Nature knowledge and experiences in forestry under consideration – information in English

wa'gen (Wald = forest and gender) is a joint research project of the German Universities of Lüneburg and Freiburg. It focuses on the role that gender relations and perceptions of nature have on forestry and environmental education.

Main questions are:

Which influence have perceptions of nature on forestry organizations, the practice of forestry and the transfer of knowledge in the field of forestry?
Which influence have perceptions of nature and forests on gender relations in forestry organizations?
How can we recognize gender-specific aspects and how can we incorporate these into knowledge transfer, into the management of forests and into the organization of the state forest services?

At Lüneburg University, the main focus is on the perceptions of nature and gender, respectively, on the one hand and the dialectics of occupational images and their reality in environmental education, on the other hand.

At Freiburg University, research is focused on gender proportions and gender relations against the background of the stated political goal of equal opportunities for both sexes and the ongoing structural reform of the state forest services. The project also aims specifically at developing recommendations for a gender-sensitive implementation of the ongoing reform processes in the forest services.

Fig. 1: Project organization

The project wa'gen is funded as part of the program "Sustainable Forestry" of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF); FKZ 0330607. It is running from May, 2005 to October, 2008.

Project coordinator:

Dr. rer. nat. Christine Katz
Universität Lüneburg
Institut für Umweltstrategien, Umweltplanung
Scharnhorststr. 1, Haus 13
DE-21335 Lüneburg
Germany

phone +49 4131 677-2966
email waldfrauen@uni-lueneburg.de

Waldwissen und Naturerfahrungen auf dem Prüfstand

Nature knowledge and experiences in forestry under consideration – information in English