Category Archives: Education

Education

Tatra National Park – second post RUW-RSO studytrip to Poland

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RUW Foundation and the Rural Sociology Group organized a studytrip to Poland. In a 10 day intensive program different cities and rural areas in Poland were visited, interesting people and organizations met and farm work is done. The theme of the trip is “Glocalise”. Students are asked to prepare themselves well on different themes in groups before leaving and to write a concluding reflexive paper on their impressions and findings, and to write a blog. The is second blog on the Tatra National Park posted by:

Emanuel Sandrini, Kyra Weerts, Ileen Wilke, Meret Windler, Meia van der Zee

Museum Tatra national parkToday our trip took us to Tatra National Park, in the south of Poland. It is one of the 23 national parks in Poland.

First we arrived in Zakopane, a village close to the park. Zakopane is the so called wintersport capital of Poland and in summer many tourists come to hike and do other outdoor activities in the area. Each year in fact more than 2 million visitors come to Zakopane. Here we went to the local museum where we got a tour about the history and natural environment of the area from a very enthusiastic guide.

We learned about the Gorale people, the original inhabitants of the Tatra mountains. Traditionally they lived under harsh conditions with cold and long winters in the mountains and survived mostly from hunting. The Gorale are nowadays still famous for their wood crafts and making music. Continue reading →

Going global and remaining local: challenges of Poland in implementing climate change policies

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RUW Foundation and the Rural Sociology Group organized a studytrip to Poland. In a 10 day intensive program different cities and rural areas in Poland were visited, interesting people and organizations met and farm work is done. The theme of the trip is “Glocalise”. Students are asked to prepare themselves well on different themes in groups before leaving and to write a concluding reflexive paper on their impressions and findings, and to write a blog. This is first is posted by:

Caroline Lumosi, MSc-student Forest and Nature Conservation.

The first day saw us spend time learning about nature conservation in Poland. We focussed on climate change policies and agriculture. Poland faces challenges in implementing regional EU climate change policies in relation to implementing its national regulations on energy and economic development. Poland relies on the use of coal to support 90% its electricity. As the EU moves to cut down on its carbon emission, this in turn means focus is put on use of renewable energy sources. For Poland, and in particular the city of Warsaw, this presents a huge challenge as the city heavily relies on the use of coal for electricity, in transport and in household heating. Continue reading →

Stageplek – monitoren van interactieve groenontwerpbijeenkomsten in Zuid-Holland

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De provincie Zuid-Holland zoekt een stagiair voor het monitoren van groenontwerpbijeenkomsten. Hieronder meer informatie van de contactpersoon Kees Verdouw.

De provincie Zuid-Holland werkt in het project Mijn groen – Ons groen (zie www.mijngroenonsgroen.nl) aan een nieuwe manier van groenontwikkeling. Het project is onderdeel van het INTERREG-project GIFT-T! (www.gift-t.eu) en wordt dus mede door Europa betaald. Wat is er nieuw aan de aanpak van het project? Allereerst het uitgangspunt, namelijk dat we voor de ontwikkeling van natuur, groen en landschap echt willen starten bij de wensen van de gebruiker. Dat is bijv. een recreant, maar ook een boer, een grote multinational of een school. Al deze partijen maken gebruik van de natuur en welke mogelijkheden zien zij om dat te verbeteren? Die vraag hebben we beantwoord via droombijeenkomsten met deze gebruikers. Nu is de volgende stap om samen met de gebruikers wensen te vertalen in een samenhangend groen netwerk. Het streven is om per stukje groen zoveel mogelijk wensen (ecosysteemdiensten) van gebruikers te kunnen honoreren. Continue reading →

The Farm Experience Internship (FEI) : experiences from Brazil

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Part of a joint initiative the Farming Systems Ecology group  of Wageningen University offers a new course the Farm Experience Internship (FEI). This course is presented and discussed in Grassroots Science event next July 4. See the earlier blog for more info. The course is inspired by a similar course in Brazil. Below Heitor Texeira, student from Federal University of Vicosa and currently intern at Stichting Otherwise and ILEA, tells about the Brazilian experiences and about course starting for the first time summer, from 11th to 30th of August. See for more information on the FEI course also the site of the Boerengroep.

By Heitor Texeira

The Estágio Interdisciplinar de Vivência

In Brazil family farmers and traditional communities play a very important role concerning food production and conservation of natural resources. They are responsible for the production of approximately 70% of the food consumed in the country and in many cases manage their production systems in a more sustainable way, seeking for the integration between nature and agriculture. Although their great contribution for society, the knowledge developed and disseminated in educational institutes of superior level is often disconnected from the reality and needs of family farmers. On the one hand their traditional knowledge is underestimated regarding research and extension at the University. Continue reading →

Grassroots Science: Do the NL have an agro-ecology movement?

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Stichting Otherwise organizes another Grassroots Science event. The new course The Farm Experience Internship (FEI) will be presented and the significance it can have for formal education and the agroecology network in the Netherlands. See http://www.st-otherwise.org/thu-4-july-grassroots-science-agroecology-in-the-netherlands/ for more info or the site of the Boerengroep for more info on the FEI course.

GS Agroecology