The transition towards sustainable energy systems is at the heart of climate change and sustainable development issues, and is key for the European Commission to reach its climate energy package’s goals for 2020: a 20% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990, a 20% share of renewable energy in its energy consumption and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency. The project “Citizens 4 Energy Transition” (C4ET) aimed in this context to enhance citizens’ involvement in the energy transition by improving and extending the methods and tools used to raise their awareness and train them on this issue. Although a large number of initiatives in this field already exist, there was a real opportunity to overcome certain barriers by launching a pan-European initiative which would build on the sharing of visions, expertise, and practices of partners concerning the education of citizens on the energy transition. C4ET involved 6 European partners, led by the French non-profit organization ENERGIES 2050, representing 6 European countries (Belgium with Homegrade Brussels, Croatia with DOOR, France with ENERGIES 2050, Germany with GNF, Hungary with TREBAG and Italy with Molise verso il 2000). These organizations are CSOs, a public body as well as a private company, all active in the field of educating citizens on energy and environmental issues. The main target groups for C4ET were representatives of organisations working on the education of citizens, especially on these issues (CSOs, NGOs, municipalities, associations etc.), and to a larger extent all European citizens.The main desired impacts of the project for each stakeholders involved were as follows:Participants from partner organizations - improved skills for educating citizens on the energy transition; sharing knowledge and best practice; improved offer of pedagogical activities thanks to the tools developed.CSOs: access to new pedagogical materials and tools to broaden and enrich their training/awareness raising activities with citizens on the energy transition and raised interest for conducting such activities among stakeholders not yet active in the fieldCitizens: raised interest and enhanced participation in the energy transition.In order to reach these objectives, project partners developed a set of innovative pedagogical materials and tools, structured according to a defined pedagogical programme around six “focus subjects” (one led by each partner), each associated with the development of five tools and related materials. To summarise, C4ET was based on a comprehensive approach made of several complementary activities: State of the art of existing methods and tools and needs analysis (O1) for raising awareness and training citizens on the energy transition;Development of a pedagogical programme taking into account the state of the art (O2) and which builds on the exchange of best practices, expertise and experience among project partners;Development of 30 innovative and interactive educational tools with their accompanying materials (O3);Testing of tools developed by target groups to gather feedbacks and refine their development (O4);Production of dissemination materials (O5), including a comprehensive web platform, videos as well as multiplier events. The general and specific objectives are summarised below:General objectives:- Raise awareness of European citizens on the energy transition- Contribute to a development that is sober in energy and with low impact on the climate- Reinforce adult skills and competencies in the field of energy transition- Help citizens to identify energy transition as an opportunity for them to find new job opportunitiesSpecific objectives:- Identify existing practices and methods being implemented in Europe for raising awareness and for training citizens on the energy transition- Improve and develop educational methods and material for raising awareness and for training citizens on the energy transition- Increase the number of CSOs and other stakeholders providing training and educational activities on the energy transition towards citizens- Encourage the creation of a network of relevant stakeholders involved in educating citizens on the energy transition- Reinforce skills of CSOs and other stakeholders involved or interested by the field of the education of citizens on the energy transition- Reinforce skills of European citizens in the field of the energy transitionIn fine the C4ET project responded to several of the Erasmus+ programme priorities, including “improving and extending the offer of high quality learning opportunities” and “Strengthening education and training paths of educators”.

Nature experience for impaired people and tourism for all is an important topic in the EU. Destinations like national parks, nature reserves and other locations for nature experience begin to implement such offers. Hence, guidance for such destinations is missing to judge on the prerequisites onsite and to enable decision makers to start with implementing relevant installations and alterations. A good catalogue of nature education activities for environmental educationists is still missing. The German Association of Blind and Visually Impaired People has invented guidelines for nature trails and other purposes. Partners from environmental education organisations in Germany, Poland, Hungary and Spain active in European lake regions in this project also collected expertise in some aspects of that topic. Together, we want to incorporate these experiences in the Lakes without Limits project, broaden our own knowledge, and pass it to the others.Lakes without Limits aims on working to improve adult education for nature experience by developing, testing and disseminating educational material to foster skills of environmental educationists with respect to disabled people. It will provide guidance for two questions:1. How can environmental educationists improve their offer for guided nature experience with impaired people? These educationists can either be employed in a nature conservation centre, or freelancer or volunteers.2. How can nature trails be prepared and/or altered for the unaccompanied use of impaired people. The target group here are managers and environmental educationists responsible for such trails.The material developed will enable its users setting of personal pedagogical goals and following the success thanks to correspondent checklists. The whole material will be available for the broad audience. Concrete examples for work with impaired people on nature conservation/experience will be produced: barrier free brochures, audio guides, 3D-Material, Sign- and Simple Language Films.The focus will be on tourist destinations in participating countries Poland, Hungary, Germany, and Spain, as well as areas of special conservation interest.With this, we want to bring forward the inclusion of disabled persons in the EU and foster the sensitivity to nature for all Europeans. We wish to generate momentum for nature experience for impaired people.

People’s understanding of the concept of biodiversity varies greatly. The situation of biodiversity in the EU 27 is not very positive. Even countries like Germany regarded as “pioneers” in promoting biodiversity are making hardly any tangible progress. According to the survey conducted by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the consciousness of the concept of biodiversity did not change since 2005, oscillating around 25%. The TEEB-studies (http://www.teebweb.org) for different European countries show, that governments in Europe start to understand (and measure) different biodiversity aspects, as its value for people, but common understanding is generally weak and the fulfillment of EU strategies and regulations for biodiversity is extremely poor. These observations indicate a lack in the educational system on biodiversity, both in methodology and implementation. Therefore, in order to push changes, an important goal is to teach citizens about the meaning of biodiversity loss and the important issues related to it.How to raise awareness for biodiversity in European countries? One of the answers is to put in action more comprehensive pedagogical practices on biodiversity. Citizens need to find themselves at the heart of the debate, to become actors of change and be emotionally linked to the issue. They need to understand how the behavior of a single individual in the everyday life is strictly connected to biodiversity loss; this process will help to show options for acting. Education is a long-term project, and of course, this project can be based on decades of experience in many EU MS. What we want to provide is a synthesis of experiences from experts in several EU MS to produce comprehensive educational material on biodiversity. The developed tools will support educators to “Inspire People for Biodiversity”. Within the project, the following activities will be implemented: - State of the art & training analyses: Assessment of the training needs of citizens, their understanding of the topic biodiversity; the assessment of the pedagogical offer of available initiatives/tools on biodiversity. - Pedagogical programme setting & best practice exchange: Development of a programme covering 6 educational “focus areas” on biodiversity with regard to implementation in the everyday life.- Development of innovative pedagogical material and accompanying guide: Creation of a set of pedagogical materials taking into account current needs and developments in education on biodiversity: 30 tools in 5 “focus areas”. An accompanying guide will be provided to facilitate the use of the material. All tools will be tested within the frame of special events to collect feedback from both trainers and citizens.- Development of a set of pedagogical communication tools: It will include interactive educational posters, thematic video, webinar structure etc. for separate presentations of the theme as well as pedagogical materials, in particular for trainers and stakeholders working/planning to work on biodiversity education. This output will be complemented by dissemination activities throughout the project.- 12 Multiplier events for dissemination of project results in addition to general dissemination.The aim of this project is to develop a strategic partnership at European level in order to assess practices concerning the education of adults on biodiversity and to improve the quality and offer of such. The project aims to develop a set of innovative and successful pedagogical material on biodiversity and a specific guide to the attention of European CSOs and other stakeholders. The project will provide a tool kit for educators working on this topic, helping people to better understand the concept of biodiversity, the connection with daily life, and to increase the general level of consciousness on biodiversity. The materials developed will be available for broad public.The project contributes both to strengthening the educational work of individual organisations in respective countries and finding common solutions at European level. Cooperation is an opportunity to fundamentally change the situation. Launching a European project helps to improve and increase the means of action for stakeholders on this particular topic Europe wide.Humans highly depend on biodiversity: ecosystems and related services provide us with food, medicines and raw materials, deliver many other services. According to the European Commission, biological diversity is one of the main topics on EU-working agenda. The global biodiversity loss is stated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): 12,259 species are threatened with extinction, 75% of genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost, 75% of the world’s fisheries are fully or over exploited. In this context, it is urgent to implement effective measures and learn to deal with biodiversity, so that future generations can enjoy living in a diverse world.

The loss of biodiversity is one of the largest and most important challenges worldwide. The current rate of species extinction, due to human influences, is up to 1000 times higher than the natural extinction rate. Agriculture is the most important land use in Europe, with around 50% of the surface used for agricultural production. In the past, agriculture significantly contributed to increasing the diversity of landscapes and species in Europe. Today, intensive agriculture is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss in the cultural landscape. Sound knowledge is available regarding food production and protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. But that knowledge is still not sufficiently considered and production methods not sufficiently adapted. One important reason for that is that biodiversity is still not enough considered in a farmer´s professional education or further training nor do they receive consulting directly on the farm. In addition, vine growers do not carry out systematic analyses of their impacts on biodiversity on their whole farm. The EU is a leading producer of wine. Spain, Portugal and Turkey belong to the top ten countries in Europe with the largest vineyards. The main target group of the project was the organic vine growers - farmers producing grapes in the vineyards - either for viticulture as for sultana production. As organic vine-growers work constantly on improving biodiversity in their fields, because vivid ecosystems and a high diversity in the soil and between vine rows are a prerequisite for healthy grapes and a good quality. However, the results are also interesting and applicable for conventional vine-growers. The project aimed at adapting vine-growing practices to protect, enhance and promote biodiversity in vineyards. This was achieved with a transfer of knowledge between the partners, to train each other and to develop high quality training materials for vine-growers. The training materials and the implementation of training courses contribute to specify the professional education of a vine-grower and to high quality VET. The partnership consisted of eight partners; of tandems between nature conservation organizations and farmer/wine grower associations in Germany, Spain and Portugal and of an organic agriculture company in Turkey. The partners are experienced in the topic of viticulture and/or biodiversity and while developing each output the exchange of those experiences and the training of each other was the first achievement. The training material support vine-growers to integrate biodiversity into their work. They consist of information materials where knowledge was made more accessible to vine-growers and of specific biodiversity training modules with a focus on systematic analyses of their impacts. All results are available in 5 languages: • Biodiversity Fact Sheet for vine-growers: explains biodiversity, shows links between viticulture and biodiversity and names best practices• Biodiversity Guide in viticulture: introduces on approx. 60 pages typical species in vineyards and gives some interesting facts. Icons were explicitly developed for that purpose indicates areas in the vineyards and measures to promote these species. • Educational videos: a number of videos introduce important measures for biodiversity in viticulture and outlines advantages of biodiversity for making good vines and sultanas. • Biodiversity Check: with this output, comprehensive individual training with external expertise is facilitated to assess potential negative impacts and give recommendations for improvement where necessary. • Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP): a catalogue of possible measures for all viticulture/grape growing relevant areas. It enables vine-growers to manage their biodiversity activities Due to the project, project partners could sharpen their profile in all aspects of biodiversity and viticulture and became national specialists in carrying out both biodiversity training modules. In addition all partner organizations implemented the outputs into their training programs and continue to work in this area. Vine-growers having already received individual trainings could specify their professional education and increase competitiveness. The outputs can be used in different scenarios: in training courses in agrarian schools/universities; advisors or technicians giving advice directly on the field or it can be used by the vine-growers directly. Due to this approach time expenditure for additional time-demanding schooling activities can be reduced. But vine growers still receive the needed knowledge to adapt production methods and to specify their professional education. Most of the outputs can be use directly or with the easy adaptations in other vine-growing regions or countries. The concept of the training materials can be used and adapted to other (agricultural) sectors. This already happened for example for banana production in Central America.

EUROLakes project proposes an innovative, holistic, and science-based approach to safeguarding and restoring European natural lakes and their ecosystems. This project builds upon the 4 Returns Framework for Landscape Restoration, a practical methodology designed to seek sustainable, long-term solutions at the landscape level, with the aim of achieving four types of returns: inspiration, social benefits, natural restoration, and financial gains. This holistic approach is realized through five key elements: establishing a landscape partnership, fostering shared understanding, collaboratively envisioning the landscape, taking coordinated action, and continuously monitoring and learning. The EUROLakes project will establish local communities of practice and, in collaboration with them, develop and showcase innovative, integrated protection and restoration solutions, with a particular focus on nature-based solutions (NBS). These solutions will be demonstrated in three specific areas: Lake Vico in Italy, Lake Bistreţ in Romania, and Lake Dümmer in Germany. Furthermore, the project will highlight the long-term potential for replication by enhancing local capacity in Denmark, Ireland, and Moldova. These approaches will be complemented by modeling activities and the dissemination of knowledge regarding nature finance, contributing to a comprehensive adaptive management strategy aimed at restoring the ecological and chemical health of natural lakes to a "good" status. In this way, the EUROLakes project will directly contribute to the objectives of various EU instruments and policies, including the Water Framework Directive, the Green Deal, and its Mission objective to "restore, protect, and preserve the health of our oceans, seas, and waters by 2030."