Forest Climate Emotions

It is well-known that people in Baden-Württemberg feel a strong emotional connection to the forest landscape, resulting in great concern for the well-being of the forests. Climate-related changes to forests make them a directly tangible expression of the climate crisis (FVA, Mensch-Wald-Monitor). At the same time, forests in Baden-Württemberg have proven their importance as places for coping with anxiety and psychological stress – this was particularly evident during the coronavirus pandemic. With the threat of forest loss, access to an important health resource for many people is therefore at stake. While various actors in the health sector are addressing this issue, forest education has specific approaches to raising awareness of transition processes in the forest that have been underutilised to date. It has developed established tools for talking to people in the forest about their relationship with the forest and placing their personal experiences in a larger context (forest management, multifunctionality, climate-related forest changes). Within the framework of education for sustainable development (ESD), forest education teaches transformation skills and empowers people to experience positive (collective, sustainable) agency. Forest education can thus serve as an important interface between stakeholders from the forestry sector, the health sector and the general public by developing strategies to address climate emotions in the context of forests.

Furthermore, with this focus, the project is also in line with the coalition agreement (strengthening the recreational and healing function of forests, further developing forest education) and ties in with nationwide efforts to ensure the quality of health knowledge in forest education.

In the “Forest Climate Emotions” project, the FVA and Furtwangen University (Faculty of Health, Medical & Life Sciences) are bringing together proven methodological approaches from forest education and health sciences. Political framework conditions As part of the evaluation of the Baden-Württemberg forest education concept, health has been identified as an important field of action for the future. The Baden-Württemberg Forest Strategy offers extensive preliminary work in the area of forests and health as a basis, but there are still significant gaps in the area of forest education. This is where the cooperation project comes in, specifically addressing existing gaps that have been repeatedly identified in the context of the “Experiencing the Forest Together” dialogue forum − the topics of forest education, environmental communication, emotions, and climate change.