Picture of Nature

Today young people in Europe are usually bias towards living in urban areas with little contact with natural environment. In order to inspire young people to spend more time within the natural countryside of Europe, there is a need for attractive approaches to topics concerning environmental protection, ecology, sustainable development and promotion of protection of the environment.

Giving a mandate to photography, and giving young people a stake in their rural environment and a reason to spend more time outdoors we hope to motivate them to protect the environment of their own countries and across Europe against both the ravages of climate change and also the encroachment of urban areas and issues such as littering or dumping of waste in areas of natural beauty. Photography can be a powerful tool for this as it provides young people with a sense of accomplishment in taking a good photo, allows for easy sharing and therefore increase visibility of the issue and can inspire young people to protect their environment. By teaching young people the skills of landscape photography in the beautiful countryside of the host, young people are given a stake in the environment and a solid reason to want to preserve it.

Specific objectives of youth exchange are:

• to stimulate young people's spirit of initiative using method of creative photography for their ability to create pictures,

• to promote photography as a tool of protecting environment,

• creating the space for acquisition of knowledge and skills useful for persons' professional development,

• fostering mutual better understanding of ecological situation and culture in countries of participants and develop a sense of ecological awareness,

• to campaign against climate change and environmental degradation using offline and online tools,

• to encourage youth to further influence media, in the topic of ecology, in their own countries,

• to promote cross-border cooperation in the fight against climate change.