Live Sustainably – Call for participants

What: a training course to learn about practical sustainability

Where: In the beautiful valley of Valdediós (“valley of Gods”), in Asturias, Spain

When: 2nd-8th Sept 2019

Why: Every day we make decisions about how we live our present, which affect directly or indirectly the health of the planet, of other living beings and of ourselves, and which are compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own basic needs.

With “Live Sustainably: how to live the present without compromising the future” we aim at raising awareness of the importance of caring for our environment and most of all to develop the competences needed to live a sustainable life and to inspire and motivate others.

How: Apply here now

 

The objectives of  this training are as follows:

– To provide you with competences to live a life which is more respectful with the planetary boundaries (more sustainable) and to promote and facilitate effectively a change of habits towards sustainability among the young people you work with;

– To encourage you to think critically, so you can unmask frequent phenomena such as “greenwashing” (or fake sustainability), fake perceptions of certain commodities as “cheap”, etc;

– To share resources and tools to inform and raise awareness about the importance of caring for the environment, inspire and motivate to live a more sustainable lifestyle;

– To create an international network for promoting sustainability among young people.

With this project we want to contribute to more young people knowing, practising and promoting environmental sustainability, and this way improve the capacity of our planet to satisfy the needs of the future generations.

Conditions for participation:

Please only apply if you fulfil the following conditions:

• You work with/for young people and you are interested in promoting and facilitating environmental sustainability practices among them,
• You are over 18 years old at the time of the training course,
• You are currently living (and will travel from) any of the 11 partner countries: Armenia, Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Greece, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, The Netherlands or Spain,
• You speak English fluently,
• You are willing to be fully present and participative during the whole duration of the training course (2-8 September);
• You are happy to spend a week in all comfort but rather isolated and surrounded by nature.

Costs:

• Your travel costs to Spain will be refunded after your participation in the training course¹;
• Comfortable accommodation in a big traditional rural house and tasty sustainable meals will be provided during the training course by the organizers at no extra cost for you;
• Participation fee²: We have set a participation fee on a sliding scale from 50 to 150€.  You will be free to choose your contribution according to your own personal financial possibilities and the value you see in this 6 days training programme;
• CO2 offset fee: You will be required to offset the CO2 emissions produced by your air travel through the following site: http://www.atmosfair.de/en/. This amounts to 15 EUR per person for the round trip³.

¹ Provided all the original tickets and receipts are presented. Maximum reimbursement: 820 EUR for Armenia, 360 EUR for Greece, 275 EUR for Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, UK, Germany, Czech Republic and The Netherlands, and 180 EUR for Spain (only if you travel from more than 100 km away)

² In order to make this training possible to the quality standard that we usually deliver, we need some extra income aside from the European grant that we got.

³ We have calculated the total emissions of your flights in 22 tons of CO2 and shared the compensation costs among all of you.

More information:

You can have a look at the preliminary programme of the course:

How to apply:

Fill in the application form here.

Applications will be reviewed frequently, and places allocated immediately if the application is considered good enough. For this reason, we recommend that you send your application as soon as possible. All applicants will be informed of the results of the selection process in due time.

This training opportunity is open to everyone, but we will give preference to existing members of Biodiversa and the other partner organisations, provided that they fulfil the above-mentioned «conditions for participation».

Our partner organisations in this project are: Associação Animam Viventem and Associação Spin (Portugal), Argonauta (Croatia), Amici della Natura (Italy), Naturfreundejugend Deutschlands (Germany), Youth Exchange Service (The Netherlands), Gyermek (Hungary), Cia Cekija (Czech Republic), Natura Humana (Greece), Viaje a la Sostenibilidad (Spain), Coyote Initiatives (UK), Colors of Green (Armenia).

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Experiencia: mi participación en el curso de formación «Youth for Enviromental Future»

Sebastián Rodriguez Merino, uno de los participantes seleccionados por Biodiversa para participar en el curso de formación «Youth for Enviromental Future, nos cuenta su experiencia en el mismo:

«Entre el 8 y el 15 de Julio de 2018 tuvo lugar un training course en Horka nad Moravou, muy cerca de Olomuc, en la República Checa. Nos dimos cita unos 30 participantes de más de 10 países europeos. El proyecto estuvo financiado por el programa Erasmus+.

Este training course, Youth for environmental future, tenía el antecedente de otro curso que también se celebró en la República Checa en el mes de marzo por parte de la asociación YEE-Youth and Environment Europe. El eje central de este curso fue la concienciación de los efectos del cambio climático, como afectan nuestras acciones al mismo y sobre todo cómo debemos ser participe en los procesos de tomas de decisiones. Es decir, animar y dotar a la juventud para que sea el motor de cambio en las acciones ambientales.

Sesión impartida en la sala de conferencias

Los métodos empleados en las sesiones fueron bastante variados. Desde ponencias, simulaciones, trabajos en grupos o parejas, con sus correspondientes presentaciones o debates. Sin embargo, en mi opinión se abusó de las ponencias y aún más teniendo en cuenta el formato de educación no-formal en el que se encuadran este tipo de proyectos. Las sesiones fueron impartidas tanto por los miembros de la asociación como por una ponente invitada, Zanna Vanrenterghem. Además tuvimos actividades como la presentación de todas las asociaciones que participaban o la noche intercultural, donde cada país representado en el proyecto ofreció degustaciones de comidas y bebidas populares en sus respectivos territorios.

Actividad «NGO Market», para la presentación de las diferentes asociaciones presentes en el proyecto

Mencionar además el espectacular emplazamiento donde se desarrolló el proyecto, el centro ecológico Slunakov. El edificio donde estaban tanto las habitaciones, comedor o sala de conferencia tenía un diseño enfocado en la eficiencia energética. Iba en la línea del tema tratado en el proyecto. El primer día desde el propio centro ecológico se organizó una visita por las instalaciones en la cual explicaron los objetivos y políticas que tienen.»

Visita organizada por el centro ecológico Slunakov para los participantes del proyecto

Desde Biodiversa nos alegramos de que Sebastián haya aprovechado este curso y le agradecemos la elaboración de este relato.

«Save Our Seas» e-booklet

This publication was created by Argonauta association as an outcome of the Training Course «Save Our Seas», which they organised and hosted with the support and expertise of Biodiversa and other 7 partners.

It contains 6 workshops created by participants in the training. The booklet is meant to serve as open-source material for youth trainers/youth workers and other educators to use when including current environmental topics into their projects and workshops.

The workshops are “ready-to-use” as they are or they can be generators of further ideas, they can be adapted, or some parts of them can be used isolated. We hope SOS e-booklet will be useful and will inspire you in your future work!

Click here to download the booklet.

Call for participants: training course «Uniting Youth for Eco-tourism»

Biodiversa, in partnership with Youth and Environment Europe (YEE), is happy to invite all interested young people to apply for our new training course «Uniting Youth for Eco-tourism».

The training course will take place on 6-13 November 2017 in Kapraluv Mlyn, Ochoz u Brna, Czech Republic. With this training course we would like to explore how young people can exercise active citizenship while developing eco-tourism projects in their local communities. Please follow this link to read more about the project.

Apply for this project if you want to:

• Widen your knowledge about the importance of youth participation;
• Gain new knowledge on the development of ecotourism for local communities;
• Gain knowledge on how to encourage young people to be active and promote active citizenship through eco-tourism;
• Get ideas on how to increase an interest in eco-tourism among local community;
• Share experience and best practices in creating eco-tourism related projects.

Profile of the participants:

• For participants who are residents of following countries: Armenia, Kosovo, Albania, Georgia, Russia, Serbia, Hungary, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Spain, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan.
• 18-30 years old (with few participants who can be over 30).
• Good knowledge of English.
• Actively involved in environmental youth organisations (as employees or volunteers), the preference will be given to representatives of YEE Member organisations and partners of the project.
• Concerned about biodiversity, environmentalism and interested in a responsible way of travelling and sustainable development of local environment.
• Actively involved in local and regional community.
• You do not necessarily have experience in ecotourism, but should be experienced in working with youth and able to contribute as agents, by sharing knowledge gained during the training course with other young people.
• The participants will arrange local actions as part of the follow-up of the training course, and therefore you should have experience in organising local activities and be strongly connected to your sending organisations.

Practical information:

Travel and visa costs will be reimbursed according to the travel band allocated per country. Free accommodation and vegetarian food will be provided to all participants for whole duration of the training course.

How to apply:

Fill in the online application form until 27 August 23:59 CET. Before applying, please read the call for participants carefully.

Call for participants: Practical ecology III

Biodiversa is selecting 3 enthusiastic Spanish participants for its next training course in the French Pyrenees, in partnership with SOLAFRIKA.

When?: 3rd to 15th October 2017, travel days included.

What?: After having run a training course in 2015 named “Ecological work camp technical leading”, SOLAFRIKA would like to go deeper into three specific topics that participants and their team consider the most relevant: ecological construction, permaculture way of living and gardening, and outdoor activities.

Aim: The main objective of this seminar is to promote ecological practices in 3 fields: permaculture, ecological construction and outdoor activities, and by having a healthy life style respecting the nature.

Methods: Participatory methods. Participants will be active and engaged in all daily life chores. Non-formal education tools wil be used during the workshops. All participants should be ready to develop a critical mind, their analytical sense and to share their opinions with the others.

Venue: The training will take place in a rustic old farm belonging to our partner organisation SOLAFRIKA in the countryside, in a village called Bédeille (Ariège, France). The place is comfortable enough for everyone, but don’t expect a 5 stars hotel!

Programme:
There will be:
– Bio construction: wooden terrace, coating method, Chilien wooden oven.
– Permaculture: discovering several specific tools and methods. Understanding this way of living.
– Outdoor activities shown in a walking workshop during a hike, orientation, cooperative games, wild plants identification…

Information Pack (activity programme, how to get there…): http://cort.as/ySz2

Participants requirements:
– Spanish resident;
– Over 20 years of age by 3rd October 2017;
– Able to communicate fluently in the English language (the whole course will be in English);
– Available to participate in the whole duration of the training course (3rd – 15th October 2017)).

There will be 3 Spanish participants, and a total of 26 participants coming from Spain, Slovenia, Austria, Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Greece and England.

Costs: Your travel costs will be reimbursed up to 275 EUR, roughly 1 month after the end of the training course. All other costs (food, accommodation, training, materials…) will be covered by the organisers through funds from the “Erasmus +: Youth” programme of the European Commission.

How to apply: Send a short (no more than 300 words) motivation email to asociacionbiodiversa@gmail.com with the subject line «NAME SURNAME Application to Practical Ecology III», introducing yourself (who you are, what you do…), explaining why you are interested in participating in this training course, what you expect to gain from taking part in it and why you should be selected. Include also your personal data: name, age, city or village of residence and contact telephone number.

Deadline to apply: Open until completion of the selection process.

Some more info: This project is organised by the French non-profit organisation SOLAFRIKA, in partnership with Biodiversa, Metta (Slovenia), Neront (Austria), Buitendoor (The Netherlands), Pandore (Hungary), IBG (Germany), Alter ego (Greece), Moulsecomb forest (England), thanks to the support of the European “Erasmus +: Youth” programme.

This is the third edition of “Practical Ecology”. You can check some results of the previous edition in the following booklet that was published by SOLAFRIKA: http://www.solafrika.com/PDF/Technical_booklet_Practical_Ecology

and some former participant’s comments here:
http://www.asociacionbiodiversa.org/practicalecologyII

Call for participants for «Save Our Seas» training course in Croatia

Biodiversa is selecting 4 spanish participants for this fantastic international training course in Murter, Croatia, from 1st to 9th September 2017.

The aim of the training course is to connect marine topics with non-formal methods and develop new workshops. The specific objectives of this training are for participants to:

• Understand the relationships between pressures from human activities and climate influences and their effects on marine ecosystems worldwide;

• Be encouraged to use the latest scientific facts in developing new non-formal environmental education methods and tools;

• Develop 8 new educational workshops, which will be disseminated worldwide in an e-booklet. 

PARTICIPANTS PROFILE

You are welcome to apply if:

• You are Spanish or currently having official residence in Spain,

• You are a youth trainer with a passion for environment, aiming to build your competencies in marine environmental education and usage of non-formal learning methods; or you have the potential and need to develop training competencies and act after the course as a trainer for Erasmus+ projects;

• You show initiative and willingness to self-direct your own learning process;

• You are prepared to reflect on and question your own beliefs and approaches;

• As a youth trainer you are motivated to learn about and make use of the Erasmus+ Programme for creating or strengthening international partnerships.

Fill in the application form before Wednesday May 24th. DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL 7th JUNE.

Una plaza para el curso de formación «How e-mazing is your organisation?»

Biodiversa tiene reservada una plaza para uno de sus socios, amigos o simpatizantes en este curso de formación organizado en Bélgica por nuestros amigos de International Young Nature-Friends:

http://www.iynf.org/events/international-activity-how-e-mazing-is-your-organization/

Para ser considerado/a para dicha plaza, deberás escribirnos un correo electrónico a: asociacionbiodiversa@gmail.com, presentándote y explicando tu motivación para participar en el curso.

Fecha límite: 13 de Marzo. 

Experiencia: Mi participación en el curso de formación «Push for Change», en Suecia

Ion Lera, uno de los participantes seleccionados por Biodiversa para participar en el curso de formación Push for Change, que tuvo lugar en Malmo, Suecia, del 5 al 9 de Octubre de 2015, nos cuenta su experiencia en el evento:

De izquierda a derecha: Noa, Pablo, María e Ion (participantes de Biodiversa) y Bea (una de las formadoras).

«La primera semana del pasado mes de Octubre se celebró en Malmo (Suecia) el curso formativo PUSH4CHANGE con más de 30 jóvenes y trabajadores juveniles de más de 10 países. El tema del curso era Justicia Climática y la verdad es que personalmente fui con un conocimiento muy básico del tema. Gracias a este curso descubrí que este concepto engloba términos muy variados como justicia social, cambio político o derechos humanos que personalmente nunca habría asociado a dicho concepto. 

Fue una experiencia muy interesante y enriquecedora en la que se compartieron montones de experiencias de personas con muy diferentes perfiles y opiniones, entre las cuales había activistas políticas, medioambientales, formadoras, facilitadoras y en general una gran diversidad que hizo que la semana nos aportara una perspectiva muy amplia del tema y de las problemáticas que compartimos hoy en día. 

Participamos en un «flash-mob» para promocionar el proyecto «Run for your Life» (http://runforyourlife.nu/en/).

Durante la semana todas las personas asistentes tuvimos la oportunidad de compartir las realidades de cada uno de nuestros países. Además, creamos talleres relacionados con el tema que más tarde desarrollamos en una escuela de educación secundaria de Malmo (LatinSkola) y posteriormente en el evento POWER SHIFT, que se celebró durante el mismo fin de semana.

Fue una gran experiencia tanto a nivel personal como profesional. Personalmente tuve el honor y la oportunidad de poder presentar la Economía del Bien Común durante el evento Power Shift frente a una audiencia muy crítica y concienciada. Por otro lado, tuve la suerte de crear nuevas conexiones para futuros proyectos con personas activas en el ámbito de la educación no formal y las asociaciones sin ánimo de lucro de países como Ucrania, Bélgica o Armenia.»

Gracias Ion, por contarnos tu experiencia. Agradecemos también a nuestra Vocal de Juventud, Noa Philippon, por las fotografías que ilustran este artículo.

Experience: training course «Embodied Leadership», in Latvia

«I am Noa Philippon, one of the participants from Biodiversa in the training course Embodied Leadership, that was held in Bernati, Latvia, from 28th June till 7th July 2015.

This training started with the craziest travel adventure ever 😛

How to be a green entrepreneur

Biodiversa selecciona a 2 residentes en España para participar en el curso de formación “How to be a green entrepreneur”, que tendrá lugar en Praga del 12 al 20 de Octubre de 2015. El objetivo principal del curso es formar e inspirar a jóvenes con ideas de emprendimiento verde y ayudarles a iniciar y desarrollar su propio negocio verde.