A short introduction and update of the SoilSparks Project run by Bantani Education and the EUROPARC Federation.

SoilSparks – Mobilising our Youth+ Community to create a new educational campaign

Why Soil, and why Citizens?

Soil represents the very foundation of life as we know it. Its rich diversity is mirrored in the various ecosystems it nurtures, ranging from lush primary forests to resilient Mediterranean coastal flora. Soil plays a crucial role in sustaining human existence by providing essential resources for agriculture, serving as grazing land, and enabling the growth of food and other vital materials. Yet, it rarely features in public environmental debate in the way that air or water quality do.

SoilSparks treats this gap as a citizenship issue rather than only a scientific one: if soil health is to improve, people need to understand, think and act in their own communities. Young people are best placed to create momentum for change.

Furthermore, soil is an intricate world in its own right, housing a complex web of inorganic and organic elements. It plays a critical yet frequently underestimated role in the natural cycle of life, facilitating decomposition and the recycling of nutrients that are essential for the health of our planet.

What is SoilSparks?

SoilSparks is about young people co-creating the SoilSparks initiative, to mobilise 1,000+ young Europeans to become SoilSparks Champions – taking real world action for soil. This project is empowering youth from across Europe to co-create a campaign and learning programme transforming soil science into engaging bite-sized challenges – leading young people into innovative digital micro-learning and real-world actions. Led by EUROPARC and involving its junior ranger and Youth+ network, alongside Bantani Education, specialists in entrepreneurial learning, SoilSparks will run for 18 months and is part of the Horizon Europe SOILSCAPE project to build bridges between soil science and society through artistic means.

What has been done so far?

Photo credit: Alberto Madrassi

The first stage of the project has just completed, with young people active in the EUROPARC Federation’s youth networks actively consulted and included in the project. In March, 30 young people from 23 countries were invited to be upskilled on soil science through an online, self-paced summer school programme. This group included almost 30% neurodivergent youth, with ages spanning 18 – 30 years old, and with backgrounds from soil scientists to art students and everything in between.

The young people completed a series of 8 self-paced modules covering the EU Mission Soil and Co-creation processes accessed through a youth-friendly digital learning platform called Learncast. This tool allowed on-the-go learning and each module included audio bits, quizzes, writing tasks and sent the students out to do a hands-on activity. In addition, the students had an online space to introduce themselves, access resources and post their own learning journeys. They also come together once a week for an online session where guest experts were invited to share a snippet of their experience and spark discussion in the group.

Photo credit: Anna-Sophie Kloppe

After a month of learning, 28 young people came together in Reims, France, for a 5-day co-creation camp. The aim of this camp was to continue to strengthen relationships already formed, learn about current conservation methods with a field trip to Montagne de Reims regional park, explore their creative expressions, and co-design challenges to be included in the final educational campaign. This was a resounding success with participants sharing the roles of learning and teaching, shaping the direction of the work rather than responding to a fixed brief. Young people worked hard to transport the project team into the minds of the current youth generations.

How does this translate expertise into public engagement?

The project deliberately routes scientific and institutional knowledge through young people rather than delivering it to the public directly. Soil scientists, EUROPARC staff and Bantani Education, supported by University of Hohenheim and EIT Food, provide the underlying expertise and validate content for accuracy, while the young participants translate this into messaging and challenges designed to work for their peers. This process is intended to keep the science sound while making the final content genuinely usable and valuable for a non-specialist audience.

What is in the planning for the next stages?

The second stage of the project is to design the final educational campaign. The young people are invited to continue working on the project by joining the Youth Panel, and the experts from the summer school and more are joining a Science Panel, assessing the educational components and ensuring it is easy to understand and the latest up-to-date knowledge.

The campaign will launch on World Soil Day on the 5th December 2026 and the young people will help with its promotion, as almost each of them is connected to a volunteer youth group active in a Protected Area or with interests in nature conservation, geology or art. An educational toolkit will be produced alongside the campaign and shared with teacher networks connected to EIT Food, a collaborating partner.

The final educational campaign will be designed for young people aged 16 – 30 years old, in line with EU GDPR and digital safety, and will not only increase awareness on soil and its context in Europe, but will also drive actions that inspire discussions leading to changes in behaviour. Added value comes from mapping the micro-challenges to GreenComp and EntreComp, and using these competences as evidence within SoilSparks digital credentials to recognise the actions taken by SoilSpark Champions.

What is the impact beyond the project?

Photo credit: Alberto Madrassi

The project has clear goals in terms of inclusive co-creation as well as a list of outputs ranging from teacher toolkits, the educational campaign platform and a non-formal educator training for Protected Area staff and other youth educators. All education outputs will be fully mapped to GreenComp and EntreComp. More widely, there are also many intangible outcomes of the project.

The 30 young people participating in the design of the campaign have all undergone an intensive training on the topic of soil, as well as developed friendships across countries. Almost each of them is connected with a youth group actively volunteering in a Protected Area.

Going forward, they are going to share these experiences with their youth groups and strengthen ties between groups leading to a more empowered and connected international community. They will continue to inspire new young people to volunteer, actively engage and participate in such opportunities. However, these are also young people who are highly likely to enter green careers. Considering that the topic of soil conservation is often overlooked in the Protected Area sector, this project will be the spark of new discussions and upskilled young professionals entering this sector and pushing for increased efforts to safeguard this important system.

This project is part of the broader Horizon project SOILSCAPES and is funded by the European Union and the Swiss Confederation.

The winning Junior Rangers team from the Black Forest Biosphere Reserve with the challenge cup. Photo: Wiese Landscape Park Ranger Service.

In glorious weather on the 20th June, around 200 Junior Rangers from Germany and Switzerland put their knowledge and skills to the test at the 10th Swiss Junior Ranger Olympics in the Wiese Landscape Park. For the first time – and entirely in keeping with the spirit of the cross-border Wiese Landscape Park – the event was organised as a binational competition. The Junior Rangers from the Black Forest Biosphere Reserve secured a narrow victory

Once a year, the Swiss groups meet for the nationwide Junior Ranger Olympics to tackle various challenges in teams and complete tasks in the great outdoors. At this year’s tenth edition of the event, 18 groups were out and about in the Wiese Landscape Park, tracking animal trails, building drinking water filters, solving tricky tasks in the forest and decorating the landscape park with land art installations. A unique feature of this year’s event was the participation of Junior Ranger teams from Baden-Württemberg.

Essential: water supplies and the German Red Cross. Photo: Silvan Aemisegger

The entire ranger team at the Wiese Landscape Park was involved in preparing and running the event. Martha Koelbing, a ranger at the Wiese Landscape Park, says: “Due to the high temperatures, we had to move the locations of individual checkpoints into the woods or into the shade at short notice. With temperatures soaring to 33 degrees, we also had to ensure there was plenty of drinking water and ways to cool down. Otherwise, the event would not have been feasible. In addition, a team from the Weil am Rhein-Haltingen branch of the German Red Cross was on standby at the venue.”

Johann Thieme, a ranger at the Wiese Landscape Park and responsible for the Junior Ranger programme, is very pleased with how the day went: “What stood out in particular was the high level of motivation among the Junior Ranger teams. We also succeeded in integrating site-specific topics, such as drinking water production and the praying mantis, into the scavenger hunt, thereby giving the participating teams an insight into our day-to-day work in the Landscape Park.”

Johann Thieme, Head of the Junior Ranger Programme at Wiese Landscape Park. Photo: Silvan Aemisegger.

Through the ‘Junior Ranger Programme’, ranger services in Germany and Switzerland offer a nature-based environmental education programme for children aged between 7 and 15. This helps to inspire children and young people’s enthusiasm for nature and raises their awareness of its conservation and value. Junior Rangers meet ten to twelve times a year in fixed small groups on afternoons when school is out to explore nature in the protected areas, accompanied by a trained ranger. In doing so, they learn about the interconnections in nature and experience exciting adventures. They thus become ambassadors for landscapes, habitats and protected areas in their region.

The Landschaftspark Wiese Junior Ranger programme has been a member of the EUROPARC Junior Ranger network since 2022 and is run by the Swiss Ranger Service. For more information about the happenings of the Swiss Junior Rangers and Young Rangers, check out their website which hosts blogs and more!

News from the EUROPARC Youth Council as they start their 2-year Mandate!

The second cohort of the EUROPARC Youth Council is off to a good start!

The second cohort of the EUROPARC Youth Council were invited to Gut Siggen for the second part of the Siggen Seminar, an annual event dedicated to capacity building and further developments in the EUROPARC Federation. The group were selected by their peers in November 2025 and have met online over the last 3 months ahead of the event.

As a group they are well-balanced and bring a diverse range of perspectives. The group consists of 7 young professionals (from contractors to dedicated staff) working on topics including transboundary parks, sustainable development, nature restoration, community engagement, education, and landscape management. The remaining 3 members are very active Youth+ers, working with non-formal youth engagement and the Junior Ranger programme. They also have regional diversity with all sections having at least 1 Youth Council member active in their area except for Federparchi.

The core criteria for a youth council member:

• Young (19-28 years old)
• Good English competencies
• Active in their local Protected Area as staff or Youth+ or Junior Ranger Alumni
• Passionate about conservation, culture and sustainability in Protected Areas
• From a range of diverse countries and backgrounds (9 countries represented)
• Dedicated to volunteering for 2 years (2025-2027)
• Able to work together online

As members of the Youth Council, they came together through a shared passion for Protected Areas, driven by a common goal to support their legacy while fostering collaboration, networking and connection among young people across borders. Through advocacy, learning and active engagement, they aim to empower youth, strengthen our network and contribute to a more sustainable future built on growth, progress and continuous improvement.

The role of the Youth Council: To represent and be the voice of young people of Protected areas and the EUROPARC Federation

Supporting the work of EUROPARC

During their time on the Youth Council, they aim to amplify youth voices across all EUROPARC spaces, engage and empower young people in conservation, build stronger human-nature connections, and create inclusive communities, ultimately making a meaningful impact and growing together as confident leaders for nature. Similarly, as a network and the directorate, it is up to us to help them develop their competencies by creating opporunities for them to learn and participate.

The Youth Council members play an important role as a bridge to ‘on-the-ground’ members and activities, playing a similar role as a section. They are the link to young professionals or stakeholder groups such as Junior Rangers and Youth + . They bring energy and new experiences sharing these with the youth representative sitting on the EUROPARC Council, in the sections in which they can be actively included, and also in the newly established working groups.

They can also promote EUROPARC and its work as ambassadors, by being active voices in conferences, workshops, in their own organisations and in their studies. They play an active role in the European Youth in Parks Day (15th of September), determining a youth priority for the theme and actively organising youth-led activities within their own Protected Areas.

First in-person meeting in Gut Siggen

The in-person meeting at Gut Siggen proved to be an essential and transformative step in strengthening the foundations of the Youth Council. While online collaboration enables continuity, coming together physically has allowed them to build trust, deepen connections, and engage in more meaningful and productive discussions. This shared experience enhanced our understanding of one another, clarified our collective role within the EUROPARC Federation, and reinforced our shared responsibility to represent and amplify the voices of young people in Protected Areas across Europe.

Such in-person collaboration is an investment into effectiveness, cohesion, and long-term impact of the Youth Council. With renewed motivation and shared direction in place, they are well-positioned to contribute meaningfully to EUROPARC’s mission and to actively participate in shaping a more inclusive and sustainable future for Protected Areas across Europe.

Stay tuned to their activities by following EUROPARC on social media (and @youth.europarc on Instagram)!

If anyone wants to make a direct connection with a member of the youth council, reach out to Jessica Micklem-Kolenić from the EUROPARC Directorate who can assist you further.

The Latvian national parks paired up to help a Croatian National Park start their own Junior Ranger programme.

Expanding the Junior Ranger programme through Erasmus+ projects

The Erasmus+ project “Environmental awareness-raising of young people from protected areas”  was a small-scale partnerships project between Gauja National Park Fund (Latvia), Ķemeri National Park Fund (Latvia), Krka National Park (Croatia) and Leader Sepra (Finland). Over the course of two years, it aimed to inform and raise interest of young people about environmental issues in Europe, partner countries and local territories and create possibility to participate and express their opinion through existing youth organisations such as the Junior Ranger Programme, scouts and others.

The project included research into good practices from junior rangers in Latvia, scouts in Finland, and pilot activities in Croatia in the field of non-formal methods, looking at how to involve the teenagers in nature protection and increase their environmental awareness. Not just that, the project also looked even deeper, exploring a the motivations for youth engagement and incorporating them into their youth programmes.

Download the new guide for the EUROPARC Junior Ranger programme and read all about it!

Download it here: Guide

During last two years the project partners had three successful study visits and an international final event in Krka National Park, developing a Junior Ranger Programme and a motivation system for young people which resulted in Krka National Park being the first Croatian Protected Area to implement a EUROPARC Junior Ranger programme in recent years. This programme focused on a first cohort of 20 young people and was strengthened by the project partners, improving environmental knowledge and creating visibility materials. In addition to the establishment of a junior ranger group in Croatia, the number of young rangers and volunteers also grew in Latvia.

The successful realisation of project activities brought numerous benefits to all project partners, involved participants as well as participant organisations. The initiative, aimed at young people aged 13 to 30 (including both Junior Rangers and Youth+), focused on nature protection, environmental restoration, and sustainability. Designed to be inclusive and engaging, the activities encouraged participants to develop practical skills needed for biodiversity monitoring, deepen their understanding of environmental issues such as pollinator declines, and strengthen their motivation to protect nature by building a sense of connection to Protected Areas.

Beyond environmental education, the programme fostered valuable social connections. Participants not only made new friends locally but also built international ties, learning about each other’s countries, cultures, and languages. These exchanges enriched the experience, broadening horizons and inspiring continued collaboration across borders.

Partner organisations reported strengthened youth programmes and expanded professional networks, alongside the adoption of innovative educational methods. The project’s strong visibility in local communities further inspired reflection among young people and their families, helping to spread a culture of environmental responsibility.

Participating schools, particularly those connected with the Junior Ranger and Scout movements, benefited from additional extracurricular activities that attracted new students and strengthened community ties. Municipalities gained from the public attention surrounding environmental education, with hopes that some participants may pursue future careers in nature conservation as biologists, foresters, or park rangers.

Protected Areas near the project sites also played a key role, sharing their expertise with participants and expecting that some will one day return as employees or advocates for conservation. Educational workshops with Junior Rangers and scouts are set to continue, with the newly established Junior Ranger group in Krka National Park already planning future activities and seeking to welcome new members.

The project’s success has set a strong foundation for future initiatives dedicated to youth education and environmental stewardship—demonstrating that engaging young people in hands-on learning can inspire both local and global impact.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.