Description
The project is needed because of the current low awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the loss of biodiversity among the general public in the Czech Republic. The aim is to increase general public awareness of biodiversity and its protection. The project outputs are courses in practical protection of biodiversity and large carnivores, learning modules for students, media and educational activities including a conference on biodiversity. The project also includes innovative research and evaluation activities and know-how sharing with the Norwegian partner, which has experience with educational campaigns, and with Czech partners. These activities will lead to long-term bilateral cooperation being established. The main project outcome will be the mediation of information on biodiversity which will have been made easy to understand and will be attractively presented to several hundred thousand people who have so far been unable to learn more about the theme in a form comprehensible for them. Thus the project will significantly contribute to elimination of the problem of low awareness of biodiversity in the Czech Republic.
Summary of project results
The concept of biodiversity has been heard by every second citizen of the Czech Republic, personal involvement and its extent is debatable, but the potential for improvement is still present. The project built on the popularity of "experience in nature" and potential to raise awareness and educate the public about biodiversity. It combined elements of experiences in nature, education and awareness raising (information stands, debates, eco-educational programmes) and the involvement of different partners from different sectors. During the project, the experience of Norwegian partner Naturvernforbundet and the Project Promtoers’s information campaign was used. A comprehensive awareness campaign based on sociological data, active participation of public, and model educational programmes addressed more people from the target group than was expected at the beginning of the project implementation. Thanks to maximally effective project management settings, a total of 3,839 people participated in project activities, and 48,000 people were approached in a face-to-face campaign in streets. More than 64,000 people visited the project web site during the project implementation period (out of them 27,000 is returning to the site repeatedly and is following them). Newsletters published by the Project Promoter and all partners were sent out to 11,300 people and about 6,870,000 people were approached by media coverage. The Project Promoter has a long term interest in the topic of protection of biodiversity, and will continue to work on it in the future as well. The aim for future is to attract 60,000 people from selected target groups to the public (these were identified based on the sociological research realized in the project) and continuous work with participants of biodiversity conservation courses, large wildlife conservation courses which took place in project activities.
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian project partner Norges Naturevernforbundet, was involved in the project. The cooperation was established already in 2014, when the Project Promoter worked on a project to strengthen civil society. Given that the Norwegian partner is a long-term organization actively participating in the field of environmental protection, its involvement has been beneficial to all Czech partners who have been able to consult and share their know-how. These links will be further developed and the possibilities of other joint projects will be discussed. As part of the project, in April 2015, a bilateral journey of all Czech partners to Norway took place. Altogether 7 representatives of the Project Promoter and its project partners and 3 representatives of the Norwegian partner took part. Based on the experience of the trip, a bilateral article was published in the project partner’s magazine (Hnutí DUHA – Sedmá generace). Within the project, Norwegian colleagues worked on a good practice example chapter that became a part of the study released in the project. The chapter dealt with a specific area near Oslo with features of wildlife area and is a favorite spot for visits organized by local people. The second meeting took place in January 2016, when four representatives of the Norwegian partner arrived in the Czech Republic. As a part of the meeting a trip to Šumava was organized with visiting places of organization of large wildlife training courses and participation in the RegionTour trade fair and meeting with all project partners. As an output of the trip a bilateral article in Naturevernforbundet’s magazine was published. The most intensive sharing was carried out in the bilateral initiative (financed from the Measure B) on the protection of large carnivores in the initiative entitled "Sharing experiences and cooperation in the field of large-scale monitoring", which was attended by a group of Czech volunteers.