The United Nations delcared the year 2011 to be the International Year of Forests .

Even if eventually we don't live near a forest, even in the desert: forests determine a huge part of our life, directly and indirectly. They are closely connected to local culture which is the reason for us connecting with that special year.

In their Logo use Guidelines the United Nations ask States to translate the slogan into the local languages, but many of those local languages are not used on a national level and are often not yet used in official documents, instead it is the local population that actually lives with the forest and that have their very own relationship with it. This is why we decided to simply translate the solgan

International Year of Forests - 2011

in as many languages as possible, including the national wide spoken languages which often serve as a bridge to reach the minorities. The translations together with the names of the contributors will be listed below and be sent to the address given in the UN-Paper.

Furthermore we will try to combine this theme with two lessons for International Mother Language Day 2011 and collect forest related terminology (that reaches from the various geographical names to environmental protection around the forest etc.) during the whole of 2011. Since it does not make sense to double work we will try to look at Agrovoc and OFWB (Online specialistic dictionary) first and connect what we do to existing terminology in order to avoid double work. Therefore thanks to Agrovoc by FAO and OFWB by the University of Bamberg, Germany, for having released their contents under a license which allows us to use them. Images will be provided as far as possible by openclipart.org also creating a "forest" special during 2011.

We hope that by involving people and children all will consider the protection of forests in a deeper way and transmit this to others.

The languages already present are: Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish.

• Alemannic: <requested - will take some time>
• Catalan: Any Internacional dels Boscs - 2011 (sent)
  
• Czech: Mezinárodním rokem lesů - 2011
  
• English: International Year of Forests - 2011  (source language)
  
• Finnish: Kansainvälinen metsien vuosi - 2011
• Franconian: Indänazionals Johr von dii Wäldä - 2011
• Gaelic: <requested>
• German: Internationales Jahr der Wälder - 2011 (sent)
  
• Italian: Anno internazionale delle foreste - 2011 (sent)
  
• Joola Fonyi: <requested>
  
• Neapolitan: Anno nternazzionale d''e bosche - 2011
• Piemontese: <requested>
  
• Swahili: Mwaka wa Kimataifa wa Misitu - 2011 (sent)
  
• Swedish: Internationella året för skogar - 2011
  
• Walser: Internationals jor der wälder - 2011

Contributors:

Arthur Buliva , Carmine Colacino, Davide Filié, Bina Meusl, Outi Sané , Jordi Vilanova