The project gathers 22 youngsters from Belgium and Macedonia and aims to create cooperation between an EU – country on one side, and a neighboring country on the other side by binding them through their mutual interest in nature and environment. This motivated group of youngsters will explore and determinate some nature areas in the neighborhood of Skopje and West – Macedonia. Through this cooperation, exchange of knowledge and nature study techniques will be emphasized. Both groups will study each other’s ways of working when practicing nature study and education. Out of this, we stimulated more people to actively practice nature study and maybe even create a basis for future initiatives in this direction.
The project started and ended in Skopje, but throughout the project, the participants stayed at different locations (Matka, Čeples and Stenje) to ensure the contact with nature and an encounter with different habitats of the region. Walking and hiking, nature observation, a photography workshop, debates about environmental topics are only some of the activities conducted on the program.
The end goal of the project was to organize a nature promo-event and share the gained knowledge with others. This promo-event was very successful, having in mind the number of the visitors and the overall interest in the presented activities.
An important notice is that most of the nights the participants slept in tents (with sanitary facilities available) or a mountain lodge. For those who did not have their own tent, tents have been provided! Also, as we wanted to keep our impact as low as possible, we consciously dealt with topics as garbage, food and fuel.
