EDU-Wildlife – Large carnivores in focus of education

Due to our cultural landscape, the presence and the return of large carnivores leads to a field of tension in social, ecological and economic dimensions. Discussions about large carnivores, livestock loss and possible attacks... [ view full abstract ]

Due to our cultural landscape, the presence and the return of large carnivores leads to a field of tension in social, ecological and economic dimensions. Discussions about large carnivores, livestock loss and possible attacks on humans are often charged with emotions. With the increasing occurrence of large carnivores in Europe, there is also a growing need for objective information to raise awareness and to find constructive solutions. Non-sustainable regional development and intensive land-use may lead to increasing territorial conflicts between humans and wildlife.

The educational project “EDU-Wildlife” addresses the above-described conflicts. The objective of the project is to generate knowledge by analysing different communication strategies dealing with large carnivores in Europe and developing innovative and transferable educational materials on conservation, awareness and acceptance. It runs from August 2017 until January 2020.

Utilising education for sustainable development (ESD), the project aims at raising young people’s awareness for a coexistence with large carnivores and deepening the ESD understanding and ESD in practice of several European actors, resulting in the development of effective educational tools. Due to limited practice with large carnivores in Germany and significantly different experience in other European regions, one of the most valuable aspects of the project lies within the international and interdisciplinary exchange. All materials and contents will be developed collaboratively with direct partners in Romania.

The content focus lies on the species wolf, bear and lynx, as they have the most widespread distributions on the continent. Alongside with the development of educational offers for pupils goes the development of a massive open online course (MOOC) to enable educators to participate in the project using interactive tools for learning. Moreover, selected environmental educators from Romania and Germany will be trained in the developed program as multipliers for the purpose. These specially trained educators will then conduct an awareness-raising campaign with young people in schools but also in extracurricular wildlife clubs and project weeks where the students develop specific values concerning wildlife and learn creative methods for promoting coexistence between large carnivores and humans.

As future decision-makers, pupils need to be empowered to reflect the different aspects behind divergent perspectives and to acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. The project culminates in an international conference of education and communication in autumn 2019 where young people will participate, sharing and comparing their experience with other people across Europe.

The project’s direct implementation of both current research and European knowledge about large carnivores in educational material in cooperation with more than 20 partners from the contexts of environmental education, university, conservation, forestry, politics, public entities and national parks meets the interdisciplinary demands of present activities in sustainability sciences.