Our project REFE – Reducing Ecological Footprints through Eco-Awareness has started!
Goal:
Enabling young people in Romania to live sustainable lifestyles by providing knowledge through educational materials.
This project aims to raise the awareness of the youth of humanity’s lifestyle impact on the health of our planet. It focuses on participants’ understanding of how they affect the capacity of the environment to sustain their current way of living. Educating the younger generations is the best way to secure a better future for humanity.
Furthermore, the participants can see that, by modifying some of the aspects of their current lifestyle, they can actively participate in the long-term protection of the Earth, by making more sustainable decisions from this point forward, having a significant contribution to the health of the ecosystem.
Background:
Although environmentalism is on the rise throughout Europe, consumerism and mass production are still deeply rooted in large parts of society. In Romania, two recent documents – the 5th National Report on the Convention of Biological Diversity and the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) – emphasise the need for more sustainable lifestyles. Both of them identify education and awareness raising among youth as key approaches in this regard.
Project:
REFE complies with this through developing eight products that can be incorporated into Romania’s educational system. These support the adjustment of the school system to the priorities of the 5th National Report on the Convention of Biological Diversity and the NSDS. The products consist of the following: a tool to measure the ecological footprint; a planning guide for an educational summer camp on ecological footprints; a documentary; a grade-6 curriculum, teaching material; a theatre script; e-learning modules; a report. The products provide young people in Romania with the fundamentals of ecological thinking and with practical options to make their lifestyles more sustainable. REEF ensures to monitor all products throughout the project life cycle and adjust them as needed. Translation into multiple languages makes them accessible to and usable by a broad audience across Europe.