The Forum gathered more than 100 school students, 50 school and university teachers from more than 25 educational facilities and 10 regions of Ukraine: Rivne, Zhytomyr, Volyn, Lugansk, Donetsk, Poltava, Zaporizhya, Kirovohrad, Kyiv and Sumy; as well as academics, representatives of 10 public organizations and community groups, local authorities and public institutions in the sphere of environmental protection.
During the conference and round-table discussion “Environmental Education for Sustainable Development”, the Forum participants initiated a platform for discussion and identification of key areas of environmental education for children for sustainable development, and shared their experiences on best educational practices in the field of environmental education, and prepared the Forum Resolution to be communicated to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
The students were enthusiastic about the interesting and educating program of the Forum, especially the variety of environmental workshops. Classes on origami and “From Unnecessary to Useful” were held for children, where they could make flowerpots from recycled materials. During master classes in sport tourism, students took their first steps to mastering the skills and knowledge in the field of sports and eco-tourism, learned to arrange river crossing, to pitch a tent, to target areas with a compass, to kindle a camp fire. During the “Medicinal Plants” and “Ukrainian amulet” classes, students could both deepen their knowledge about the flora of their native land and to prepare herbal blends of their own recipes, taste healthy phyto-teas, produce their own amulets for home. Very interesting for children were classes “Learning to operate meteorologic instruments and observing weather conditions”, where they learned how to work with meteorologic instruments, record observations, conduct pre-processing of the results, determine the sunlight angle of and many more things. The winner of the UNEP 22nd International Drawing Competition on environmental protection in the European region Eugenia Zakharchuk and her leader held ecologcal plein-air class “Drawing Our Future”, where children made eco-souvenirs. A special attention should be given to the environmental game “Green Manager”, which was developed as part of the GEF SGP Project “Creation of the Children's Environmental Centre”, and was first tested during the Forum. The game teaches how to be a true master of one's native land, how to balance between the provision of vital resources (money, food, water, energy) and carbon emissions in order to preserve the home planet for future generations, the so-called “live guide” on practical implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change .
The staff of the Sarny gimnasia school and of the “Ecoclub “Sprout'” prepared several pleasant surprises for students. They held an extreme quest “Keys to the Center of the Rivne Polissya Area”, children's eco-fashion show “Chance”, flash mob “The Earth Trusts in Us!” and an environmental quiz “The best ecology expert”.The winners received honorary diplomas and valuable and useful prizes, such as a bicycle, solar-power chargers and thermoses. In the evening, the children enjoyed entertainment program, staged in a picturesque nook of the Sarny area. The second day of the Forum was no less exciting and interesting. Children took an active part in the green tourism sport activities and in the excursion to the Rivne National Protected Area.
Please see Forum Resulution.