Feeling for Nature - with hearts and heads
Brief description
Active environmental education is the key to a responsible attitude in our dealings with nature, culture and the landscape. Experience with the Regio Plus projects shows that both local residents and visitors to the region have a strong need to experience the natural world and to relax there but also to be informed through environmental education. The themed trails created to date cannot satisfy these needs alone. What is required is a comprehensive offering for the various target groups combining experience, information and emotion.
In collaboration with the Werdenberg School of Forestry and the Environment and the Werdenberg Nature Park, the community of Grabs has developed a corresponding educational and information offering and a competence platform in the field.
On the basis of the two Regio Plus projects "Werdenberg Personality" and "Toggenburg on the Move", the two regions want to establish a nature park with a total area of 500 km². Regional nature parks are areas that are special in terms of their natural, scenic and cultural characteristics. The aim is to make use of the nature park to maintain and preserve these assets and make them available for use by the local people and the tourist trade. This can take the form of "Klangwelt Toggenburg" for the promotion of local culture and typical music, the development and marketing of new regional products in agriculture, forestry and the timber industry, renaturing areas like the Saxerriet project which have great ecological importance as part of the biotope network in the valley, landscape amelioration projects like Bürgerwingert in Wartau (where the ancient cultural landscape has been restored for people to experience), or integrated amenities for recreation in the natural environment as in the case of the Natural Hazard Trail, the Gorge Trail or the Sound Trail.
The actors in the planned nature park will be able to build on these experiences, develop them further and network them, with new initiatives and projects also to be developed and implemented, e.g. in the field of renewable energy or environmental protection.
In this context the park will serve as a platform for communication, co-ordination and co-operation. In the framework of the discussion and working process in numerous working groups, the local people are playing an active part in addressing the needs of their region, helping to find solutions and thus strengthening their sense of identity and awareness for sustainable development in the region.
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tree-memory Werdenberg
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Werdenberg
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Aims
Awareness building and promoting understanding for nature, culture and the landscape among the local people and visitors
Creation of a joint competence platform and co-ordination of measures and programmes
Publicising and anchoring environmental education programmes in the region and arousing the interest of young people
Grooming opinion leaders and key actors in the schools
Full utilisation of the existing infrastructure
Ability of the programmes to finance themselves in the medium term
Realization
- Development of environmental education and information offerings for specific target groups
- Development of a continuous education programme for teachers
Development of an environmental protection site, i.e. a one-week active environmental protection project for schools
- Compilation of an annual education calendar / flyer
- Organizing suitable teaching aids
- Strengthening and bundling regional forces by organising and co-ordinating activities, talks, information events and excursions. The nature protection associations in the region are suffering from shrinking memberships. That means they can organise fewer activities and provide less information for the general public. The nature park platform will help promote contacts between these associations, harmonise their activities and organise joint events. That will strengthen them and generate more attention again.
If the schools are to be convinced, the teachers must be enthusiastic about the offerings. For that reason free information events and training courses will be provided for all teachers in the region.
- Compilation of existing environmental education programmes and assessment of their potential for co-ordination and networking
- Development of harmonised communication and public relations work
- Development of a harmonised marketing approach and a corresponding strategy
- Creation and maintenance of a website
- Continuous education for nature and culture guides, and development of an area-wide network
Involved
Werdenberg School of Forestry and the Environment
Financing
Subsidy from DYNALP² (in euros): 10,000
Own funds, funds from financial backers (in euros): 20,000
1. Financial backing: Werdenberg School of Forestry and the Environment € 3,000; Werdenberg regional authority € 17,000
Contact person
Hochschule Rapperswil
Institut für Landschaft und Freiraum
Ulf
Zimmermann
Oberseestr. 10
CH-
8640
Rapperswil
Telephone:
+41 55 222 45 52
E-Mail:
ulf.zimmermann@hsr.ch
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