AND SO IT BEGINS! EUROPEAN NATURE ACADEMY Induction Meeting in Schneverdingen, Germany
ENA Induction Meeting
From 13 to 17 February, LIFE ENABLE launched the European Nature Academy (ENA). 59 Natura 2000 and Protected Area managers from 24 countries gathered in Schneverdingen, Germany!
The event was hosted by LIFE ENABLE project partner, Alfred Toepfer Akademie für Naturshutz.
The meeting introduced the ENA platform, which will offer online competence-based courses and capacity-building opportunities, especially for managers of Forests and Marine ecosystems. The courses are designed to provide a range of tailor-made modules that will enable Natura 2000 and Protected Area managers to become more effective, confident and competent practitioners in their everyday work.
Networking the ENA participants
The Induction meeting was designed to bring the first intake of ENA participants together. The 3-day programme included a variety of interactive sessions to let participants get to know each other, connect and share their experiences from the Natura 2000 sites and Protected Areas that they manage.
Through a World Café, participants introduced themselves and each other to their places of work and compared management challenges and practices.
ENA Induction Meeting World Café
Learning Styles
Participants compared their preferred Learning Styles – whether people learn more visually, aurally, by reading, by kinaesthetic means or in multimodal ways – understanding the different ways individuals learn will be useful for the rest of their ENA journey.
ENA Induction Meeting Learning styles
Interactive sessions
Multiple interactive sessions enabled participants to unwrap core competencies that apply in their work, including Personal Communication Competencies, Communication Tools & Social Media, and Written & Presentation skills.
Furthermore, participants practised using the new Training Needs Assessment Tool developed by LIFE ENABLE project partners, ProPark.
Additionally, they were introduced to the European Nature Academy platform, Marine, Forest and Train the Trainers Courses.
Working as teams
To facilitate collaboration and co-learning, participants were allocated to sub-groups, which we have called learning ‘PODs’. Working in their PODs, they worked through the Impact Assessment Exercise on Thursday – having completed the exercise’s 4 steps, each POD prepared and presented the results of their work.
Meet our nine ENA PODs:
1. Adaptive Seagulls
ENA POD Adaptive Seagulls
2. For-rest
ENA POD For-rest
3. Forest Gump
ENA POD Forest Gump
4. Resilient Forest
ENA POD Resilient Forest
5. Forest Navigators
ENA POD Forest Navigators
6. Power of Diversity
ENA POD Power of Diversity
7. Yellow Submarine
ENA POD Yellow Submarine
8. We Can! (We, Culture and Nature)
ENA POD We Can!
9. Oak
ENA POD Oak
The best is yet to come!
Based on the pure energy, positive enthusiasm and hunger to learn so openly evident in the Induction meeting, we could not have asked for a better start to the European Nature Academy.
It is already clear that the connections being initiated by the ENA will last long beyond the LIFE ENABLE project’s duration.
We whole-heartedly thank all our ENA-ers for their commitment and positivity and wish each and every one of them huge success in their professional development as they embark on their ENA journey.
Creating Memories
Make sure to check out the highlights from the Induction Meeting in a short video and photo album: