Welcome to our course entitled, “Forest Governance, Public Relations, and Community Development.” This course highlights the importance of understanding and effectively managing the social or human dimension of forestry as a requisite to achieving the goal of sustainable forest management. Please click the video below for further information:
How to take the course?
The course is about human or social dimension of forestry; thus, it requires the takers to actively engage in discussion although the course is designed online. This online course will provide you with an understanding of sustainable forest management, particularly in the contexts of forest governance, public relations, and community development.
To assist you in information exchange, there is a Knowledge Café for this course where you can post your insights, comments, inquiries and other feedback about the topics to other participants of the course. There is an option for you to upload your profile so you can easily build your learning network.
Since this is a self-directed course, the Knowledge Café is a platform for sharing and expanding your online experiences, ideas and field observations with respect to each module. This is very important for you to fully appreciate the essence of collaborative learning and participation in the social aspects of sustainable forest management.
How to advance in the course?
As reflected in its title, the course is divided into three modules, which are considered as social pillars in the promotion of sustainable forest management.
Module 1: Forest governance
This module presents the importance, concepts, and principles of “good forest governance”, and the realities on the ground by analyzing the dynamics that exist between the various forest governance institutions. It also showcases the different forest governance initiatives at the national and global levels, and assesses their contributions in advancing sustainable forest management.
Module 2: Public relations
A basic understanding of public relations as it may be applied in sustainable forest management through science communication is discussed in this module. It describes different communication strategies and approaches that can be used in forestry, and emphasizes how to enhance the social capability of the natural resource professional to engage and build relationships among other stakeholders and partners in achieving the goal of sustainable forest management.
Module 3: Community development
The last module highlights the foundational premise of forests as the storehouse that supplies basic human needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and medicine as well as the environmental services, which are keys to the survival, and well-being of local communities. The module examines forestry as a form of development intervention, and how it can better contribute to achieving the goal of community development.
What’s my advice?
I advise you to have a regular schedule per week in visiting our website. Moreover, I suggest that you interact with your fellow course-takers through our Knowledge Café so you can share your insights, gain different perspectives about the topics, and ask them about their own field experiences for a more in-depth and engaging online experience. This intellectual platform will further challenge you to face the realities of forest governance, public relations, and community development for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) from a global perspective.