Good examples

A Visit to the Beautiful Demoiselle and Wood Ants at Alatskivi
The Padakõrve Nature Reserve, famous for its abundant ant population, is situated some ten kilometres from the Alatskivi Nature Centre adjacent to the Alatskivi Manor Park. A river runs through the Alatskivi lakes to Lake Peipsi. The nature education program A Visit to the Beautiful Demoiselle and Wood Ants focuses on introducing the local aquatic life and the ants protection area to the public.

The Beautiful Demoiselle (calopteryx virgo) is among the most common and easy-to-recognize dragonfly species in Estonia. Because of this, it has been chosen as the mascot for the local aquatic life program, and used for the presentation of all our dragonflies, their life cycle and natural enemies. The ʻAnt Kingdom' is introduced using a model of the Wood Ant (formica rufa) nest, which forms a part of the program presenting forest life. However, after seeing the model, the visitors are encouraged to walk the trails of the Padakõrve Nature Reserve themselves in order to understand how the Ant Kingdom works. More than 2,500 visitors have visited the Beautiful Demoiselle and Wood Ant displays over the last two years (2008-2009).

Kullamaa Forest Sages
Under the management of Lembitu and Silvi Tarang, MTÜ Kullamaa Arboreetum has been implementing environmental consciousness programs for more than ten years, arranging excursions and walking tours for school pupils both at local nature trails and in protected areas elsewhere in Estonia. In addition to this, training courses have been arranged for forest owners.

According to Lembitu, he and his wife have wanted to work with young people ever since the years they spent teaching at the Luua Technical School. "Today, distinguishing between birch and alder leaves is often difficult even for country children," explains Lembitu when asked about the reasons for working with young people. As a hobby, they have created one of the most prominent private dendroparks in Estonia – at the beginning of the millennium, it listed over 500 taxons. Today, the number is somewhat smaller, but still well over 300.
The dendropark also forms a part of the local nature trail. The trail (a little over 1 km long) is provided with signs marking the ʻliving quarters' of beavers, various grassland types, ant nests and key biotopes. This year, Lembitu and Silvi intend to arrange walking tours for pupils of the Kullamaa Secondary School.

Detectives in Pursuit of Artificial Additives
Over the last two academic years (2007-2009), a special kind of detective work has been taking place at the schools on the island of Saaremaa. The local pupils have investigated the additives contained in soft drinks. First, the soft drink labels were examined and the true colours of e-substances indicated there were revealed by an expert. The properties of some of the substances were also determined chemically – acidity, for example.

According to Anneli Teigamägi, the teacher of chemistry at the Saaremaa Ühisgümnaasium, the most immediate feedback of the project "Additives in Soft Drinks, I and II" was that many of the pupils who had chosen some of their favourite soft drinks for examination decided to revise their preferences after closer investigation into the contents. Many of the children had the opportunity of educating their parents based on the knowledge learned at school. According to Teigamägi, the schools have expressed their interest in the program this academic year as well.
Since trans fats were the subject of heated arguments in Estonia in 2009, some of the teachers and parents have suggested that the good and bad qualities of fast food and sweets should be considered in more detail as well. (Photo: Internet)

Plastic Bags Kill!
"At first glance, a plastic bag seems like a good friend. It helps you to carry your purchases and keeps things clean. However, all of the benefits are gone as soon as it ends up discarded in the natural environment. Once there, the plastic bag becomes a killer bag." Consumers were warned in these words as a part of the anti-plastic-bag campaign Killerkott (Killer Bag) lead by Junior Chamber International GO Koda.

Such campaigns have been arranged all over the world and have received considerable publicity. Plastic bags carelessly thrown away disintegrate into flakes or completely fail to disintegrate and endanger the lives of many millions of animals. The plastic can clog their intestines, choke or poison them. Moreover, mass use of plastic bags entails wasting non-renewable natural resources, since oil is the base material of plastic bags. Let us be honest – it is not so difficult to reduce considerably the use of plastic bags by using cloth or other natural material bags instead. In this respect, awareness is the key.

In spring 2009, with support from the EIC, JCI GO Koda arranged an extensive anti-plastic-bag media campaign in Estonia. Warnings about the hazards associated with plastic bags were broadcast on TV and radio and displayed in print and outdoor media. The campaign leaders explained the gravity of the issue in the media. According to survey results, as much as 75 per cent of the Estonian population was aware of the campaign. The results suggested that the use of plastic bags is decreasing the most among younger people with a higher income. The percentage of people using bags made from natural materials and reusing plastic bags is on the increase as well. The same goes for the percentage of people aware of the dangers associated with plastic bags.