2022 Volume 31 Issue 4 Pages 4_19-27
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is being promoted in Japan as one of the roles to develop human resources who contribute to a sustainable society. Forest education provides a diverse opportunity in ESD through contact with forest resources and the natural environment. For this reason, forest education has been attracting attention in recent years. However, it is not easy to implement forest education continuously. This study focuses on the Kumano Forestry Education Project that is being carried out on a continuous basis in Kumano to elucidate (1) the awareness of practitioners who can continuously implement forest education, and (2) the process leading to continuous implementation through an interview survey. As a result of analyzing the interview using the modified grounded theory approach (M-GTA): 1) Implementation of the Kumano Forestry Education Project and awareness of the practitioners are closely related to the relationship between the community and themselves. 2) In the course of implementing the project, the practitioners feel a sense of ethical affirmation, accompanied by a sense that the project they are implementing is recognized and needed in their hometown. 3) There is an ethic of implementing forest education as a method of community development, with the practitioner recognizing that the program will have a universal positive impact on the target population.
