Nature for Youth and Cities: Reconnecting youth with nature through education, training and citizen science

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by Matthew Koehorst, The Nature Conservation Center (DKM)

Nature guides participating in outdoor education activities

DKM

Establishing the link between urban populations and nature is increasingly considered as an important element of sustainable cities as it contributes to improving the quality of life and public health of society. Yet, intense urbanization in Ankara, Turkey, is negatively impacting on nature in and around the city. The Middle East Technical University (METU) covers 4,500 hectares of mostly natural and pristine ecosystems, presenting a unique opportunity to re-engage citizens with nature.

The aim of the project was to reestablish the link between the youth of Ankara and nature. The project also aimed at inter-city knowledge exchange to observe similar programs and activities in the UK, Greece and Italy. The project had 4 main activities:

Mobilization and capacity-building of young people for experience sharing on nature education programs
Development of educational programs
Establishment of the “Nature for Youth and City Centre” program
Dissemination of the model in other selected campuses and institutions

Last update: 15 Oct 2020

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Contexto

Défis à relever

Loss of Biodiversity

Scale of implementation

Local

Ecosystems

Green spaces (parks, gardens, urban forests)

Tema

Access and benefit sharing

Outreach & communications

Science and research

Ubicación

Ankara, Ankara, Turkey

West Asia, Middle East

East Europe

Impacts

Our project reached youth through a program focused on nature conservation, education and sustainability to improve their skills and qualifications and empower them to become nature guides. They were trained on a range of topics including butterflies, plants, steppe ecosystems, sustainability and climate change.

The Nature Training Panel was organized with the participation of high-level representatives from governmental institutions, including the National Agency and The Ministry of National Education
Nature guides continued to organize nature-based education in cooperation with various schools, including the METU and contributed to the organization of Tür Say (Bioblitz - a citizen science event).
Trainers also presented a paper and organized a workshop at Düzce University to disseminate the results of their work and highlight the importance of their program.
METU Nature Map, METU's Nature Book, nature guide handbook, participant and guide handbooks on 5 different subjects were published.
In addition, an e-learning section was added to the project website in 2019 and short videos were prepared and uploaded to this section.
The project also established the METU EKOSAM Student Community which continues to organise training opportunities for youth in the city.