Bioclimatic Park – Project idea

The challenge of this project is to connect climate awareness raising activities and best ecosystem-based practices addressing adaptation needs at local level with view to be replicated at national and transnational level. The project will have synergy positive effect  on local population and rural land: it will bring positive changes in awareness rising and knowledge of people in the area of climate issues, climate adaptation and mitigation measures, it will bring higher biodiversity to the area, higher climate resilience, will improve quality of agricultural land in the area, will bring self-sufficiency of the area (independence from external energy sources, external water sources, etc.) and it will present fully replicable example for anyone who is interested.

While the most important decisions regarding climate mitigation and adaptation to climate change are made mainly at the global level, local actions are the key to success. Adaptation planning is practically about deciding how to deal with an uncertain climatic future. Approaches to adaptation need to be flexible so that they can respond to new conditions when they arise and become foreseeable. Consequently, it is not possible to make the adaptation planning by only one measure. A complete set of relevant knowledge is required to make the best adaptation decisions. Adaptation is therefore a complex issue also within the local area. The environmental issues in focus of the project are ecosystem based climate adaptation issues for soil and agricultural land, water regime, loss of biodiversity, effective use of natural sources.

That’s why this information and awareness rising project proposal would like to bring a real change to the part of Slovakia (region of Zilina and Trencin) in area of climate change adaptation in rural areas. It would be such a change which could be presented to interested stakeholders in any time in the future even after the project ends. By raising awareness through the practical actions (learning – by – doing) in local communities we can help to contribute to a more environmentally conscious and friendly place for us to live. Crucial parts of this project are practical workshops for stakeholders directly in the field, where they can directly participate on creative process of climate adaptation measures. This is crucial innovative aspect of the information and awareness rising project. During information activities, we will not be passively lecturing about how to do climate adaptation measures, but the participants will do the measures themselves. We believe that such approach will bring dramatic change into the thinking of the local people.