The project aim was to contribute with innovative solutions to raising citizens' awareness and information nationwide about environmental issues in general but mainly about the role of protected areas in sustainable development.

The low level of awareness on the importance of protected areas and natural values allows a continuous increase of pressures and threats to these areas, under the pretext of development. However awareness raising actions among the general public involve large efforts and the impact is not always visible. At the same time it is well known that the most sensitive target group for education activities are children. Moreover, they also act as very efficient "vectors" for conveying information to adults. However, despite a few financing programmes for the NGO sector which support children's involvement in practical activities together with protected area rangers, these can attract and involve a limited number of children.

Education for nature, often called ecological education, is not included in the school curriculum, not even among optional programmes. Teachers, particularly those who are not specialised in areas related to nature conservation, have very few opportunities to learn about education programmes and efficient education methods in the vast area of nature and natural resource conservation as a basic pillar for sustainable development. At present there are still not many possibilities to find information and ready made materials for ecological education in Romanian language. There are still few courses or seminars available to convey nature interpretation knowledge and skills for "trainers for nature".

Ecological education is a transfer of ideas, ethical norms, approaches and data considered relevant for a harmonious interaction between humans and nature. Ecological education is one of the main activity areas of ProPark - the Foundation for Protected Areas, through which we contribute to increasing the level of awareness and information on environmental topics.

Although the ability to provide educative programmes should have increased with the establishment of protected area administrations, there are very few cases when protected area management teams include specialists in education or in working with children.

Therefore the project will initiate activities to address the issues listed above, based on the assumption that children's education may have a significant impact on the long term for the correct perception and approach to sustainable development, including for the acknowledgement of the importance of protected areas, not only for nature and environment protection but also for sustainable development.

Funding organizations

Through the EEA grants and the Norwegian grants, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway contribute to reducing social and economic inequalities and to consolidating bilateral relationships with European beneficiary countries. The three countries cooperate closely with the EU through the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement.

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What is NinS

What is "Nature in Schools and Schools in Protected Areas"?

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The main results expected from the project "Nature in Schools and Schools in Protected Areas" are...

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In the media

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