Latvian, Russian and Estonian colleagues were invited to collect Estonian pearls of environmental education field

08. October 2012

21 Russian, Latvian and Estonian nature centres’ specialists participated in five days study trip to Estonian nature education centres from 25th till 29th of September. The aims of the trip were to collect experiences in different nature and environmental education sites, to get good overview of Estonian environmental education system, to get acquainted with interactive methods and to create joint network with project partners and Estonian nature centres. All together 14 institutions and hiking tracks were visited.

"The chosen sites represented a cross section of different establishments which provide education in the environmental education field in Estonia," said Helle Kont, one of the study trip organizers.  "Our trip introduced national parks, nature schools, nature oriented elementary school, nature tracks, industrial museum, different expositions - each organization presented different opportunities for nature education”. Participants had possibility to take part in active learning programs, e.g. about stones, to visit brand new Ice Age Center in Äksi and recently renovated Kohtla mining museum.

The study tour route is visible on this link: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=210611572126755368018.0004c2e1fa49912b5c38e&msa=0

The study visit was the first joint trip to Estonian-Latvian-Russian cooperation project partners. Next year similar study trips to Russia and Latvia will take place. All these three study trips provide the joy of discovery and fun of learning and give the possibility to discuss together how to make environmental education more attractive.

Study trip is part of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument Estonia-Latvia-Russia Programme 2007-2013 funded projects, "People with Nature". The main objective of the project is to improve the situation of environmental education and thus to raise awareness of sustainable development and nature conservation. The project partners are 11 national and non-governmental organizations from Estonia, Latvia and Russia. The project will run until 30 September 2014. The total cost of the project is 1,499,977 euros, of which EUR 1,349,979 is Estonia-Latvia-Russia CBC Programme support. Estonian partners’ budget to implement the project is 241,863 euro.

For more information:
Eeva Kirsipuu-Vadi, Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation, eeva.kirsipuu @ ctc.ee
Kersti Sõgel, Tartu Environmental Education Center, kersti.sogel @ teec.ee

 

“Estonia – Latvia – Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programme within the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument 2007-2013 financially supports joint cross border development activities for the improvement of the region’s competitiveness by utilising its potential and beneficial location on the crossroads between the EU and Russian Federation.
The Programme web-site is www.estlatrus.eu.”