On the eve of the New Year, the Baikal Nature Reserve School has overcome a new significant milestone: the total number of children and adults who attended eco-lessons and excursions about the importance of water conservation and responsible waste management exceeded 5,000 people! We are glad that the Baikal Nature Reserve School serves as a place of attraction, environmental education and leisure for so many tourists of the Zabaikalsky National Park and local residents of the region.
The Baikal Nature Reserve School opened its doors on June 10, 2021 on the territory of the Zabaikalsky National Park (Republic of Buryatia) in order to contribute to the improvement of the ecological culture of visitors through involvement in the process of sustainable waste management and studying the composition of water in local reservoirs. The distinctive features and key values of the site have become its inclusiveness, interactivity and innovation, which are manifested in all elements of the site, starting with the design of the premises and ending with the training of teachers. This approach ensures that environmental knowledge is accessible to everyone, including socially vulnerable categories of the population.
In 2021, the school’s teachers conducted 376 classes for children and adults from 28 regions of Russia and 2 foreign countries: Belgium and Germany. Among the visitors are tourists, students of educational institutions, families with children and even colleagues in the conservation business, including specialists of the Krasnoyarsk Pillars National Park (Krasnoyarsk region) and the Dzherginsky Reserve (Republic of Buryatia), interested in sharing experience in the field of environmental education.
According to the teachers of the school, many students became interested in the issue of recycling waste and were able to look at the problems of environmental pollution from a different side. The interactivity of the process played an important role in the assimilation of new knowledge, because visitors can, for example, follow with their own eyes the process of turning a plastic bottle into a household item through all the intermediate stages and touch the result of recycling. Consolidation of the acquired knowledge and skills is an important stage in the formation of ecological culture, which is also emphasized by the program of the Baikal Nature Reserve School.
In 2021, it was not without difficulties: due to the difficult epidemiological situation in the region, the Baikal Nature Reserve School did not receive visitors for two weeks during the summer season, and in winter switched to an off-site mode of operation. However, this did not prevent us from achieving high results in the dissemination of environmental knowledge and environmental education of the population.
The project does not end there, the Baikal Nature Reserve School will continue its work in 2022, developing new directions of eco-educational practices within its walls. Before the start of the tourist season, the site will operate on the basis of the administration of the Federal State Budgetary Institution «Zapovednoye Podlemorye» in the village of Ust-Barguzin, and it will be possible to visit it by sending an to ecopros@pdmr.ru In the summer, the school will return to the space of the geo-dome located at the checkpoint of theZabaikalskyNational Park.
Follow the news of the project on the website and in social networks. in the networks of the Foundation and the Federal State Budgetary Institution «Zapovednoye Podlemorye»”, and we hope to see you among the visitors of the Baikal Reserve School in 2022!
In 2021, the Baikal Reserve School project is being implemented with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation.