Within the rapidly changing socio-economic scenarios of countries that are in transition to the market economy, educational processes and curricula revisions are playing a key role. Traditional forestry education is part of the general process of institutional revision and, in the case of Ukraine, recent reforms have been introduced.
Despite this recent educational reform, the process of curricula preparation and revision is, as in the pre-reform period, almost entirely in the hands of the academic and ministerial bodies. In fact, other stakeholders are very rarely involved in this process, and no representatives from industry or from other private institutions play an active role in curricula development and revision.
Curricula, both in forestry and in forest-related subjects, are still very traditionally based, and new elements from other related disciplines (such as the social sciences, economics, policy analysis, etc.) are a long way from being included.
A positive although limited example of a new approach to curricula development is the European Union (EU) project `ENARECO' (Environmental and Natural Resources Economics) . The main objective of this project was to launch a new study course (at the Master's level) to prepare specialists with a strong economic and ecological background, at the Ukrainian State University of Forestry and Wood Technology (USUFWT), in L'viv. The adoption of a multidisciplinary approach has been stressed as an important element in forestry curricula development in L'viv. This approach represents a first step towards changing the former structure. It is essential to continue in this direction by introducing further changes, to ensure the success and sustainability of new changes. In particular, what is needed is flexibility in curricula development and revision, the involvement of different stakeholders, and a multilevel educational system, all of which would ensure more successful changes in forestry education.
