Hello!

I very much want to work in forestry management and/or forest conservation.

I have lots of professional experience in leading conservation and restoration teams. I have a two year degree in outdoor education and outdoor recreation leadership. I am a certified wilderness first responder and I am also certified in felling and bucking trees.

Coming from a different culture, I am not sure what degree would best help me achieve my professional goals.

I have been unable to find employment in Europe based on my professional experiences and current degree.

Question 1-
Is this field one that regularly hires and/ or is growing in Europe?

Question 2-
are these field less likely to hire individuals who will require a visa?

Question 3-
Is the field one that doesn’t hire often?

Question 4-
what degree/ degrees would best help me to achieve a position in this field, with the understanding that I will likely still need a visa after my degree is done?


4 comments

  1. For start you have to talk the language of the country. This industry won’t bother with somebody who only talks english.

  3. Sweden has a large forest industry, and most people speak English. There is a specific university that educates in forestry and agriculture, called SLU. Check them out at slu.se.

  4. In Poland forestry degrees are quite widely available, there’s even some in English. However, you need to carefully check the curriculum because forestry in Poland is mostly focused on timber production rather than environmental conservation. There’s a separate public organisation that manages national forests, and the’ve even tried to fell an ancient forest that’s a UNESCO heritage site lol The general opinion is that it’s a rather closely knit professional environment and it’s rather difficult to get randomly hired because the turnover is very low. The pay often isn’t that great and the work might obviously require moving or travelling to rather remote locations. If you intend to work in forest management in Poland, it’ll be necessary to learn the local language because you’ll need to either give/understand instructions in Polish or you’ll need to fill out documents in Polish. Requiring a visa will make it more difficult to get hired.

    If your main interest is in actual conservation, then you’ll either need to very carefully choose a degree in forestry that also teaches those components or a degree in a different field like environmental protection. There aren’t that many positions available in this field so it’d be good to start getting experience as soon as possible, do some research etc. to give you an edge. If you’re interested in a career in the academia, it’s not that difficult to find an English language PhD in this field, but obviously you need to plan what’s next.

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