Learn to love forests! International Forest Day 2019
The Royal Forestry Society of Belgium puts the forest in the spotlight on International Forest Day
Celebrated on 21 March, International Forest Day is an opportunity to showcase the diversity of forests and raise awareness of their importance. The Société Royale Forestière de Belgique (SRFB), which is active in promoting and protecting the forest, is organising activities throughout the week of 21 March to help young and old alike discover the forest and its sustainable management.
«Learn to love forests» is the theme being promoted by the United Nations this year. It contains two verbs: learn and love.
Each «user» of the forest has its own point of view and sometimes forgets that the forest fulfils multiple roles that must all exist together. Forests contribute as much to biodiversity as they do to timber production. It is a place of leisure and rejuvenation, good for physical and mental health. It contributes to the climate, the water cycle, the landscape and produces the oxygen we breathe.
By «learning» about this reality, by becoming aware of all these aspects of the forest, we can better love it as a real forest: the forest as it is here, in close contact with human beings since the dawn of time.
To mark International Forest Day, SRFB is inviting the public to learn to love forests by discovering all they have to offer. It also invites them to get their hands dirty and better understand the role of foresters, managers and owners.
Visit programme ? A walk on how to perceive trees, another on forests and landscapes, a sensory discovery, participative planting, clearing and pruning, meetings with forest managers, a film-debate...
In the words of its President, Dominique Godin, «rather than giving the image of a dream forest, which we love for our own individual interests, the SRFB wants you to discover and love a forest that fulfils all its functions, economic, social and environmental. A forest that can be shared!»
You can listen to the programme recorded on this occasion here:
