SCA study shows: Children want to spend more time in the forests

November 20 we are celebrating UN’s Universal Day of Children, and this year is also the International Year of Forests. Consequently SCA takes the chance to talk more about what children really want: To spend and play more time in the fresh air and the forests.

A representative SCA study conducted by the renowned research institute TNS Emnid [7] amongst 1,000 German children aged 7 to 14 years and their parents shows that:

• The outdoors are “in”: In response to the question of where the surveyed children spend most of their leisure time, 46 percent of the 7- to 9-year-olds answer “outdoors.” This response is also the one that is most frequently cited among the 10- to 12-yearolds as well as the 13- to 14-year-olds;
• Nine out of ten children have already been in a forest at least once in 2011;
• The desire to spend more time in the forest: In responding to the question of whether they would like to spend more time in forests, half of the surveyed children answer Yes. The breakdown: 59 percent of the 7- to 9-year-olds and 49 percent of the 13- to 14-year-olds would like to be in forests more often;
• Of those children who are not in forests often, 59 percent indicate that they find forests boring and, in fact, this percentage rises with age;
• The oak is the favorite tree of German children;
• A lack of knowledge about forests: 53 percent of the responses to the question of “Who is Master Lamp?“ (a common term for rabbit in Germany) are wrong;
• Parents spend only little time in the forest with their children: Only 2 percent of the parents of 13- to 14-year-olds choose the forest as a leisure destination.

"We are pleased with these results because they show that children have a positive relation to the forests," says Martina Eisenbeis, Environmental manager at SCA’s hygiene operations in Germany [8]. "This is where we can start to bring them closer to the nature and to enhance their environmental awareness [9]."

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