The festival is organized by two independent forest enthusiasts, Inger Kærgaard and Marie Sigvardt. Both of them are driven by a love for the forest, the frustration over deforestation, and the desire to pass on knowledge about it.

Inger Kærgaard is a biologist with many years of experience in forest conservation, teaching, and other educational work. In 2009-2010 she had a photo exhibition about the deforestation happening in Borneo,Indonesia. Because of the great interest, the exhibition was shown six different places in Denmark covering the mainland Jutland, the island of Funen, and Copenhagen. See the website: http://wheredidtheforestgo.org/pictures. The Exhibition was supported by Danida in connection with COP15. Inger is giving lectures about the forests of the world, has worked with forest restoration in Thailand and later with forest protection in Indonesia for BirdLife Denmark (DOF). Besides being the main organizer and initiator of the forest festival, Inger works as a part time biology teacher in the upper secondary institution HFC Efterslægten in Copenhagen. With a few exceptions, all the photographs at the Forest Festival exhibition are taken by Inger Kærgaard.

Marie Sigvardt (cand.scient.soc) has an educational background in technological and socioeconomic planning and international development supplemented with a certificate in Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management. Many childhood moments spent in nature have led to her affection towards forests, as well as interest in sustainable forest management and forest certification. Marie is specifically engaged with the social aspects of forests, such as indigenous people’s rights to the forests. Marie has worked in Danida’s environmental program in the Malaysian part of Borneo, Japanese organization–Friends of the Earth, ITTO (International Tropical Timber Organization) with FSC, and forest management in Malaysia. Besides arranging the forest festival Marie is working for the Danish NGO Save the Orangutan where she is involved in development projects concerning local people in forest areas in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo.

Partners

Thanks to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and and The Danish Society for Nature Conservation for their collaboration and contribution to the Forest Festival.

We also want to thank many people and several organizations in Denmark and abroad that have contributed with information and in events. Special thanks to: Danish Ornithological Society, Burung Indonesia, FSC Poland, WWF Cambodia, Non-Timber-Forest-Products Exchange Programme for South and South-East Asia and Save the Orangutan.

A special thanks: Bonnie Fortune, Jeppe Lund, J. Bo Larsen, Niels Peder Christensen, Nikolaj Scharff, Axel Dalberg Poulsen, Thomas Læssøe, Lars Holger Schmidt, Thomas Harttung, Sofia Wraber, Mervi Ryynanen, Manish Mehta, Rohit Singh, Maria R. Christensen, Thomas Nichols og Carsten Tom Nørgaard.

Sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors who have made the Forest Festival possible; Danida’s oplysningspulje, Brødrene Hartmann Fonden, The Polish Embassy, Polish Tourist Organisation, Podlaskie Tourist Organisation, Nordea Fonden og Indre By Lokaludvalg.