Description of the event
“Forests in Women’s Hands” will take place from May 25th until May 27th 2020 at the Forest Training Centre “WALDCAMPUS Austria” in Traunkirchen, Austria. The event aims to promote international networking and exchange of experience among women in forestry and to increase the visibility of women and their achievements in the forest sector.
Roughly one-third of European small forest holders are women. Women also play an important role in decision-making for family-owned forests. Still, they are underrepresented at educational institutions and in forestry professions. Some of the reasons for the aforementioned underrepresentation and weak visibility of women include poor integration of women, a traditional understanding of gender roles and the lack of role models in the field.
The conference is supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Regions and Tourism, coordinated by the Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW) and sees as organising partners the Austrian Women in Forestry Association (Forstfrauen), the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA).
In order to give a voice to Youth and contribute to finding solutions for the challenges surrounding gender in forestry, 30 students will be given the opportunity to join a delegation and take part in several activities organised, in collaboration with the IFSA-IUFRO Joint Task Force on Education, specifically to target youth.
