Green-apple report of LBG Stockholm summercourse 2000.

Name of the SC: Sustainable Forestry - Environmental Aspects of Scandinavian Forestry"
Date: August 20 – September 2
SC-responsible Anna-Karin Eriksson, k98_aen@k.kth.se
Number of participants: 24 invited, 22 showed up in the end
Number of organisers: From LBG Stockholm we were 10 and then we had reinforcement from BEST Copenhagen, Allan Steen and from the BEST board, Anna Hakansson and Fredrik Habils
Evaluation steps: 
1.	Mailing list, that you can find at http://www.stacken.kth.se/lists/best-forestry/
2.	Half time evaluation, results are attached
3.	Webb-evalutation statistics

The course
The course was divided into two main parts. The first week consisted of lectures held at KTH by the course leader Leif Svanblom and three other lecturers from KTH. The participants had two or three hours of lectures before lunch and a couple of hours of group studies in the afternoon when they had free time to find information by themselves to solve a problem given by the lecturer. The second week was mainly spent on a trip through Sweden from the old University City Uppsala to Stromstad on the Swedish West Coast. We visited our sponsor Stora Enso who showed us some of their forests and paper machines. Visits were also made to a national park, Trestickla and a marine biological centre, Tjarno, where Mr Svanblom gave the participants more information about the Swedish forests and ecology. Back in Stockholm the participants had one day to write a report and the examination was held the following day. (Everybody succeeded)!
Social activities during the course
We tried to arrange different activities every night. The welcome party the first night was a pretty calm event when people got to know each other over some pasta carbonara and beer. The following days were spent by having picnics, visiting the museum of the sunken ship Wasa, having a barbecue on a beach and disco at the student union. To get to know Stockholm better we arranged for our participants and the participants from LBG Uppsala, a city rally all over Stockholm which ended up in a cottage in the archipelago of Stockholm. We spent the whole night eating, drinking and singing in the sauna. Then of course there was the international evening, which was a success as always. The theme of the last night was a Viking's party when we ate pieces of meat with our hands on wooden plates. 
Summary of the evalutations
Difficulties:
•	We found it difficult to be specific about the course requirements at the point of the deadline for announcing. At this time we ourselves did not know what we could expect as a lot of the course depended on our sponsors.
•	The course coincided with our exam period, which meant that we had to change LBG-members guiding the participants more than normal. This was due to the companies and our teacher that could only give their time during this period.
•	The teacher felt at one time very disappointed with the organisers. Although we thought we had a good communication he interpreted it as we were only nagging the whole time. This was after a few days on the road with rainy weather and a lot of visits in the forests. For future SC’s it is very important to make sure to plan more meetings (more time) during the SC together with the organisers and the teachers.
•	The alcohol is always a hot issue in our group. We want to serve some beers for free during parties. But we don’t want to waste money on alcohol. A good suggestion of the participants was to make sure everybody understands that alcohol is very expensive in Sweden and to encourage to bring full quota from their own country.
•	One participant had a very low knowledge of English and had apparently let a friend write the application letter.
Easy solved problems
•	We worried about not having enough organisers helping out during the course. Miraculously Allan from LBG Copenhagen and two board members, Anna Hakansson and Frederik Habils volunteered and were helping out a lot.
•	We were short of people at the bus ride and expected to have difficulties in the cooking and cleaning up. We made a duty-schedule and filled it up with both organisers and participants which turned out very well.
•	When staying in the cottage at the west coast there were not enough beds for everyone. The participants did not complain but fit themselves into the offered beds.
•	One participant’s grandfather died during the course. The person went home and came back again and was thankful for the respect the group showed for the difficult situation.
What we did not do:
Probably we missed doing a lot of things. Among other it was decided not to send a physical arrival-kit. All the information about the course was distributed via the email-list. There were no complaints about this. There was however one participant that never showed up. We tried to call the person but he never answered. For future summer courses we have to have as a requirement that every participant has access to email during the weeks before the SC (if we want to continue like this) 
Comments about the half time evaluation:
After a very interesting lesson about forestry that ended quite late, we were going to have half time evaluation. The evaluation was accomplished by dividing into four groups and discussing expectations and impressions about the social activities, the lectures, the accommodation and the effort of the organisers. After one hour of discussion everyone met again and went through their answers together. The organisers had meanwhile their own evaluation together with the teacher. 
This evaluation was filled with emotions, some of the participants were quite harsh and did not evaluate in a friendly way but expected in my opinion almost slavery from the organisers. The organisers had decided from the beginning, not to defend themselves and listen through what everyone had to say until we commented. This is very important, because then one can concentrate on the essence of apparent problems instead of going deep into small questions that easily leads to frustration.
What activities did we do?
Activity schedule and other official information that we handed out during the course are attached.
Summary
The forest companies in Sweden heavily sponsored the summer course. We enjoyed the trip around Sweden a lot and it had only been possible to accomplish with the help of the companies. 
The parties were too late for anyone to be able to take the lectures seriously. We also gave them too little spare time to explore Stockholm on their own. 
The participants did not like to live on the boat-hostel, too little space and the rocking made a few people feel sick. Earlier SC-participants have said that it is very exotic and “a must”. 
The exchange with Uppsala’s summer course was not much appreciated because when Uppsala was here, our SC had still not become a group and felt somewhat outside, when we visited Uppsala their group had rather had a cozy last night just on their own.
The organiser being together with the group did not always know what was going to happen afterwards, which was a pity because a lot of questions on where to meet and so on were left unanswered. 

Over all, the organisation was very good, there were a lot of activities and happenings. Nothing was cancelled and almost everything started on time. We had to stress the group to walk faster as always… Some participants wanted us to point out that the time on the road was going to be much easier (according to party-schedule) than the time in town. Everyone was not aware of where the bus trip was going.
The course aimed to give first an academic point of view of the forestry, then the companies’ view and finally also a political view from one of the lobbyists of an environmental protection organisation. The exam was a meeting with the whole group discussing the essentials of environmental forestry.
The group was quite diverted with some people very skilful in ecology and forestry while others heard the issues for the first time. We had a very good time together and the emailing-list is still alive and used frequently.

Written by:
Anna Edebo & Anna-Karin Eriksson, LBG Stockholm
Wednesday, 01 November 2000

Preliminary 
Program for technology students, BEST, visiting Stora Enso August 27-29 2000

Sunday	Evening	Arrival in Laxsjoens camping resort, Grangaerde 
August 27	(18.00?)
		Sandwiches and coffee

		Presentation of Stora Enso and the forest operations	
		Ake Granqvist, forester and communications manager

Monday	07.30	Departure from Laxsjoen
August 28		
	08.00	Arrival at forest tree nursery Soer Amsberg, Borlaenge
		Hosts: Anna Norén, Stefan Olofsson

	09.15	Departure for Kvarnsveden newsprint mill

	11.30	Lunch at Kvarnsveden mill

	12.15	Visit to Stora Enso’s forests
		- forest management (regeneration, stand management)
		- nature conservation

	20.00	Evening meal at Laxsjoen

Tuesday	07.30	Departure for the forest
August 29		- harvesting operations
		Hosts: Christian Bergman, Bo Morenius

		Departure for Karlstad

	12.30	Lunch at Stora Enso Research, Karlstad
		Host: Johnny Skogberg

	13.15	Visit to the research facilities at the centre
		Hosts: Per Jonsson, Johnny Skogberg

	15.15	Departure for Skoghall Carton Board Mill

	15.30	Presentation of the mill
Hosts: Per Bjurbom, Alf Sondell, Ulf Eliasson, Tor Lundkvist, Calle Albinsson

	17.00	Light meal

	17.30	End of program

ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Industrial ecology

SCHEDULE FOR BEST -COURSE "SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY" AUGUST 2000

Day	Lecture room	Time 	Lecture

Mon 21/8	E2	9.15-11.00	Introduction. Information about tasks.
			Nature and environmental problems in Sweden
			Leif Svanblom, KTH
		?			12.00-15.00	Group studies

Tue 22/8			Whole day, Tyresta nationalpark. 
				Leif Svanblom

Wed 23/8	E2	9.15-11.00	Biodiversity in swedish forests
			Leif Svanblom
	?	12.00-15.00	Group studies

Thu 24/8	E2	9.15-11.00	The irony of history-
					from crooks to a sustainable economy. 
								Staffan Laestadius, KTH
	?	12.00-15.00	Group studies

Fri 25/8	E2	9.30-11.30	Biofuels
					Sven-Olof Ericson, Vattenfall

	E2	13.15-15.00	Effective pulpprocesses
					Peter Axegård, STFI (eventuelly Thursday pm)
	?	15.00-17.00	Group studies

E2 is in Osquars Backe 2

Sunday 27/8 - Thursday 31/8 Excursion in southwest Sweden

Friday 1/9 Report writing.

Saturday 2/9 10.00 Examination