Forest days as an educational method in Swedish family forestry

Abstract

Swedish forest owners are a diverse group with regard to activity, education and experience of practical forestry. Urbanization and increased gender equality have also changed the composition of forest owners and their involvement in practical forestry work. Yet, many forest owners perform some kind of practical work on their property. The combination of dangerous work and untrained practitioners has led to a number of serious accidents. As a part of a larger safety campaign, a forest day for absentee forest owners living in the Stockholm area was carried out. Safety and safe working with chainsaws was a core message. To assess the immediate learning effect among different categories of forest owners, a questionnaire and a before-and-after test were used. The results show that those who knew less, female forest owners and non-chainsaw users, learned the most. The study also shows that the use of safety equipment is limited among absentee forest owners and that forest days and courses are important for their conception of safety. During the forest day, men were central experts and women appeared as servants, demonstrating the presence of a masculine hegemony. As the forest owners learned from each other it is important that professional communicators are seen to be the most reliable and trustworthy.