Educational eco-communties - inspiration for eco-activists

The environmental groups taking part in the project have gradually turned over the years into self-sufficient environmental communities training volunteers. However, their work is still organized in a haphazard way. Second, environmental protection activities have always been organized as short-term activities, not encompassing natural processes in their overall duration. The environmental communities partnering in the project live in nature and take care of certain areas of it, applying recreative and conservative agriculture, and they have shown how environmental protection can translate into systematic, regular activities to counter climate change in reality. Third, environmental activism groups and communities still do not interact sufficiently among themselves and with local communities and authorities and do not participate actively in the development and implementation of environment and education policies in Bulgaria. The project will also focus on this shortcoming in the education of new waves of environmental activists as well. In the short-term, the project will train 100 young activists in 4 educational environmental communities, promote their activity and support their interaction with local communities and authorities. In the long term, a new sustainable education system will be created, offering a model for efficient and sustainable training of young people willing to develop environmental protection activities. The project partners will exchange good practices, skills and trainers as well as carry out joint activities such as the development of a curriculum for environmental training and guides for trainers and trainees. The partners will transfer their experience to other similar structures in Bulgaria and the EU through their communication materials and project activities and will propose the introduction of their model to the Ministry of Education and Science.