Publication

This manual is primarily intended for use by forest scientists who want to communicate their research results to various forest stakeholder groups including the public at large. It will also serve PR officers and research managers in the field of forest science to learn from other experts and refine their own skills in communicating forest research. The manual covers the most important concepts and methods in the field of public relations and presents these in an easy to understand manner. This will allow the non-experts in the public relations field to apply these tools as an effective means of interacting with forest stakeholders and the general public, and in this way dealing with the constant changes in society. The authors are convinced that through this manual users will be motivated and inspired to involve the public for the dissemination of scientific knowledge related to forests and trees.

To gain in-depth information on PR the reader may want to use the book by just following the order of the individual chapters starting with the general rules for successful public relations and introductory information about different communication fields, followed by the description of specific success stories. But this manual is also well suited for those readers who just want to satisfy specific information needs – they may want to select individual sections of the manual. These information needs may be related to general public relations instruments and tools, factors for successful public relations work or local or regional experience made with public relations activities in various parts of the world as described in the success studies.