ABSTRACT
The chapter treats the role and meaning of forests and forestation in Norwegian educational thinking and school politics. Since the late nineteenth century and up until the 1970s, school children were mobilized in the organized planting of trees. The forest-based industries have played an important role in the national economy of the country. Since the last part of the nineteenth century, the awareness of deforestation as a problem was growing. The chapter looks into the changing justifications – didactical, moral, economical – of the involvement of school children in afforestation. Presently the awareness of the importance of forests is growing, not least in relation to the climatic and other environmental challenges. The historical practice of afforestation in Norwegian schools is discussed also in relation to different didactical projects focusing on education for sustainability today.
