The Methodological and Didactic Aspects of Comprehensive Greening of Educational Process Towards Sustainable University

The process of greening education is aimed to educate new generation with the holistic vision of the real world challenges, attitudes of responsibility and active social behavior as an agent of sustainability transformations. The methodological and didactic aspects of comprehensive greening of educational process discussed. It’s based on integration the competence and the whole school approaches, sustainable life style and green campus practices into sustainable university model. The preconditions for systemic and holistic integration of the sustainability principles into all fields of the university life are identified. Especial attention is paid to the recent experiences of the Ukrainian National Forestry University as the leading university in Ukraine in implementing the concept of greening higher education in Ukraine and member of new networking project “V4 Green Universities” supported by the Visegrad Fund

Forest carbon projects in the Ukrainian carpathians: An assessment of potential community impacts and benefits

Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) is a frequently promoted climate change mitigation strategy. As forest carbon projects proceed, we are learning how they affect local sovereignty and resource access, particularly in developing economies. Central and Eastern Europe’s temperate forests offer potential for projects, yet little is known about how the sociopolitical context of these transitional economies may influence project success. In this article, we enhance understanding of potential community impacts and explore opportunities for fair benefit distribution in Ukraine’s Carpathian Mountain region. Through a thematic qualitative and interpretive analysis of interviews and observational data, we: (1) describe what community-level forest uses and tenure rights may be affected by forest carbon projects; and (2) explore the opportunities and obstacles of fair benefit distribution and community engagement in projects in the region. Our data show that local communities in the region are important forest-dependent stakeholders, relying on the forest for fuelwood, non-timber forest products, recreation, and other intangible benefits. This indicates the need for strong social safeguards in developing forest carbon projects. While no mechanisms exist for direct revenue sharing, communities could derive other benefits that improve the local social, economic, and ecological situation. Our results further suggest that lessons from projects in developing economies can be informative to project development in post-socialist, transitioning economies

Tradition as asset or burden for transitions from forests as cropping systems to multifunctional forest landscapes: Sweden as a case study

Expectations of what forests and woodlands should provide vary among locations, stakeholder groups, and over time. Developing multifunctional forests requires understanding of the dynamic roles of traditions and cultural legacies in social-ecological systems at multiple levels and scales. Implementing policies about multifunctional forests requires a landscape and social-ecological perspective, and recognition of both spatial and temporal features at multiple scales. This study explores the dissemination of even-aged silviculture in central, eastern and northern Europe, and the consequences of choosing different vantage points in social-ecological systems for mapping of barriers, and to identify levers, towards multifunctional forest landscapes. Using a narrative approach, we first summarise the development of even-aged silviculture in four European regions. Next, we focus on Sweden as a keen adopter of even-aged silviculture, and identify levers at three groups of vantage points. They were (1) biosphere with biodiversity as short-hand for composition, structure and function of ecosystems, which support human well-being at multiple scales; (2) society in terms of different levels of stakeholder interactions from local to global, and (3) economy represented by value chain hierarchies and currencies. The emergence of even-aged silviculture >200 years ago formed an expanding frontier from central to northern Europe. Sustained yield wood production and biodiversity conservation encompass different portfolios of ecosystem aspects and spatio-temporal scales. Ignorance and lack of knowledge about these differences enforce their mutual rivalry. An exploratory review of six groups of stakeholders at multiple levels in the traditional industrial forest value chain highlights inequalities in terms of distribution of income and power across different levels of governance. This effectively marginalises other than powerful industrial actors. The distribution of financial results along the value chain is dynamic in space and time, and not all benefits of forest ecosystems can be measured using monetary valuation. There are also other currencies and incentives. A discussion of cultural trajectories in central and eastern European, Russian and Swedish forest management illustrates that forest history patterns repeat themselves. Longitudinal case studies of countries and regions can help foster holistic multi-dimensional and multilevel systems thinking. Application of deep levers of change is likely to require external drivers. A key challenge is to handle the manufacturing of doubt and decay of truth, i.e., the appearance of alternative facts, and the diminishing role of evidence and systems analyses in political and civic discourses. This transition is fuelled by new and rapidly evolving digital arenas

Multifaceted value profiles of forest owner categories in South Sweden: The river helge å catchment as a case study

Forest landscapes provide benefits from a wide range of goods, function and intangible values. But what are different forest owner categories\u27 profiles of economic use and non-use values? This study focuses on the complex forest ownership pattern of the River Helge å catchment including the Kristianstad Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve in southern Sweden. We made 89 telephone interviews with informants representing the four main forest owner categories. Our mapping included consumptive and non-consumptive direct use values, indirect use values, and non-use values such as natural and cultural heritage. While the value profiles of non-industrial forest land owners and municipalities included all value categories, the forest companies focused on wood production, and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency on nature protection. We discuss the challenges of communicating different forest owners\u27 economic value profiles among stakeholders, the need for a broader suite of forest management systems, and fora for collaborative planning. © 2013 The Author(s)

Innovation in the use of wood energy in the Ukrainian Carpathians: Opportunities and threats for rural communities

Ukraine is traditionally deeply dependent on fossil and nuclear energy. However, in response to global climate and energy policies, a major shift towards renewableenergy (RE) is presently underway. Apart from ample wind and solar capacities, the country has abundant bioenergy resources, mainly from agriculture and forestry.Particularly in the densely-forested Ukrainian Carpathians, wood is the most prominent bioenergy source used to meet the heat demands of households and publicbuildings. However, despite increasing forest area and timber volume in this region during the last 50 years, affordable bioenergy from forests remains scarce in manyareas. At the same time, local communities suffer from energy scarcity, energy insecurity and high energy costs.In an effort to understand how better use might be made of Ukraine's bioenergy resource, addressing sustainability goals as well as the needs of local communities,this study assesses the significance and future potential of wood energy for regional economies and households from an environmental, economic and socialperspective. The study employs a mixed-method approach combining literature review, a Best Practice contest and semi-structured interviews with forestry sectorstakeholders in rural areas of Transcarpathia and Lviv. Several reasons were identified for the scarcity of affordable bioenergy, including the export-oriented woodprocessing industry, the lack of forest road networks and machinery, the short-term character of national forest strategies in relation to bioenergy, and otherinstitutional settings that limit access to forest resources. Illegal logging, corruption, and lacks of transparency in timber markets add further difficulties. To addressthese problems and to meet the challenges defined by international climate agreements, two key innovative instruments were identified; 1) certification schemes forforest products and; 2) community-driven bioenergy initiatives (e.g. local cooperatives.). These approaches, ideally embedded in a local energy strategy developed bythe communities themselves, have the potential to transform energy and benefit communities and the local economy

Human values as catalysts and consequences of social innovations

Abstract We studied the role of human values in social innovations (SIs) in four forest-dependent communities (FDCs) in Europe. We draw on 71 semi-structured interviews with FDC members in Finland, Slovenia, the UK and Ukraine, and a survey of householders (n = 150) and focus group interviews with related stakeholders in Ukraine. The material collected was analyzed with mixed methods with respect to relational values as catalysts and consequences of SI. Relational values, which are derivative of the relationships between human and non-human world, and responsibilities towards these relationships, were divided into three categories: Doing, Belonging and Respecting. Doing encompasses the individual’s perspective of the opportunities offered by nature to individuals. Belonging encompasses a communal dimension of values manifested as the experience of “being at home” in social collectives and landscapes. Respecting addresses environmental and social justice. Common cause for SI was the need of FDCs to sustain or enhance relational values linked to forests while, once emerged, SIs also have potential to become global game-changers. SI encompasses the reconfiguration of: i) forest management and use, ii) decision-making structures and processes, and iii) stakeholder’s perceptions of sustainability. Examples include the co-management arrangement between a State forestry enterprise and the local community, buying woodland from the State by the FDCs to enable community forestry, reinvention of traditional forest management, and the active involvement of FDC members in halting illegal logging. As a conclusion, we developed a general value hierarchy accounting for value plurality in which relational, instrumental and intrinsic values can be interpreted from any perspective