Report of 4th Transnational Partner Meeting in ES

 

Iroko DFS

Av. de Felipe II, 5,

28009 Madrid

 

Travel Days – June 13 and 16

Meeting Days – June 14 and 15

 

Participants

Adam Cade, Susted

Liz Barron-Majerik, Susted

Becky Wilkinson, Susted

Marta Nuero Aristizabal, Iroko DFS

Alberto Cuenca, Iroko DFS

Sandra Carrie, Iroko DFS

Gabriel Silva, ASPEA

Michał Orzechowski, SGGW

Wojciech Kędziora, SGGW

 

Visitors

Leticia Carrero, ETSI Montes

Silvia Merino, ETSI Montes

Loreto Villamayor Martín, Guadarrama National Park

Alberto Slocker Barrio, Dehesa de la Villa Environmental Education Centre

 

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Illustration 1: Y4Trees group in the forest

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In this last meeting, we made visits to Spanish education centres. We could know the spaces, the activities and management of the centres. We talked about different European projects and financing. We did a round of lessons learned in the framework of Y4Trees.

 

Our schedule was divided into eight sessions:

Session 1: Visit Dehesa de la Villa Environmental Education Centre.

Session 2: UK /Spanish organisation presentation.

Session 3: Visit ETSI Montes

Session 4: General project view. Future of the project.

Session 5: Visit "Valle de la Fuenfria" Environmental Education Centre.

Session 6: Walk around "Valle de la Fuenfría" National Park

Session 7: Walk around "Pedriza" National Park

Session 8:  Visit the grazing system in "Bolao-Cerceda-Mataelpino".

 

Dehesa de la Villa Environmental Education Centre

 

The group visited this environmental education centre of the Madrid City Council.

Dehesa de la Villa is a park located in the northwest of the city of Madrid (Spain). Its main characteristic is that it maintains its condition of the forest, being mostly unlandscaped.

In the park, we talked with the educators. They showed us the permanent and temporary exhibitions of the centre. The centre's main activities were urban gardens, sustainable mobility, composting and guided ethno botanical routes. The leading target group is retired people. Their main problem is to reach young people aged 16, among other reasons because of the difficulty to control social networks and the distrust of public institutions.

The organisation showed a lot of interest in working on environmental education projects in the framework of Erasmus+ projects.

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Illustration 2: Pablo shows the composting process

 

More information:

 

Mail: infodehesa@madrid.es

Web: https://diario.madrid.es/cieadehesadelavilla/el-centro/

 

UK /Spanish organisation presentation.

 

The group worked with university lecturers and visiting partners from the UK in the ETSI Forestry boardroom.

 

Lantra is an NGO that helps the land, aquaculture and environmental industries train their staff and encourages new people to join the sector by promoting it as a worthwhile career option. Lantra operates by providing quality-assured food, ensuring animal health and welfare, expanding leisure activities, improving rural environments and urban green spaces, and protecting natural heritage.

 

 

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Illustration 4: Professor Carrero tells us about EELISA

 

Finally, associate professors from the Faculty of Forestry spoke about the Elissa project. It is an alliance between 9 universities in Europe to create a European University. EELISA seeks to generate a renewed concept of Engineering by broadening its scope from the technological approach to fully address contemporary social challenges. Thanks to these testimonies, the group discussed the possibilities of continuing the work of Y4Trees within other funding streams and generating synergies with other strategies, both European and English.

 

EElisa

Web: https://academica-internacional.upm.es/2020/07/22/eelisa-universidad-europea/

 

Visit ETSI Montes

 

After lunch, the group visited the zootechnical area of the faculty. Thanks to this, we could compare the differences and similarities with the university in Poland.

 

Web: https://www.montes.upm.es/English

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General comments and future of the project

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Illustration 5: Collective evaluation of the project

 

The last activity of the first day was a collective evaluation of the project. The most important answers to the question "What have you learned from the project?” were:

• The importance of community participation in the forests. Focusing on rural communities.

• How young people see environmental problems and climate change.

• Sharing knowledge about agroforestry management systems.

• Generating an open and participatory methodology between people from different countries.

• The exchange of knowledge between the programmes, activities and management of environmental education entities in the different partner countries.

 

Visit "Valle de la Fuenfria" Environmental Education Centre.

 

On the second day, the team travelled to Cercedilla to visit the valley of La Fuenfria, within the Guadarrama National Park.

It is a mountainous formation belonging to the Central System. The lowest part of the valley is at 1200 metres, and the peaks are over 2000 metres high. The vegetation in this area is very abundant, and the Scots pine forest covers almost the entire surface of the valley.

There we met with Loreto, coordinator of the park's Education Centre. There she told us about the park's history, how it is managed and the most important activities carried out. Contrary to the previous case, the main problem they have is many visitors to the national park.

 

 

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Illustration 6: Loreto presents the centre.

 

Walk around "Valle de la Fuenfría" National Park

 

Guided by Loreto, the team went on a national park tour. We observed the biodiversity and talked about the park's signposts and management.

 

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Illustration 7: The project team identifies a tree

 

More information:

Web: https://www.parquenacionalsierraguadarrama.es/en/visit/contact-vc/vc-fuenfria

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Walk around "Pedriza" National Park

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Illustration 8: Refreshing in La Pedriza

 

After lunch, the group visited La Pedriza. In the southern part of the same national park (Guadarrama). There we discussed the different ways to make natural spaces like this one known and encourage responsible use. We were able to cool off in the river during the afternoon's high temperatures.

 

Visit the grazing system in "Bolao-Cerceda-Mataelpino"

 

 

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Illustration 9: Javier de los Nietos teaches us about the ecosystem value of the grazing system

 

Finally, we visited the private goat management enterprise in "Bolao-Cerceda-Mataelpino". Javier showed us how the herd ecosystem works on the 120 ha of land.

This innovative livestock management does not make use of meat or milk. Its value is in environmental education and the direction of the land for conservation and fire fighting. The animals lived their entire lives without suffering.

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Illustration 10: Herd of goats heading for the barn

 

Conclusion

 

Thanks to this visit, the team got to know first-hand how they work, what are the activities and the main problems of different education centres, both urban and natural. Thanks to the visit of different partners, we were able to establish forms of support behind the Y4Trees project. Finally, we brainstormed on what we learned from the project, both professionally and personally, to explain it as lessons learned in the Multiplier Event.

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