Forest Trail for Educational Purposes

1. General information

Location and description of the intervention

City or FUA

Brno

Region

Europe

Native title of the NBS intervention

Lesní naučná stezka

Short description of the intervention

An educational forest trail was developed by the centre for environmental education organization Lipka as part of the ACT WELLL project partnership between Austria and the Czech Republic (2007-2013). (Ref. 2; Ref. 3). The trail includes eight stops on a two-kilometer circuit, where children and adults can learn about how nature works through games and challenges. (Ref. 2). These elements were created by artists Blanka Ponížilová and Hana Havlíčková (Ref. 1). Three-hour field-trip educational programs are available to kindergarten-aged students, and the trail is also open to the general public (Ref. 9).

Address

Brno-Bohunice
62500 Brno
Czechia

Location

Point location, which indicates where the NBS takes place

Total area

2000.00m²

NBS area

2000.00m²

Type of area before implementation of the NBS

Public Greenspace Area

Website of the intervention

http://www.lipka.cz/lipka?idm=191

Timeline of intervention

Start date of the intervention (planning process)

unknown

Start date of intervention (implementation process)

2014

End date of the intervention

2014

Present stage of the intervention

Completed

2. Objectives of the intervention

Goals of the intervention

The project:
1. Has created a forest trail for educational purposes to learn about natural phenomena and processes in the forest through interactive games (Ref. 2; Ref. 3)
1.1 Specific educational outcomes for the formal program include having children be able to:
1.1.1 describe the properties of wood
1.1.2 describe the tracks of at least two forest animals
1.1.3 describe the role of the spruce lichen-eater in nature
1.1.4 describe the body structure and developmental stages of the spruce lichen-eater
1.1.5 explain the difference between protective and warning coloring
2. Will continue utilizing the educational programming developed by through the ACT WELLL! (Ref. 11) partnership (which ended in 2013) by offering ongoing field-trips and public visits to the trail (Ref. 10).

Quantitative targets

While general targets, such as number of annual visitors, has not been defined, per formal field visit it is suggested that the optimal number of participants is 15-30 (Ref. 9).

Monitoring indicators defined

Within the annual report, the organization's residential and day programs have targets such as number of visitors, number of programs organized, etc. on an annual basis (Ref. 10). However, field programs (short-term, half-day programs) do not seem to be reported but are likely recorded.

Sustainability challenge(s) addressed

Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)

Green space creation and/or management

Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)

Environmental education

Health and well-being (SDG 3)

Enabling opportunities for physical activity

Creation of opportunities for recreation

Economic development and employment (SDG 8)

Employment/job creation

Implementation activities

- To develop the NBS, artists Blanka Ponížilová and Hana Havlíčková created the educational elements (Ref. 2), and educational programming was developed through the ACT WELLL! partnership (Ref. 11).
- Each stop on the trail includes educational signposts and educational game elements that lead to learning about nature. These unique activities are as diverse as using a wooden dendrophon to make music, to testing the power of a natural stream (Ref. 2, Ref. 5, Ref. 7, Ref. 13).
- The nature trail is suitable for children and adults. It is also freely accessible to the public, and easy to reach by bus. It is also walkable with a stroller/pram (Ref. 13, Ref. 14).
- There is also a programme for school children where teachers take them along the trail and do the games with them. (Ref. 2; Ref. 3; Ref. 4)

Type of NBS project

Creation of new green areas

Maintenance and management of urban nature

Knowledge creation and awareness raising

3. NBS domains, ES and scale

NBS domain and interventions

Ecological domain(s) where the NBS intervention(s) is/are implemented

Grey infrastructure featuring greens

Institutional green space

Parks and urban forests

Large urban parks or forests

Vegetation Type

Other

Please specify other amenities offered by the NBS

The interactive features expose visitors to: musical instruments; the rocks of the region; the behavior of animals and insects; how microclimates are created in forests; the waterflow different river-types; and dynamics of invasive species. (Ref. 2; Ref. 7; Ref 13).

Amenities offered by the NBS

Educational or biodiversity trails

Other

Services

Expected ecosystem services delivered

Cultural services

Aesthetic appreciation

Recreation

Mental and physical health and wellbeing

Intellectual interactions (scientific and / or educational)

Physical and experiential interactions with plants and animals

Other

Please specify "other habitat and supporting service"

Maintenance of biodiversity

Please specify "other cultural service"

Education

Scale

Spatial scale

Micro-scale: District/neighbourhood level

Beneficiaries

Primary Beneficiaries

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Citizens or community groups

Young people and children

4. Governance and financing

Governance

Governance arrangements

Co-governance with government and non-government actors

Non-government actors

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Please specify the roles of the specific government and non-government actor groups involved in the initiative

Lipka is funded by the South Moravian Region, the Ministry of Education, the city of Brno, and by EU and EEA grants. The forest trail activity is organised by Lipka as part of the ACT WELLL programme, which is an initiative of the cross-border partnership Czech Republic 2007-2013. The partnership consists of Austrian and Czech environmental education organizations and is funded by the EU and the Austrian Government. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 5). The trail was partially funded by the Czech Government. (Ref. 1; Ref. 5) Funding was provided for the intervention by the ERDF, and partially by the Austrian Government, who fund the ACT WELLL programme (Ref. 1; Ref. 5)

Key actors - initiating organization

EU body

National government

Public sector institution

Land owners

Public space owned by the city

Educational actor (schools or universities)

Please specify other Key actors - Other stakeholders involved

school-children (Ref 2, 3, 4)

Key actors - Other stakeholders involved (besides initiating actors)

EU body

National government

Regional government

Local government/municipality

Public sector institution

Citizens or community group

Other

Land owners

Public space owned by the city

Educational actor (schools or universities)

Participatory methods/forms of community involvement used

Dissemination of information and education

Citizen science

Policy drivers

NBS intervention implemented in response to an Regional Directive/Strategy

Yes

Please specify the "Regional Directive/Strategy"

The intervention was funded by the ERDF (Ref. 1; Ref. 5). The trail was funded by the ERDF 2007 - 2013, prior to its opening in 2014, which means it was influenced by the European Commission's Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the European Regional Development Fund and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1783/1999 (Ref. 4; Ref. 6).

NBS intervention implemented in response to a national regulations/strategy/plan

Unknown

NBS intervention implemented in response to a local regulation/strategy/plan

Unknown

Mandatory or voluntary intervention

Voluntary (spontaneous)

Enablers

Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS vision/strategy/plan - mentioned in connection to the project

Unknown

Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS section/part in a more general plan - mentioned in connection to the project

Unknown

Please specify other vegetation type

Vegetation types being utilized were not stated specifically but the forest is the general vegetation that provides context for the trail.

Presence of city network or regional partnerships focused on NBS - mentioned in connection to the project

Yes

Please specify

Lipka is part of the cross-border partnership Austria - Czech Republic 2007-2013, which initiated the ACT WELLL project. The ACT WELLL programme involved educational and fun activities in the natural environment. The trail was partially funded by the Czech Government. (Ref. 1; Ref. 5)

Presence of GI / NBS research project - mentioned in connection to the project

Unknown

Subsidies/investment for GI / NBS in the city - mentioned in connection to the project

Yes

Please specify

Funding was provided for the intervention by the ERDF, and partially by the Austrian Government, who fund the ACT WELLL programme (Ref. 1; Ref. 5)

Co-finance for NBS

Yes

Co-financing governance arrangements

Yes

Co-governance arrangement

A fund / grant

Was this co-governance arrangement already in place, or was it set up specifically for this NBS?

Set up for multiple NBS interventions, including this one

Financing

Total cost

Unknown

What is/was the Cost/Budget (EUR) of the NBS or green infrastructure elements?

Unknown-- Total income generated annually has not been disaggregated within Lipka's annual report (Ref. 10), but the cost of the 3-hour field program is 100CZK (around 3.82 EUR) per student (Ref. 9). For the general public, access to the trail is free

What are the total amount of expected annual maintenance costs?

Unknown

What is the expected annual maintenance costs of the NBS or GI elements?

Unknown

Please specify cost savings

Unknown

Please specify total cost (EUR)

Unknown- Total income generated annually has not been disaggregated within Lipka's annual report (Ref. 10), but the cost of the 3-hour field program is 100CZK (around 3.82 EUR) per student (Ref. 9). For the general public, access to the trail and the features (without guided lessons) is free of charge (Ref. 14, Ref. 15).

Source(s) of funding

EU funds

Public national budget

Type of fund(s) used

Earmarked public budget

Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)

Non-financial contribution

Unknown

Business models

Green education model

Which of the involved actors was motivated by this model?

Public actor (e.g. municipality)

Private non-for-profit actor (e.g. NGO, foundation)

Citizens / local communities

5. Innovation

Type of innovation

Social

Cultural innovation

Novelty level of the innovation

Unknown

Please specify novelty level of the innovation

Unknown

Replicability/Transferability

Unknown

Please specify Replicability/Transferability

Unknown

6. Evaluation and learning

Impacts, benefits

Environmental impacts

Unknown

Please specify other economic impact

free recreational activities: For the general public, access to the trail and the features (without guided lessons) is free of charge (Ref. 14, Ref. 15).

Description of environmental benefits

No specific environmental impacts are mentioned through the project documents. However, as Lipka is a facility for environmental education, situated in a very natural place with many green spaces that need to be maintained for programming to continue, it is very likely that conservation of these green areas and maintenance of the habitats used in their lessons have some (not monitored) environmental benefits.

Economic impacts

Generation of income from NBS

Other

Please specify other socio-cultural impact

Description of economic benefits

Total income generated annually has not been disaggregated within Lipka's annual report (Ref. 10), but the cost of the 3-hour field program is 100CZK (around 3.82 EUR) per student (Ref. 9). For the general public, access to the trail and the features (without guided lessons) is free of charge (Ref. 14, Ref. 15).

Type of reported impacts

Achieved impacts

Indicators

The number of public visitors does not appear to be monitored. The Annual Report of Lepka (Ref. 10) appears to indicate that the organization tracks the number of visitors, educational programs offered, pupils served, etc., but this is not disaggregated for field programs.

trail takes 1-hour to complete and has a low level of difficulty (Ref. 15).

Environmental, social and economic impacts

Cultural heritage and cultural diversity

Analysis of specific impact categories

Job creation: The NBS created ...

Paid employment positions

Environmental justice: The implementation of the NBS project resulted in ...

Improved access to green and/or blue spaces

Negative impacts: Did the project cause any problems or concerns?

No information was found regarding negative impacts of the project

COVID-19 pandemic

As of July 20, 2020, no information regarding Covid-19 was found.

Methods of impact monitoring

Process of recording NBS impacts

No evidence in public records

Methods used to evaluate the impacts of NBS

Unknown

Evidence for use of assessment

Presence of an assessment, evaluation and/or monitoring process

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

No evidence in public records

Presence of monitoring/evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

Impact assessment mechanism

Name of any specific impact assessment tools

unknown

Use of GIS in mapping impacts

No evidence in public records

Citizen involvement

Citizens involvement in assessment/evaluation

Yes

Mode(s) of citizen involvement in evaluation/assessment

Online Forum

Citizens involvement in the analysis of the assessment/evaluation

Yes

Please specify

There are numerous websites online with reviews for this public resource (Ref. 13.; Ref. 14.; Ref. 15.).

Follow-up to the evaluation / assessment

Unknown

7. Sources

References

Web links relevant to the intervention

Ref. 1. Lipka's Annual Report 2018

List of references

Ref. 1. Lipka (2015). Annual Report 2015. [online] [Available at: http://www.lipka.cz/vyrocni-zpravy?idm=122]. [Accessed on July 27 2020].
Ref. 2. Lipka (No Date). LESNÍ NAUČNÁ STEZKA. [online] [Available at: http://www.lipka.cz/lipka?idm=191]. [Accessed on July 27 2020].
Ref. 3. Křenovská, I. (2014). LES JAKO ŽIVOTNÍ PROSTOR. [pdf] [Unavailable online in 2020].
Ref. 4. Lipka (2014). LIPKA OTEVŘE NOVOU INTERAKTIVNÍ LESNÍ STEZKU. [pdf] [Available at: http://www.lipka.cz/soubory/tz_lipka_lipka-otevre-novou-interaktivni-lesni-stezku_fin--f3573.pdf]. [Accessed on July 27 2020].
Ref. 5. ACT WELLL! (2017). STARTSEITE. [online] [Unavailable online in 2020].
Ref. 6. EUR-Lex (2006). Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the European Regional Development Fund and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1783/1999. [online]. [Available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32006R1080]. [Accessed on July 27 2020].
Ref. 7. Kužel, V. (2014). Lesní naučná stezka Soběšice. [online]. [Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUSBm_fnnoBsRN3Kasu1oZ1Q&v=-UUM002GALw]. [Accessed on July 27 2020]
Ref. 8. Geocaching (2014). Lesni naucna stezka U jezirka. [online] [Available at: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC51RNZ_lesni-naucna-stezka-u-jezirka]. [Accessed on July 27 2020]
Ref. 9. Lipka. (No Date). Forest Educational Trail for Kindergartens – Field Program. [online]. [Available at: https://www.lipka.cz/vyukove-programy-jezirko?idc=2433&idevp=2419]. [Accessed on July 27 2020].
Ref. 10. Lipka. (No Date). Lipka 2018 Annual Report. [online]. [Available at: https://www.lipka.cz/vyrocni-zpravy?idm=122]. [Accessed on July 27 2020]
Ref. 11. Lipka. (No Date). ACT WELLL!. [online]. [Available at: https://www.lipka.cz/projekty?idc=1128]. [Accessed on July 27 2020).
Ref. 13. Coteese (2020). Forest educational trail near Soběšice. [online]. [Available at: https://www.coteese.cz/lesni-naucna-stezka-u-sobesic/]. [Accessed on July 27 2020].
Ref 14. Turistika.cz (2018). U jezirka – Forest nature trail with an observatory. [online]. [Available at: https://www.turistika.cz/vylety/u-jezirka-lesni-naucna-stezka-s-pozorovatelnou/detail]. [Accessed on July 27 2020].
Ref 15. OutEveryDay.cz (No Date). Forest educational trail U Jerzirka (district Brno-venkov). [online]. [Available at: https://www.venkazdyden.cz/tip-na-vylet/lesni-naucna-stezka-u-jezirka/1049]. [Accessed on July 27 2020].

Comments and notes

Comments

2017 review- An e-mail was sent to Lipka asking for additional information about sections 2, 4, 5, and 6.
"for the impacts/benefits could you please look at information whether the trail has been used already? are their schoolgropus going there? If yes, you can select "cultural" impacts and explain how many groups are going etc." - I looked at all the web-links related to the trail, but could not find any information about the use of the trail (apart from a couple of comments by visitors). There is only information on what the trail offers. update by 2020-- no information about the contents of the email response were provided.

2020 - I did not see a previous use of Ref. 8 from the author, but I left it in.

Pictures of the NBS

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