Forest condition and forest restoration as topics of online communication – An analysis of website performance of selected forest actors in Germany

In recent years, many actors in Germany claimed in debates how forests should be treated in future, e.g. by stating own positions, providing information, and offering participative actions like tree planting events or educational programs. However, also conflicting views and beliefs of different forest actor groups have become apparent in their communication, leading to e.g. fierce debates in TV and social media or protest campaigns against the forest sector. Although knowledge alone is not sufficient to solve conflicts and find consensus solutions, evidence-based knowledge would be beneficial for the course of such discussions as well as for good political decision making. Research so far has pointed out to a crucial need for information on the topics of forest condition and forest restoration. The increasing importance of online media suggests that a corresponding range of information should also be available online, e.g. on websites. Accordingly, this study focuses on websites as channels for direct-to-consumer communication and conducts a media analysis with special emphasis on (i) how much information on the topic is provided by different forest-related actors in Germany on their websites (content) and (ii) how well this information is adapted to the needs of the website users (performance). For website analysis, we refer to the concept of user experience (UX).