#ForestDay: 5 Ways We Are Innovating

Thursday 21 March is the United Nation’s International Day of Forests 2024. This year the theme is ‘Forests and Innovation: New Solutions for a Better World’. At the Royal Forestry Society we have been encouraging innovation in many ways.

Here are just five of those ways:

1 Helping Woodland Owners and Managers

Our Grants for Resilient Woodlands support Royal Forestry Societyand Royal Scottish Forestry Society (RSFS ) members to create a network of climate change, pest and disease resilient woodland across the UK.

The grant can be used to take risks and innovate with new species, mixes or silvicultural techniques. They can also be used to introduce diversity (species and structural) into forests, woodlands and landscapes. These Grants are provided in partnership with Train Hugger and GreenTheUK. Members can apply year-round for the grants.

2 Sharing Innovation

Over many years we have developed a unique mix of Divisional Meetings, courses, workshops, lectures and tours designed to share and expand knowledge. These are backed up by our Quarterly Journal of Forestry magazine with its cutting edge research papers and articles, case studies and blogs.

3 Supporting Careers

Thanks to the support of the ALA Green Charitable Trust our unique Forestry Roots scheme provides paid traineeships for ages 18 – 30. The scheme matches our members with job opportunities with young people looking for their first post in forestry. Forestry Roots is now is now one of the UK’s largest training schemes.

Watch this space: We are also setting up an Early Careers Foresters Network – more details available soon!

4 Working with Young People

The Level 1 Award in Forestry in the Community was developed by the RFS for young people wanting to gain their first experience and qualifications in Forestry.

We are also taking part in a series of Careers Roadshows to give young people a new perspective on the range off opportunities forestry and woodland management has to offer.

5 Inspiring Children

We have also found new ways to inspire young children to think about our woodlands and how they need to be managed. Our Green Tree Badge, in partnership with Bags of Ethics, aims to inspire one million children. It builds on the success of our flagship Teaching Trees programme and our widely successful Junior Forester Award, the first programme of its kind linked to forestry and soon to go over 100,000 registrations.

Find out more about International Day of Forests and follow #ForestDay to see what others are doing.