Governments, moreover, are in a position to give encouragement and help in widespread forms-technical, legal, social and financial-and can best bring about continuity of action and of purpose.
Private responsibility in such co-operation begins with ensuring the successful carrying out locally of the general plan and enlisting the maximum of interest throughout all classes of the local community by assignments and division of responsibility. In other words, to private agencies falls the task of local organization and of making the general public receptive to the whole effort.
One way of giving focus to a drive towards adult education is to organize tree festivals or arbor days.
It has long been a tradition in many countries to hold annually a tree or forest festival. The origin may indeed date back to antiquity, and be lost in the dawn of religious feeling and awe for what trees represented. Tree mythology, at which we may perhaps now smile tolerantly, may still contain the germ of sound physiology and natural scientific wisdom. Therefore, whatever may be the origin of tree festivals, it is worth turning to good account such manifestations towards one of the objectives of FAO - the conservation and wise use of forests everywhere.
It is of interest to note that the enthusiasm given to the celebration of tree festivals, arbor days or similar occasions, and the thoroughness of measures to ensure the success and permanence of the results of such festivals, are often directly related to a country's degree of awareness of its need for forest resources; or, where such resources are adequate, of the necessity for their protection and maintenance by a public whose sense of responsibility has not yet fully awakened; or finally to the awareness of the situation resulting when recent catastrophe and destruction have been the result of irresponsible action by a section of the nation's population.
Countries which have long recognized that their main wealth is timber, or that their very existence is dependent upon the maintenance of a protective forest cover, have felt less necessity for a special celebration, since the economic and physical values of the forest are learned by all classes of the population from earliest childhood. An example is Switzerland. In Sweden, too, where forests play so prominent a part in the national economy, specific activities are restricted to a Week of the Forest, at a time when a great number of forestry associations hold their annual meetings in the capital, and publicity is given to these reunions and conferences by the press.
There is not space in a paper of this sort to examine the many aspects of the organization of a tree festival as a national celebration and the elements which must be combined to create a communal effort in which every man, woman and child can take a part and find some personal interest. Such an effort each person can remember with pleasure and with some sense of personal pride, with a feeling of having gained knowledge, and of having contributed to the welfare of the community and the nation. 2
2
For details, attention is invited to FAO Forestry Development Paper No 2, World Festival of Trees, shortly to be published.
Celebrations may be confined to one day only, but it is better that a series of events with similar educational aims be made to lead to a climax over a- week-end early in the planting season. Where possible, the tree festival can usefully be associated with the celebration of some national festive occasion, thus giving to it the patriotic aspect it deserves. This advantage has been appreciated by several governments. Many countries also have designated a tree as their national emblem and in both North and South America provincial committees of influential business and professional men are stimulating interest in the native trees by designating local trees as emblematic of their region, after a contest to obtain an expression of preference from the local people.
Alternatively, the celebration can be suitably associated in some countries with religious festivals. Harvest thanksgiving celebrations, including the tree festival as well as flower shows and the activities of wildlife and naturalists' organizations, help to associate in the minds of everyone the role of woodland with that of agricultural and other land uses.
Publicity is an essential prelude to such a festival. This is dealt with in various ways by different countries, the stress is usually, and rightly, laid on publicity through sight and sound media, which are of the greatest value in a wide approach to the people of all classes. Films and radio broadcasts, sometimes complemented by the use of television, are the most generally employed means. But there are many other methods, such as illustrated lectures, posters (the appeal of which can be widened by final selection being made only after a nation-wide or regional competition) automobile emblems, envelope stickers, postage stamp obliterations, postal meter slogans for business firms and organizations with large mailing lists, street decorations and shop window exhibits, special matchbox covers and candy wrappers, and even, as in Japan, a new brand of cigarettes. In another category come the publications and pamphlets on the subject, newspaper articles and press releases; and the sale of buttons and badges, souvenir programs and advertising space within them, the proceeds of which can go toward financing the festival.
The organization of tree festivals can also give point to programs of education for young people and schoolchildren.
All this was early realized in the country where Arbor Day, as it is commonly understood today, originated. 3 To quote from an early edition of Arbor Day, a bulletin issued by the United States Department of Agriculture:
"under the direction of (the) Superintendent of Schools... the schoolchildren of the city had a prominent part in the celebration, which included a parade through the streets to Eden Park, where trees were planted in memory of distinguished men. About 20,000 children participated in the singing and reciting and in putting the soil about the trees, which had already been set in place. Two new elements were introduced into the Arbor Day plan on this occasion - the day was made a school festival and the practice of planting memorial trees and groves was inaugurated."3 Arbor Day, as such, grow out of conditions peculiar to the Great Plains in the United States, being first observed in Nebraska in 1872. As in many other countries singe then, hopes were vested in public institutions, agricultural societies and individuals who would carry out tree planting. Prizes were offered to those who planted and scoured the survival of the greatest number of trees.
Such developments were largely responsible for the spread of the movement throughout the country, and the occasion became a festival for schoolchildren combining utility with instruction and pleasure, and served to impress the value of trees and the need for conservation on the minds of the young.
Laws throughout almost all the United States of America relating to Arbor Day now include mention of schools. To cite an example, the provisions of the laws of Arizona state:
"The authorities in every public school shall assemble the pupils in their charge on Arbor Day and provide for and conduct, under the general supervision of the State superintendent of public instruction, such exercises as tend to encourage the planting, protection, and preservation of trees and shrubs and an acquaintance with the best methods to be adopted to accomplish such results and shall cause trees to be planted around the school buildings with appropriate and attractive ceremonies."
In many other States, Arbor Day is a holiday and educational officers and teachers are required to have the pupils observe the day by the "planting of trees or other appropriate exercises". As a variant, a list of school holidays includes Arbor Day provided it is observed "for the purpose for which it is designated by the Governor and Council".
In many countries, schools have taken an active part in tree-planting ceremonies organized by governments. In the case of city schools, or where school grounds are fully planted or unavailable, the ceremonies may take the form of avenue or street planting, or the adorning of parks, memorials and entrances to public buildings in urban districts. In rural communities, planting activities may be more extensive and range from roadside planting to village firewood plots, shelterbelts, school forests or watershed and soil protection schemes. In some countries, as for instance the United Kingdom, the need for a broader scope is recognized and the national forestry authority, in this case the Forestry Commission, as well as providing the seedlings for Arbor Day planting ceremonies, also allocates plots of existing forest in various stages of development to schools who "adopt" them and are responsible for their care and maintenance. Such a system offers all-the-year-round opportunity to schools or to smaller units within the school, such as clubs and Scout groups, for forest activity.
In Iceland there is a Students' Afforestation Day Act by which tree planting is made compulsory on one day a year during school term and at a time when afforestation conditions are favorable. The planting is under the control of a competent foreman and in the vicinity of the school. Other provisions are also made in cases where the conditions in a given locality are not suitable.
The sense of responsibility and the interest can be much greater if, either through government grants (as for example in Victoria, Australia) or by raising funds by an appeal to parents and friends, a school can procure land close by, and make it the children's responsibility to reforest or plant the area. In Spain, plantings on Tree Day are being replaced by School Forest Plots.
All facets of woodland development and care should under these circumstances be taught, from seed collection and nursery work, to land preparation, planting, and the care and protection of young trees; and for the older boys as they grow up with the trees, initial thinning of their plots, mensuration and utilization. The economic value of the forest can certainly be brought home to the older children when they have had a hand in the actual marketing of the produce from their school forest.
Schools, whether secular or religious, are the only organized institutions which have a lasting influence on almost every individual making up a nation's population; impressions gained from teaching, precept or example during the earliest formative years of a child's development last to old age.
Forestry and the care of woodland should, therefore, become a regular feature of a school curriculum 4 and Arbor Day take the form of intensive planting by the entire school at the onset of the planting season. Lack of knowledge by teachers can be made good by qualified state foresters assisting and supervising the work, and forestry can be integrated in the more normal routine of lessons as a topic of almost every subject taught; in spelling and writing, literature, languages, mathematics and even music, in addition to botany, biology and allied subjects of natural science, geography, drawing and woodwork.
4
In Arkansas, U.S.A., the study of fire prevention is included in the course of study in the primary grades of all public schools, "and definite instruction in said subjects shall be given to each pupil and student therein, and A period of not less than 20 minutes during each scholastic week shall be devoted to the study and consideration of said subject". Authorization is also given to adopt textbooks to be used in the teaching and study of fire prevention. California sets a date for the observance by schools of conservation, bird and arbor day. Its observance will not constitute a holiday "but by including in the school work of the day suitable exercises having for their object instruction as to the economic value of birds and trees and the promotion of a spirit of protection toward them and as to the economic value of natural resources, and the desirability of their conservation". Boards of school trustees and city boards of education are empowered to conduct courses in forestry, acquire forest land by lease of purchase, afforest or reforest and plant trees, shrubs and vines on these lands or any public lands placed at their disposal, and transport pupils to places where forestry work is being done and practical demonstrations can be held.
The school forest can become a recreation ground and an open air classroom, and achievements in both planting and care, the collection of forestry material, or drawings, and writings in prose and poetry, in which the tree is the subject, can be stimulated and rewarded by nomination to a forestry club, where the strong appeal of badges, pins or buttons as awards can be fully exploited. Boy and Girl Scout organizations, often an important school activity, can also participate, especially during holidays, in the care of the school forest and of the nursery 5.
5
In India, government and state shields are annually awarded to educational centers, as well as to adult communities, for meritorious activities in forestry. In Italy, prizes are awarded to children who have given particular attention to the care of trees, and tours are arranged to observe the results obtained in other areas and in previous years.
Where school magazines are exchanged with other schools, articles and reports, drawings and photographs on the subject of the school forest can appear and may do much to encourage other schools to begin a similar scheme.
Where urban schools cannot either, adopt or own their school forest, a partnership between an urban and a rural school can be arranged, the city school providing the funds, for instance, and the country school doing the work and supervision of the area. Visits by the city school, especially on Arbor Day when the children can participate in the planting, can be of tremendous value in developing not only the forest but the interest of town dwellers in the subject for which Arbor Day is designed.
Arbor Day for children and adults alike can and should be the culminating point of a year of achievement and the beginning of another year of working together and looking forward to a better world. It appeals to the spirit of youth and carries with it the inspiration to work together toward the betterment of the community, the nation and the world.
