STRATEGY TO DISSEMINATE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH INFORMATION TO FORESTRY WORKERS: THE FELLING SAFETY GAME

Abstract

Participatory occupational safety and health (OSH) protection is an effective strategy to produce safe and healthy forestry work operation. Commitment and active participation of participants are among the key success of participatory OSH. However, most Indonesian forestry workers are ignorant of participatory OSH protection due to insufficient knowledge of potential hazard identification and risk control, working techniques and procedures, and management of work organisation. This research was aimed at developing an OSH learning instrument called The Felling Safety Game which is expected to be applicable to forestry workers globally. A prototype of the game was designed for felling supervisors working in Indonesian long rotation plantation forests applying manual/motor–manual forest operation system. Supervisors were chosen as the main target of this game considering the fact that they retained control and authority on worker groups. The contents of the game were chosen based on direct observation of felling operations and in-depth interviews with key informants. Pre- and post-tests conducted during the game trial showed that the respondents’ knowledge of OSH protection significantly increased, indicating an effective application of learning instruments in a broader scale.