More information
Description
According to the WHO report, wild nature offers numerous ecosystem services such as water purification, oxygen production, pollination, or soil generation. It also has positive impact on people’s wellbeing. Unfortunately, wild nature often deteriorates in urban areas and is replaced with buildings. This topic also polarises inhabitants, like in the example of a meadow in Zakrzówek, Kraków. Some see the need for protecting this place, while others want to turn it into a football pitch. We will address these problems by working with local communities to regenerate wild areas in three deteriorated locations in an urban (Kraków), an urban and rural (Wieprzec) and a rural (Węgrzce) commune, where the topic divides the local community. We will train inhabitants on the qualities of wild nature and ways in which it can be protected. We will organise a series of mini trips showing the value of wild nature, combined with collection of seeds from areas threatened by urbanisation, which will later on be sewn in our own gardens. Participants will include adults and children living in the above communes. Each trip will be crowned with an integration picnic. We will also prepare a guide on interventions and best practices of environmental protection. Our partner is Ogólnopolskie Towarzystwo Ochrony Ptaków that will be responsible for regenerating the deteriorated meadow in Zakrzówek and will write a guide with us. The partner will also organise a webinar on interventions for nature.
Summary of project results
Nature conservation and the need to be close to nature are not always taken for granted, and it happens that these topics are the cause of social conflicts. That is why it is so important to educate about the benefits of nature and to build a field for dialogue between different groups. At a time when we are beginning to feel the effects of biodiversity loss and climate change, as well as the constraints of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, contact with nature takes on particular importance. Hence the idea for the ''Wild is Good'' project, which will activate local communities in conservation efforts.
According to the WHO report, wild nature offers numerous ecosystem services such as water purification, oxygen production, pollination, or soil generation. It also has positive impact on people’s wellbeing. Unfortunately, wild nature often deteriorates in urban areas and is replaced with buildings. This topic also polarises inhabitants, like in the example of a meadow in Zakrzówek, Kraków. Some see the need for protecting this place, while others want to turn it into a football pitch.
We responded to these problems by working with local communities to restore wild corners in three degraded places in Małopolska: in an urban (Kraków), an urban-rural (Wieprzec) and a rural (Węgrzce) communes. We organised networking meetings and a series of mini expeditions for children and adult residents of the above-mentioned communes, where we educated them on the value of wildlife and the need for and possibility of protecting it. We held workshops to collect seeds from areas threatened by development, in order to then sow them in wild corners, among other things. We developed a guidebook on interventions and good practices for nature conservation.
We carried out the project together with our partner, the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds, which was responsible for restoring a degraded meadow in Zakrzówek, created a guidebook with us, and organised a webinar on conservation interventions.
From the evaluation interviews, we know that there has been an increase in the awareness of the people participating in the project in terms of nature knowledge and how they can engage with nature.