This Jannuary we held the first meeting at Schubz Center în Rasnov, as a „Wildlife Club”, together with a group of teens studying tourism at the local High School. This opens a series of twice a month meetings commited to understanding the life and role of large carnivores in nature. We will reflect upon the priviledge and the responsibility that comes with, when living in a community neighbouring the habitats of wolves, bears and lynxes. Our focus is set on these three large carnivores, their biology, behaviour, their economic value, interractions and conflicts with humans, monitoring and conservation strategies, population management. The information will be put into context with other European countryes issues on large carnivores.

We aim to guide the Club’s members to draw their own oppinions, based upon scientific data and facts, and to empower them to communicate and debate on large carnivore connected topics, to imagine solutions for a sustainable future.

Part of the activities will be held at Schubz Center, as interactive workshops, using mostly ESD (education for sustainable development) teaching methods and a set of new educational materials developed with the help of our partners, Schubz – Luneburg. We also plan to take the teens out on field trips, to seek signs of wildlife în the surrounding forests and to invite biologists, rangers, hunters and shepperds, to come and share their experience and different approaches towards large carnivores.

A similar Wildlife Club, integrated in a school optional curriculum, starts this Jannuary in Sanpetru Elementary School. We will work with sixth graders, guiding them to aquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and values on large carnivore topic.

Eight other Wildile Clubs conducted by several partener organizations are to start early this year in different locations în Romania.
Meanwhile, our partners în Germany pursue the same goals, by organizinig a series of „Large Carnivore Weeks” in numerous schools across Lower Saxony, over the first half of 2019.
Students from both countries will connect to share their findings and to learn from each other how large carnivore issues can be different or similar in other parts of Europe.

The activities presented here are part of „EDU-Wildlife” educational project, conducted by Mioritics Association (Schubz Râșnov) together with Schubz Educational Center in Luneburg and funded by DBU and The Environment Ministry in Lower Saxony.