European Schools for a Living Planet

Every day, children and teens hear negative news concerning the environmental development of our planet. We want to teach them that they can make a change and we wish to motivate them to work together to create Europe’s future as a high quality habitat for humans and nature. 

Together with WWF we have set up an Academy for teachers of 12-16 year olds from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Ukraine and we train them to facilitate nature and environmental projects with their school classes. There are three topics that we have selected as our focus: the Danube, the Alps/Carpathians, and the ecological footprint. 

The Danube connects Europe as its blue belt. It crosses borders, not only transporting freight and passengers, but also tradition and history. The river brings with it the responsibility to protect its waters. The Alps and the Carpathians are only a few kilometres apart. On satellite pictures, they nearly appear as one big bow stretched over Europe as “twin mountain ranges”. Indeed, the Alps and the Carpathians have quite a lot in common regarding culture and tradition and they form one of the last big corridors in Europe for Wildlife and migrating species. When we speak about the ecological footprint, Europe has a chance to make a change from lifestyles that exploit nature to sustainable development and responsible use of the environment. 

With its projects, ERSTE Foundation intends to contribute to mutual understanding and the consolidation of European values within Central and South Eastern Europe.  The WWF education programme intends to train and motivate children and teenagers to take action for sustainable development. Jointly, through ‘European Schools for a Living Planet — taking action together for Europe‘s environment’, WWF, and ERSTE Foundation want to add the important environmental aspect to cross-border school projects.  Only with such behaviour can we meet our demands of the present, while not harming the ability of the future generations to develop. 
 
It is important that we encourage young people to build up their mind and to see their possibilities to contribute to a socially and environmentally friendly planet earth. In this sense teaching is more than telling about facts and numbers. The goal of education for sustainable development is to give young people competencies and show possibilities that enable them to contribute actively and in a responsible way to a future worth living.

For more information visit
schools.foralivingplanet.eu/en/