Celebrating the International Day of Forests in Greece
In 1971, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations established the 21st March as the World Forestry Day. In 2012, World Forestry Day was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations as the International Day of Forests in order to «celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests and of trees outside forests».
Every year, FAO chooses a theme and organizes a central event in its offices in Rome, while simultaneously supporting relevant events at a global level by producing and disseminating communication material through its webpage.
In Greece, in the context of the celebration of this year’s International Day of Forests with the theme «Forests and water», two major events took place in Athens and Thessaloniki. The event in Athens entitled «Forestry with eyes in the future» was co-organized by the General Directorate for the Development and Protection of Forests and Rural Environment and the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems and Forest Products Technology. During the event, in the central amphitheatre of the IMFE & FPT, current forest research projects were presented. The deputy minister of the Environment and Energy, Mr. Yannis Tsironis was present.
The event in Thessaloniki, titled «Forestry in the new economy of knowledge» took place in the Event Hall of the Old School of Philosophy. It was co-organized by the Department of Forestry and Natural Environment (AUTH), the Decentrilized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace, the Hellenic Forestry Society, the Geotechnical Chamber, the Forest Research Institute and the Forest Owners Association of Greece. During the event, an extended reference to the World Wood Day was made, which has been established to be celebrated the same day as the International Day of Forests.
Apart from the two central events in Athens and Thessaloniki, numerous local forest services throughout the country environmental awareness such as lectures, visits to schools and activities like reforestations and guided tours of the public to forests. In some cases, saplings from the forest nurseries were distributed to the public. At the same time, local forest services and unions from the forest community published press releases, underlying the benefits of forests and the need for strengthening conservation, restoration actions.