Forest kindergarten: A study on one utilization of a forest in Germany

Abstract

This paper reports how a German forest kindergarten utilizes the space and resources of a local forest. Parents of kindergarten children and other local residents of the city of Bensheim, the state of Hesse were surveyed regarding their uses of the forest. Among the parents of kindergarten children, those who took their children for walks in the forest once or twice a week were the most typical, regardless of whether their children were attending a conventional or a forest kindergarten. This finding indicates that families with small children often visit nearby forests in their daily lives. Regarding past and present utilization of forest resources by local residents, the 131 ways of usage counted included the use for food, tea/medicine, handicraft/decoration, toys, fuel, etc. After 19 ways that the residents used the forest in their childhood as toys were subtracted from 131, 90 out of 112 ways are currently used by the residents. Sixty-four out of 90 were also in use in the forest kindergarten. Seven out of 22 ways that have fallen out of use by the residents were used for educational purposes in the forest kindergarten. On the other hand, only 5 ways were newly devised for education in the forest kindergarten. The utilization of resources in the forest kindergarten thus reflects the history of the local usage of forest resources.