Social media as an opportunity or a blind alley in social communication and forest education? – Experiences from Poland

Abstract

The article characterizes the experiences, problems, and prospects for the development of forest education on social media, which in Poland has been carried out by the Państwowe Gospodarstwo Leśne Lasy Państwowe (National Forest Holding ‘State Forests’) over the past several years. The activity of foresters (employees of the State Forests with a University Degree) on social media allows contact with the public, i.e. the transmission of knowledge about forests to a wide audience, a rapid response to difficult discussions, often attacking foresters about forest management taking place in public spaces. In addition, social media has great potential for communication between scientists and the public, and even for scientific collaboration (so-called citizen science; scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur scientists). As a result of training in this attractive area of social media, the passion and experience of foresters is increasing the audience on social media for State Forests every year, all of which translates into the need for evaluating and monitoring the data from passive educational methods. Keywords: social media, forest education, informal education, environmental education, social communication, conflicts, citizen science, foresters

Impact of the SARS-COV-2 Pandemic on Changes in the Financing and Delivery of Forestry Education in Poland – A Case Study

“…Należy zauważyć, iż aktywność online polskich leśników to ich własna inicjatywa, prowadzona "na marginesie" ich głównej aktywności zawodowej (Lewoń, Pirożnikow, 2019). Edukacja leśna w mediach społecznościowych dzięki szybkości dostarczania treści oraz umiejętności porządkowania treści i motywowania użytkowników do wyjścia w teren uzupełnia edukację formalną (Korcz, Lewoń, 2021).…”

“…It should be noted that the online activity of Polish foresters stems from their own initiative, carried out "on the margins" of their main professional activity (Lewoń, Pirożnikow, 2019). Forest education in social media, thanks to the speed of content delivery and the ability to organise content and motivate users to go into the field, complements formal education (Korcz, Lewoń, 2021).…”