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International cooperation for integration of biodiversity conservation into forest management

2018-1-CZ01-KA229-0482012018School Exchange Partnershipsfinalized
Countries: CZ|SI|PL · Grant: €40,946
ICT - new technologies - digital competencesAgriculture, forestry and fisheriesRecognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits)

Project summary

The project International cooperation for integration of biodiversity conservation into forest management will allow students of vocational schools from Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia to prepare interesting information about their national approach to forestry and agriculture through continuous work, monthly online meetings and presentations and visits in other participating school's short international educational activity. Teachers of participating schools will gain important experience with transnational project and many other benefits. Forest management in Europe has traditionally focused on timber production. Recently, forest management increasingly seeks to adopt and embed conservation of biodiversity as a new management priority in commercially managed forests. Managed forests in Europe are primarily used in their phase of economic maturity considering mainly yield and market based criteria. However, it is often early and late development phases of a forest that hold a rich diversity of niches and species due to their long habitat continuity and structural diversity. Recently, several practice approaches in Europe have raised attention where forest reserves and other set aside areas together with single habitat attributes are integrated into commercially managed forests as a system of cross-linking of habitats. Students and teachers working on this project will examine local forests with regard for conservation of biodiversity, use innovative IT tools including mobile training software applications. They will perform virtual tree selection exercises under different scenarios and forest management strategies. The tools will give them immediate feedback of their decisions in terms of ecological and economic impacts. Students will work both in local and international teams presenting data and ideas for further development. These will also be compiled into a short publication presenting their results. Target groups: Teachers - improving, learning new approaches and methods in education and perfecting own competences is necessary for every teacher who wants to prepare their students for the needs of modern labour market and for a teacher who wants to keep his personal development a long term goal. This project will provide great possibilities to fulfill these needs. Students - students need to learn about education in other countries, approaches to their field of speciality in different perspective of other environments, improve their language, computer and presentation skills. Main objectives of the project: - sharing good practices - language emprovement - improving quality of vocational training - competences with digital technologies - teamwork skills - intercultural dialogue - acceptance of diversity - labour mobility and international recognition of skills The benefits of this project are multiple. Exchange of know how and good practices between participating organizations leading to higher quality, innovative methods in education, which are necessary as better incentives for students. This environment then works as substantial ground for more effective preparation for future transit to labour market. Foreign experience is necessary because it is very important to show both our students and teachers how their peers in different countries of European Union work, what methods they use, what is their cultural and social background. This leads not only to enriching our schools with new teaching methods and approaches, but promotes intercultural dialogue and strenghtens knowledge and acceptance of diversity in society. All these factors lead to better students, higher quality future employees and better citizens. Another factor which arises with this improvement is higher labour mobility which then leads to necessity of international recognition of skills which we will help students obtain in the form of Europass.

Final report summary

The project International cooperation for integration of biodiversity conservation into forest management allowed students of vocational schools from Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia to prepare interesting information about their national approach to forestry and agriculture through continuous work, online meetings and presentations and visits in other participating school's short international educational activities. Teachers of participating schools gained important experience with transnational project and many other benefits. Forest management in Europe has traditionally focused on timber production. Recently, forest management increasingly seeks to adopt and embed conservation of biodiversity as a new management priority in commercially managed forests. Managed forests in Europe are primarily used in their phase of economic maturity considering mainly yield and market based criteria. However, it is often early and late development phases of a forest that hold a rich diversity of niches and species due to their long habitat continuity and structural diversity. Recently, several practice approaches in Europe have raised attention where forest reserves and other set aside areas together with single habitat attributes are integrated into commercially managed forests as a system of cross-linking of habitats. Students and teachers working on this project examined local forests with regard for conservation of biodiversity, used innovative IT tools including mobile training software applications. They performed virtual tree selection exercises under different scenarios and forest management strategies. The tools gave them immediate feedback of their decisions in terms of ecological and economic impacts. Students worked both in local and international teams presenting data and ideas for further development. These were also be compiled into a short publication presenting their results. Target groups: Teachers - improving, learning new approaches and methods in education and perfecting own competences is necessary for every teacher who wants to prepare their students for the needs of modern labour market and for a teacher who wants to keep his personal development a long term goal. This project provided great possibilities to fulfill these needs. Students - students need to learn about education in other countries, approaches to their field of speciality in different perspective of other environments, improve their language, computer and presentation skills. Main objectives of the project: - sharing good practices - language emprovement - improving quality of vocational training - competences with digital technologies - teamwork skills - intercultural dialogue - acceptance of diversity - labour mobility and international recognition of skills The benefits of this project were multiple. Exchange of know how and good practices between participating organizations leading to higher quality, innovative methods in education, which are necessary as better incentives for students. This environment then works as substantial ground for more effective preparation for future transit to labour market. Foreign experience is necessary because it is very important to show both our students and teachers how their peers in different countries of European Union work, what methods they use, what is their cultural and social background. This led not only to enriching our schools with new teaching methods and approaches, but promotes intercultural dialogue and strenghtens knowledge and acceptance of diversity in society. All these factors led to better students, higher quality future employees and better citizens. Another factor which arised with this improvement is higher labour mobility which then led to necessity of international recognition of skills which we will help students obtain in the form of Europass.

Project partners (3)