Date/time
Tuesday 16 April 2024, 12:00-14:30h
Location
Room Lumen 1-2, Lumen Building, Droevendaalsesteeg 3, 6708 PB Wageningen
The entrance is between the buildings of Gaia and Lumen. Please register your name at the reception desk if you do not have a valid WUR pass. No badges will be issued
For transport and parking, click here…
Online
You can follow the symposium here online…..
Registration
If you have not yet registered, please send your names and email address to catharina.depater@wur.nl. The symposium is almost fully booked, so latecomers will be put in a waiting list. If you decide not to come after registration, please inform us, so that someone else can join.
Why this symposium?
Catharina’s thesis shows that forest spirituality is important for human-forest relationships. Where forest management is concerned, forest spirituality is especially articulated in four themes:
- ‘Nature experience’, encompassing forest conservation and management to ensure a tranquil atmosphere conducive to spiritual experiences that enhance people’s health and nature connectedness;
- ‘Wise use of forests’, indicating management and harvesting practices that combine ecological knowledge with intuition, inspiration and respect for all forms of life;
- ‘History’, referring to old trees, forests, landscapes, cultural history and related narratives that induce people’s connectedness with the land; and
- Ineffable aspects of forest spirituality, occasionally mentioned in relation to intuitive forms of forest management.
In this symposium we explore the potential of these forms of forest spirituality for transforming forest management in the Netherlands and worldwide, in theory and practice.
Programme
Moderator: Prof. Arjen Wals, Personal Chair, Education and Learning Sciences Group
12:00 Walk-in with tea/coffee – please bring your own cup!
12:30 Welcome by prof. Georg Winkel, Chair of Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group
12:35 Round of introductions of the speakers
12:40 Keynote by Prof. Bron Taylor, University of Florida, founder of the International Society & Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
13:10 Presentation by Ms. Shaohua Wang MA, University of Barcelona, PhD researcher in Spiritual Tourism.
13:25 Presentation by Prof. Vykintas Vaitkevicius, Klaipeda University, Lithuania, author of Studies into the Balts’ Sacred Places
13:40 Round Table discussion with Speakers, Bas Verschuuren, Catharina de Pater, and everyone else.
14:30 Closure
16:00 Catharina’s thesis defense in Omnia, Hogesteeg 2, 6708 PH Wageningen