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Description
The main problems of environmental activism in Romania are the poor involvement of youth in small urban and rural areas. The present project proposes the formation in the small urban area of Sibiu County of an informal group of activists in the fields of the environment and climate changes, selected from the young locals with interests in the environment and from active citizens with interests in the field (teachers, members of NGOs, local administration), group which will be able to identify and propose solutions at local level for environmental problems. The selected members will be trained in the domain of biodiversity and protected area management, civic involvement actions, and will be provided with instruments constructed in the project for reaching the informal group’s purposes. The instruments provided by the project will consist of a mobile app connected to an on-line platform where the information regarding the identified environmental problems will be localized geographically and presented to the members of the group and to the general public, a blog section where the members of the group will be able to debate problems, present ideas and propose measures, and a Manual of the Environmental Activist, which will provide the basic information regarding the proper development of the group’s actions. The activities of the project will be conducted by the applicant, Association of Ecologist Students ASECO, together with its partner the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, which will provide the specialists needed for the training. The specialist will offer also consultation to the future informal group and will actively participate in the construction of the instruments provided by the project, benefiting from the extensive and consistent experience of the team’s members in activities related to environmental protection and the management of biodiversity and protected areas.
Summary of project results
The identified needs that the project aimed to address were the necessity for well-prepared and genuinely interested environmental activists in the environmental market, rather than those focused on alarmist and sensational situations.
In the first phase, the target groups of the project were contacted and selected. The fundamental activities were the training of target group 1, consisting of young people aspiring to be environmental activists, during which participants were informed about the role and tools of an environmental activist, the functions and classifications of protected areas, the phenomenon of fake news, etc., and the information and awareness of target group 2, during which participants, members of environmental NGOs, environmental enthusiasts or members of state institutions with environmental responsibilities, were informed about existing local issues and their role in guiding target group 1. Regarding the tools generated within the project (the online platform and the mobile application), information was collected on the most effective ways of building and communicating information between the two tools, graphic elements were generated and incorporated within them, and the structures of the platform and application, which were tested and finalized in the second part of the project implementation by members of both target groups.
Beside the platform and application the Young Environmental Activist Handbook was published and disemnated, the association''s website, which also contains the online platform generated for the project activities was created.
The group of young environmental activists has been established, equipped with the necessary knowledge to carry out their activities correctly and coherently. They have benefited from a team of experienced individuals in the field who ensure the supervision of future actions. The necessary tools for the project’s activities and its subsequent sustainability have also been created, namely the Young Environmental Activist’s Manual, the online platform, the mobile application, and the association’s website, which also includes the online platform developed for the project’s activities.