Intact ecosystems are natural climate protectors. Forests and floodplains, soils and moors, oceans and water bodies, near-natural green spaces in urban and rural areas absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the long term. As part of the Natural Climate Protection Action Programme (ANK) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV)[1] the condition of these ecosystems is to be improved and their climate protection performance strengthened. This is because only intact ecosystems are able to protect the climate through long-term CO2-storage, protect the climate, arm ourselves against the consequences of climate change and counteract the loss of biodiversity[2]. In order to reach as many target groups as possible and mobilise them to take action, educational work for natural climate protection is funded in field of action 9 "Research and capacity building" of the ANK.

On behalf of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), which is coordinating the implementation of the ANK, the IZT, together with the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU), project lead), will be implementing the project. BilNaKlim carry out. The project is intended to complement the projects "Naturally: Protect the climate! - Interactive teaching and learning materials to promote natural climate protection (NaClimate)"[3] and "Climate Campus - A digital learning space for natural climate protection"[4] The aim of the programme is to strengthen the further training of those who ultimately carry out educational work with different target groups.

Aim of BilNaKlim is the further training of educators, teachers and other educators from the school and extracurricular sector. We want to empower and motivate at least 1,000 people from these groups to use educational programmes from the field of "Natural Climate Protection" in their educational work. To ensure this, we will:

  • Prepare existing offers and materials on natural climate protection, in particular the projects NaClimate and Climate Campus be included
  • Develop and implement further training modules for teachers at educational levels from elementary to secondary II level
  • These formats will consist of three online training modules and self-study phases and will also serve to provide learning guidance, networking and practical support for participants
  • Evaluate the project in order to make the results accessible to third parties and develop ideas for the continuation of the training programmes. The modules developed for the multipliers are to be recognised as professional training courses in order to ensure their long-term sustainability.

With this project, we want to promote the individual skills of the participants in terms of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and support transformative educational work in the institutions.

[1] https://www.bmuv.de/natuerlicher-klimaschutz

[2] https://www.natuerlicher-klimaschutz.de/

[3] https://www.siegmund-se.de/projekte

[4] https://klimacampus.org/