Call for participants: “Leadership in Regenerative Learning Communities»

[Update from 10th March 2023: all places have been covered. You can still apply if you want to enter the waiting list.]

Biodiversa is offering 4 places for the training course «Leadership in Regenerative Learning Communities», which will take place in the Educational Hub of Vale da Lama Farm (www.valedalama.net), a Regenerative Organic Farm located in the Algarve, South Portugal, from 19th to 26th April 2023.

LRLC is an educational project directed at youth workers from rural and semi-urban areas. It aims to deepen solutions and practices within the scope of environmental education/action, coming from a regenerative development paradigm.

The project is coordinated by Projecto Novas Descobertas (www.projectonovasdescobertas.org), and Biodiversa is one of the partner organisations, together with Keti Keta (PT), Boodville (ES), Palma Nana (IT) and Kalistratia (IT). There will be a total of 26 participants.

About you

Are you?

 – A youth worker with fewer opportunities*;
– Over 18 years old;
– Officially living in Spain;
– Fluent in English;
– Interested or with experience in Education/Action for Regeneration;
– Developing work in rural and/or semi-rural areas (this is preferable, but not compulsory).

About the place and learning opportunities

The facilities include camping area, indoor showers and toilets, indoor/ outdoor classroom/multipurpose space and indoor/ outdoor dining area. WiFi, charging stations, tools and didactic materials are also available. 

It’s close to the sea and Ria do Alvor nature reserve, an amazing estuary where a lot of our Ecosystem Regeneration Learning activities take place.

The spaces, practices and routines of Vale da Lama Farm offer the possibility for practical examples of Regenerative Agriculture and Permaculture solutions.

Costs

The project is funded by the Erasmus + program of the European Commission.

All project-related costs (accommodation, food, course materials, etc) will be provided to you free of charge.

Your travel costs will be refunded, up to 275 EUR. To be coherent with our values, we will ask you to find the most environmentally friendly means of transportation possible (avoid or minimize air travel) and to offset the CO2 emissions of your trip at your own cost if you do take a plane.

How to apply

If you got excited when reading this project description and you fit the profile, write us an email at asociacionbiodiversa@gmail.com explaining briefly how you meet the selection criteria, what excites you about this project and what you intend to get out of it.

Please state your full name and the title of this project in the email subject, and remember to tell us where you live (it must be somewhere in Spain). Your phone number can also be useful, as we may be calling some of you during the selection process.

The selection will be made on a rolling basis, so if you’re interested, apply as soon as possible!

Preference will be given to Biodiversa members, those of you who already cooperated with us somehow, and those of you living in or close to us here in Asturias.

* People with fewer opportunities means people who, for economic, social, cultural, geographical or health reasons, a migrant background, or for reasons such as disability and educational difficulties or for any other reasons, including those that can give rise to discrimination under article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental rights of the European Union, face obstacles that prevent them from having effective access to opportunities under the Erasmus + programme)

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Experiencia: regeneración de manglares en Senegal

Del 3 al 17 de Septiembre tuvimos un encuentro internacional en Senegal con compañeros de diferentes partes de Europa y África. Fueron 2 semanas muy intensas donde ahondamos en la cultura, la sociedad y la biodiversidad de este país y en cómo los manglares son una pieza clave en la conservación del medio ambiente.

Gracias a Nature Friends Senegal tuvimos la oportunidad de convivir 15 días como una gran familia tanto en Dakar como en la ciudad pesquera de St. Louis, que fue la zona donde el proyecto de regeneración del manglar se llevó a cabo.

Marcial, de Benin, y Pablo, de Asturias, (autor de este artículo) reforestando mediante propágulos de manglar

Durante todo este tiempo he hecho una gran cantidad de amigos con los que he compartido experiencias, anécdotas, conocimientos y sobre todo reflexiones en relación a cómo la justicia climática debería de ser, la influencia del colonialismo portugués y francés en Senegal y qué impacto real creemos que ha tenido y tendrá nuestro proyecto en el futuro próximo.

(Artículo escrito por Pablo Sánchez Argüello, participante enviado por Biodiversa al intercambio juvenil «Act Now», enmarcado dentro del proyecto «Greening International Youth Work», promovido por Naturfreundejugend con fondos del programa Erasmus + de la Comisión Europea.)

«Live Sustainably» second edition: about to start

The second edition of our acclaimed training course «Live Sustainably: How to live the present without compromising the future» is about to start (9th-17th August), this time in Máriahalom, a fantastic location in Hungary.

The first edition of the training was hosted in Asturias by Biodiversa in September 2019.

We are very happy to have one of our training courses happen again in another country and very thankful to Szatyor Association for taking it over!

Call for participants: «Act now», Senegal

[Deadline to apply: Monday 4th July at midday]

Biodiversa is offering 2 places in a EU-funded youth exchange that will take place in Senegal, Africa, from 3rd to 17th September 2022. This is the first activity of many within the long-term project «Greening International Youth Work».

PROJECT DETAILS:

3rd and 17th are travel days. We will first spend a few days in Dakar, receiving information about the project and the reality in Senegal. We will then travel together to St.Louis, 280 km north of Dakar, where we will be conducting the mangrove regeneration project.

There will be 2 online meetings with the selected participants well prior departure, to clarify all the information regarding conditions at the destination, vaccinations needed, etc, and solve all possible doubts.

CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION:

You are:

• Spanish resident or Spanish national;
• Between 18 and 30 years of age at the time of travel (you can be 30, but not 31);
• Have good command of either English or French language;
• Motivated to spend 12 days in Senegal helping regenerate mangrove forests;
• Physically fit to accomplish the project’s tasks (collect tree saplings, plant trees in muddy waters…).

Preference will be given to Biodiversa members and former course participants, as well as to those of you living in or close to Asturias.

COSTS:

You will be provided with basic but comfortable accommodation in Senegal during the project dates, as well as food and local transportation, at no cost for you. The local activities will also be organised at no cost for you.

Travel insurance will also be covered fully with the project grant, so at no cost for you.

In adition, 100% of your international travel costs will be refunded, up to 530 EUR. For this you will have to keep all your travel documents and boarding passes and send them to us after your return. For coherence with the project topic, only one return flight is allowed (there are direct flights from Madrid to Dakar).

The only cost for you will be a participation fee of between 50 and 120€, depending on what you can afford and what you consider that this experience is worth. We will use part of this fee to compensate your flight’s carbon emissions (1.154 kg CO2) through the Naturefriends Climate Fund, and the rest to contribute to the project administration costs. If this fee is an obstacle to your participation, please let us know.

HOW TO APPLY:

Write an email in English to asociacionbiodiversa@gmail.com explaining how you meet all the selection criteria and why you want to participate in this project. Please include your mobile phone number and prefered times/dates for us to contact you. We will be calling the pre-selected participants during the first week of July.

Deadline to apply: Monday 4th July at midday.

Read you soon!

My experience at the Youth Environmental Education Congress

By Carmelo Zamora.

«From the 13th to 17th March 2022 I was delighted and honoured to take part in the Youth Environmental Education Congress (YEEC) in Prague as a youth delegate from Spain.

YEEC is a side event from the World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC). Biodiversa supported us all the way and sent me and Nahia as Spanish participants at the congress. 

Carmelo and other participants in the congress during one of the outdoor activities.

During the congress, we delivered a message on the role of Youth in environmental sustainability education. The message was presented in the WEEC in the form of speeches, theatre, recycled poems, visual arts, comics and open space.

«Leading world educators and key actors in environmental education heard our message and now we will work on how to integrate it into their work.»

We also had the pleasure to discuss our message face to face with members of the European Commission, UNEP and the Ministry of Education and the Environment of the Czech Republic.

Throughout the week, we could also attend different workshops and interesting activities. There was a wide range of options, but I went to an activity organised by Hnutí Brontosaurus where we hung about 10 birdhouses around a local park.

Carmelo places a birdhouse in a local park during one of the activities included in the congress.

Another workshop I enjoyed a lot was an excursion to the Montessori school Na Beránku, there, the different teachers of the school showed us what they are doing about environmental education.

Another of the activities we enjoyed was a fair in which different organisations, projects and educators shared their work. Personally, I was proud to be representing and sharing how the University where I study (Linköpings Universitet) contributes to the field with the master’s programme I’m currently enrolled in (master’s programme of Outdoor and Sustainability Education).»

[This event was co-funded by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union].

CLIMATE2020 – a free, worldwide online climate conference

Article by Caroline Paul Kanjookaran, member of Biodiversa and former participant in our training course «Live Sustainably: how to live the present without compromising the future»
(Email: communications@dl4sd.org)

Hello everyone, my name is Caroline Paul Kanjookaran and I am currently working as the Communications Manager for CLIMATE2020, a worldwide online climate conference aimed at integrating mitigation and adaptation initiatives for a better management of climate change and its impacts. CLIMATE2020 is organized by the Research and Transfer Centre «Sustainability and Climate Change Management» of Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (https://www.haw-hamburg.de/en/ftz-nk/about-us.html). The event takes place from 23 – 30 March 2020 and participants can sign up for free here: www.dl4sd.org

As a journalist who is training to specialize in climate communications, I am very pleased to be able to handle the communications aspect of this conference, ranging from drafting press releases to identifying potential media opportunities to mentoring the first cohort of CLIMATE2020 Global Ambassadors, a group of volunteers who are working hard to combat climate change in their communities and who are helping us spread the word about this conference across the world.

I am particularly loving the free, open access format of this conference and also the fact that it is climate-neutral as all CO2 emissions will be offset! Not only does the CLIMATE2020 offer unrestricted, free access to high-quality scientific articles, climate projects and online courses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the virtual event also offers a unique opportunity for worldwide dialogue and exchange of ideas with scientists, experts from politics, business, education and other spheres of the society! All this is just a mouse click away – participants can easily log in via the Internet, whether in the office, at school, at university, from home or on the move. One can register for free at https://dl4sd.org/ to access the conference platform, take a brief look inside and receive regular updates until the virtual doors of the conference finally open on 23 March 2020.

The national patronage of CLIMATE2020 is held by Dr Gerd Müller, Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development and the local patronage of the online conference is held by Dr Peter Tschentscher, First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. As a run up to the CLIMATE2020 Conference, the Research and Transfer Centre «Sustainability and Climate Change Management» is launching a podcast series, where experts from different sectors will be featured. The podcast series can be accessed here: https://climatechats.podigee.io/archive

In particular, young scientists from all over the world are offered an opportunity to present their own research on a worldwide stage. The conference will also provide information on numerous concrete projects and initiatives that are currently being implemented, presenting good examples of global activities to protect the climate. A separate section informs the participants about funding and collaboration opportunities. Finally, a parallel program consisting of live webinars and the dedicated podcast series “Climate Chats” is also part of this unique virtual conference. By its comprehensive open access offer, this conference therefore contributes to closing the knowledge gap in the fields of climate protection (mitigation) and adaptation.

The CLIMATE2020 conference is supported by: European School of Sustainability Science and Research, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Sahel and Sahara Observatory (IOSS), KlimaInvest Green Concepts GmbH, Ecological Society for Eastern Africa (ESEA), Impact Human, Independent Evaluation Unit, Green Climate Fund, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, the greenwerk and Climate Advisory Network.

// Contact CLIMATE2020 Organizers:

Franziska Wolf, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Research and Transfer Centre Sustainability and Climate Change Management, Ulmenliet 20, D-21033 Hamburg/Germany, www.haw-hamburg.de/ftz-nk.html, franziska.wolf(at)haw-hamburg.de

// Media inquiries:

Please contact the CLIMATE2020 Team via social media channels below or write an email to Caroline Paul Kanjookaran, Communications Manager – CLIMATE2020 at communications@dl4sd.org:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CLIMATE2020Conference

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CLIMATE2020_FTZ

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13796753/

Biodiversa en la feria de asociaciones

Biodiversa participó ayer en la feria de asociaciones organizada en Oviedo por la Asociación Youropía, dentro del marco de su proyecto «SEEDS».

Puesto de Biodiversa en la feria, atendido por Esther Vallado, Presidenta y Gestora de Proyectos Educativos de la asociación

«SEEDS» es un proyecto cofinanciado por el programa Erasmus + de la Comisión Europea, que reunió a 26 trabajadores juveniles de 16 organizaciones y 13 países. El proyecto creó un espacio para conectar organizaciones de diferentes áreas geográficas, para comprender sus realidades locales y el trabajo que llevan a cabo.

La feria de asociaciones tuvo lugar ayer Jueves 27 de Febrero de 2020 en el local vecinal «Los Ríos», en el barrio de Ventanielles, Oviedo. Durante la misma, Esther Vallado, Presidenta y Gestora de Proyectos Educativos de Biodiversa, presentó la propuesta de valor de la organización, consistente en su especialización en educación ambiental no formal (fuera de los currículos obligatorios, participativa, experiencial, voluntaria…) y en el uso de metodologías educativas basadas en la naturaleza, para jóvenes y adultos.

La directora de juventud nos da la bienvenida.

Algunos puestos de las organizaciones participantes

Otras organizaciones presentes en el encuentro fueron:
– Common Sense Youth Organisation, de Azerbaijan,
– Ladies Innovative Atelier, de Bulgaria,
– Proni Center for Youth Development, de Bosnia Herzegovina,
– League of Youth Voluntary Service, de Bielorrusia,
– Belarusian Youth Public Union «New Faces», de Bielorrusia,
– Have a Dream, de Egipto,
– Cabildo de Gran Canaria, España,
– Cámara de Comercio e Industria Italiana para España, España,
– United Societies of Balkans, de Grecia,
– Arciragazzi Portici Utopia Attanasio, de Italia,
– Azes Valboenses, de Portugal,
– The Civic Resource Centre, de Rumanía,
– Anlayis Icin Genclik Dernegi, Turquía,
– Tunisian Scouts, Túnez,
– Parcours le monde, France

… junto con otras de (o con sede en) Asturias, como:
– Cáritas Diocesana – CEA
– Asociación Retina Asturias
– Asociación Hierbabuena
– Colibris en Acción
– Cruz Roja Juventud

Foto de grupo de los asistentes

Muchas gracias a Youropía por organizar encuentros tan interesantes como bien facilitados y estructurados.

Live Sustainably TC – results and impact

Judging for the incredible number and quality of results and impact that our latest training course «Live Sustainably: How to live the present without compromising the future» had and is still having, I think we can safely say that it was our most sucessful training to date.

This was largely due to the work and commitment of us involved in the design and preparation of the experience, and in the skillfull conceptualisation and delivery of the educational programme, but also largely due to the fantastic participants that we had, which took the «Live Sustainably» experience to the next level, both professionally and personally.

Here’s a quick review of what happened after the training:

– Lovro, from Croatia, submitted his first Erasmus + project, which was approved in the 3rd round of this year: a youth exchange on plastic awareness for 36 young people, called «Say No to plastic». 3 of the partners on this project were also our partners in «Live Sustainably».

– Lilla, from Hungary organised and lead one educational hike per month since the end of the training (September, October, November). Where: in Budapest and surroundings. Target group: Erasmus students. During the walks they collected rubbish and Lilla conducted several activities that she learned during our training.

– Rocío, from Spain, made this cool video of the training: https://youtu.be/SbYnqZI1YoQ

– 4 participants published posts on their blogs with very positive reviews of the training: 

Filipa, from Portugal: https://www.vidaeconsciente.com/l/live-sustainably/

Lovro, from Croatia: https://bit.ly/2PyAPWt

Yolanta, from Poland/Spain: http://europaaqui.org/una-semana-para-empezar-a-cambiar-el-mundo/

Holly, from the UK: https://bit.ly/2tkgj2X

– We created the Youthworkers for Sustainability Network and, within it, to keep learning from each other, a series of webinars that everyone is contributing to and Filipa is managing:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tVHE_dSR7AIzsZ_JMXS0Cs2nQS2SNjzgNYro6RcKgCo/edit?usp=sharing

– Filipa, from Portugal, became a Circular Economy Club Organiser and, in this framework, organised 1 workshop and 3 lectures on sustainability: https://www.circulareconomyclub.com/members/filipa_gouveia/events/?ayi_paged=1

She also organised and run the project «Eco School». It happened on 20th November in a school in the city of Peso da régua, Portugal, for students from 14 to 16 years old. It comprised several activities: a bulk store owner shared an «eco talk» debate with the students. They discussed some documentaries (Earth, Baraka, Roten, Cowspiracy, Minimalism, The true cost) and then they (Filipa and the store owner) gave a workshop, to teach students and teachers to make their own natural cleaning products. Some teacher also run some activities.

Filipa running the workshop

Public attending the workshop

 

And on 2nd December she organised an “eco-talk” with Esther Vallado, the educational programme designer and lead trainer of «Live Sustainably»: https://youtu.be/jILSfcPj_dY, where they re-visit one of the most valued inputs during the training: the systems thinking iceberg.

– Jolanta, from Poland/Spain organised a weekend training for environmental mediators, from 30th November till 1st December, for participants between 16 and 24 years old.

 

– Estelle, from France, proposed to the cultural centre of the town where she lives the screening of one of the documentaries that we watched during the training.

– And the portuguese team is organising the 1st Gathering for Sustainability (1º Encontro pela Sustentabilidade). It will be an open space technology event (methodology that they learnt during the training) with the main objective of creating a Portuguese network of people and groups linked to sustainability through sharing and debate, creating collective intelligence, which will also include cleaning a forest plot and planting trees in an area devastated by Hurricane Leslie. The project has received the support of the city council of the city where Bruno, one of the participants, lives.

Very proud of our participants and of the success of this course!!

Live Sustainably in 3 words

Participants in our latest training course «Live Sustainably» were asked to describe the training in 3 words. This is the result:

Live Sustainably: how to live the present without compromising the future

Participants in Live Sustainably

Dear readers,

The residential part of «Live Sustainably» is over. From now, we go on with the «Youthworkers for Sustainability Network». (We will publish more information about that in the near future.)

It’s been intense and demanding, as well as extremely satisfactory and rewarding. There are many things we could say about the experience, but some of the participants have already summarised it quite well. We leave you with the links to their reviews, in Portuguese/English and Spanish:

https://www.vidaeconsciente.com/l/live-sustainably/

http://europaaqui.org/una-semana-para-empezar-a-cambiar-el-mundo/

Many thanks to the authors Filipa Gouveia and Jolanta Pieniak.

Enjoy!