Relevance of nature landscapes with national significance in school and out-of-school environmental education

The project analyzes the relevance and prevalence of natural landscapes with national significance in school and out-of-school environmental education.

Since 2005 the German national parks, biosphere reserves and nature parks are combined under the brand ”National Nature Landscapes” (“Nationale Naturlandschaften“). From the Wadden Sea to the Bavarian Forest there are already more than 100 of those nature landscapes in Germany. All of them have one thing in common: the goal to protect and preserve nature and make the experienceable to visitors. The protection of an area, however, can only be successful when it is possible to include the population and to convince them of the value of the area for their own life and the life of future generations.

For this reason the topic “National Nature Landscapes” has to be an important part of school and out-of-school environmental education. The first step is to determine the previous relevance of this topic by a quantitative analysis. Thereby, all curricula, biology and geography schoolbooks and educational magazines from the 16 federal states have to be analyzed. The second step is to analyze the topic in connection with field trips of schools.

One of the national nature landscapes: Neureichenau in the Bavarian Forest (photo: Alex Schmitt)

Project start:

The project is sponsored by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU).