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Villages Go Green

Villages Go Green inspires children, teachers, and local communities in Northern Cyprus to connect with and protect nature through educational activities, excursions, and hands-on conservation initiatives. By combining environmental education with practical action, the project helps build a stronger culture of nature conservation at the grassroots level.

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About the Project

In March 2022, ÇADER, a non-profit civil society organisation founded in 2005 in Northern Cyprus, successfully completed an Environmental Protection Project for Northern Cyprus, funded by the VGP Foundation and administrated by NABU International.

Building on the experience gained through this initiative, ÇADER launched the Villages Go Green project, which aims to further encourage nature conservation at the grassroots level and expand awareness-raising activities to more schools and villages. The organisation plans to organise excursions, tree-planting activities, and educational programmes for schools.

Excursions

As part of the previous project, ÇADER conducted nature excursions during which both children and adults were given the opportunity to observe birds in the wetlands of Famagusta and engage their senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch in the Salamis Forest to better connect with nature.

Future excursions, which will take place in spring and autumn, will focus on migratory birds. Children, teachers, and villagers will explore their local natural habitats while learning to appreciate and protect nature.

The project plans to organise 18 excursions to the Famagusta wetlands, of which 15 will be for schoolchildren, 3 for trainee teachers, and 3 for villagers and their children. In addition, other local excursions will be organised, such as orchid walks in the nearby mountains to discover wild orchids.

 

Education

ÇADER will continue to distribute its project-based nature education materials to at least eight additional schools and organise further nature excursions for these new schools. The knowledge and experience gained through the project will be compiled into an online handbook for primary and preschool teachers, helping them introduce environmental education into their classrooms.

 

Bird boxes

A total of 100 bird box kits will be distributed to primary schools. Building these bird boxes has proven to be highly motivating for children, encouraging them to learn more about local bird species, an important step towards their protection.

 

Summer school

The project also aims to continue its summer school programme, during which children from local villages spend the day with ÇADER while participating in a variety of activities. These include decorating reusable cloth shopping bags to help reduce the use of plastic bags, which pose a danger to local wildlife, and drying fruit as a healthy alternative to sweets.