Description
Pomorie municipality has diverse nature but except for birds, little systematic biological data exist, hampering conservation and monitoring of ecosystem changes. Local capacity to gather such data is poor. The project aims to sensitize local children and young people to the outstanding local biodiversity, the “living Black Sea Gold”, through a collaboration of experts and schoolteachers. The outcome is a sustainable, self-reproducing mechanism of training teachers to not only awaken interest in nature in schoolchildren but also give them tools for observing and recording biodiversity, thus creating a lifelong keen interest in the active study of nature and in disseminating their data. Volunteers will be trained to record, archive and share data on butterflies, dragonflies, amphibians and reptiles. The popularization of results to a wider audience is another important output. The target groups are schoolteachers (advanced) and volunteers (beginners). The partnership of municipality and foundation achieves maximum efficiency and sustainability of the project outcome.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to sensitize local children and young people to the outstanding local biodiversity in Pomorie municipality, the “living Black Sea Gold”, through a collaboration of experts and schoolteachers.The outcome is a sustainable, self-reproducing mechanism of training teachers to not only awaken interest in nature in schoolchildren but also give them tools for observing and recording biodiversity, thus creating a lifelong keen interest in the active study of nature and in disseminating their data. Wide variety of different species part of the existing biodiversity in the municipality of Pomorie were shown to students and young people from local schools, to cause lasting interest for studying and monitoring, as well as to collect information as part of the National Biodiversity Monitoring System (NBMS). 30 volunteers were trained to recognize and describe by recording, archiving and sharing data on 4 groups of species - Insects: Butterflies and Dragonflies, Amphibians and Reptiles, which are part of the ecosystem of Pomorie. During the field work were identified 8 reptiles and 2 amphibians protected under the Biodiversity Act, 5 dragonflies and 46 butterflies, including 2 protected species. The composed database containing records with qualitative and quantitative data from field studies and the data was entered in the NBMS. Schoolteachers participating in the project mastered handbook for teachers of biology training volunteers "Biodiversity for beginners biologists" to continue to build on the results by attracting new volunteers among students. Under the project the club "Young biologist" was founded with members of volunteers. The club is facilitated with the necessary equipment for conducting subsequent field studies, including 6 digital cameras, 4 GPS, 10 entomological bags. A raising awareness campaign to promote project results was conducted, including 8 articles published in print media and electronic media, final presentation meeting and a press conference. The partnership between Foudation Projecta and Pomorie municipality achieved maximum efficiency and sustainability of the project outcomes to improve conservation and monitoring of ecosystem changes and local capacity.
Summary of bilateral results