The idea of ESCFS was born on international competition in Prešov 2001 and its history starts in 2002 with the first championship organized in Austria. In the History section you can find a list of organizing nations, results and some pictures of the events in the past.
Short‐term goal of The European Student Championship in Forestry Skills (ESCFS) is the presentation of the latest achievements in logging techniques, logging machinery tools and logger’s safety equipment and a comparison of these at an international level in theory and practice. In planning and carrying out the competitions, special attention is paid to safety aspects in working techniques. Long‐term aim of the competitions is to increase the appreciation of forest work and to draw general attention to forestry training and the forestry industry on both a national and international level. These competitions play a particularly significant role in creating international contacts between students and schools, which contribute to the furthering peaceful coexistence between nations.
The championship is organized by a hosting nation at an organizing school. This can be a school of any kind related to agricultural, forestry or natural resources. During the championship the head jury takes the lead in handling protests and achieve a fair competition.
Participants
The ESCFS are a team competition between school form European nations. Each country sends only one team (mixed male-female). Several competitions did have the opportunity to bring a second female team. This depends on the organizing school. The team consists of four students who are in forestry training and between 16 – 25 years of age. Competitors can join the competition only twice.
International committee
During the year the international committee collects proposals for the rules, collect bidbooks for organizing the event, make arrangements to organize the competition with the hosting school, select referees from nations for the disciplines and draw proposals to improve the ESCFS every year. Last task for the committee is to administrate all participants and check there age to achieve a fair competition for those students that fit the rules.
The committee has four members:
Peter Tretter (Germany)
Markus Wilfinger (Austria)
Petra Prelc (Slovenia)
Gerard van Looijengoed (The Netherlands)
Head jury
Competitions are held in an honest way and in the spirit of friendship, co‐operation and mutual respect, in case of disagreements the head jury helps. The most important tasks of head jury are: to deal with remarks and protests made by the participating delegations during the competitions and to make final decisions concerning them, when required, to disqualify those who violate the rules of the competitions or who otherwise offend the spirit of the competitions and to make summaries of the registers of the competitions and to announce the winners.
Head jury consists of 7 members: 4 permanent members, a member from organizing country, a member from organizing country one year before and a member of organizing country year after. The members of the head jury are appointed each year at a preparatory meeting.
Head of the task
The referees contain both national and international members at each task. Each country must bring at least one referee to maintain and consolidate the group of jury members and make the championships better every year. One international jury member is appointed as head of the task during the competition. He/she will be assisted by a second international jury member, both are selected by the committee and appointed at the preparation meeting.