The forests in the coastal territories of the Baltic Sea region contain many historical testimonies that are an essential part of our cultural heritage. This heritage, which has been well-preserved in forests even from prehistoric times, is little used in school teaching resources. By exploring their local surroundings, pupils can not only familiarise themselves with local history but also use their findings in many other subjects, such as geography, natural sciences, and mathematics.

The goal of the international project “Cultural Heritage in Baltic Region Schools” is to establish stable cooperation between partners who are competent in the fields of cultural history, science, forest management, and pedagogy, in order to study traces of cultural heritage in local neighbourhood forests and create a concept for a methodology that would promote the acquisition of this knowledge in schools and incorporate it into the curricula of various subjects.

The project involves partners from several countries in the Baltic region – the Västerbotten Museum and the Swedish Forest Agency from Sweden, the Department of Archaeology at the University of Turku in Finland, the Norwegian Institute, the Centre for Landscape and Culture at Tallinn University in Estonia, the Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava”, the Faculty of Forest at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, and the Jaunmoku pils Museum. The project is funded by the Swedish Institute within the framework of the “Interreg” Baltic Sea Region programme.