SoilSparks Project
Healthy soil is the foundation of our food, climate, and future, but more and more soil is lost and degraded. Protected Areas are not immune to the trend of overlooking soil conservation in favour of other priorities. With this project, we want to spark a change and increase soil literacy in young people interested in nature conservation and protected areas across Europe.
Let’s make a hands-on soil literacy campaign that is built BY youth FOR youth!
This project is lead by Bantani and EUROPARC and is just one of a group of creative soil literacy projects in the SOILSCAPE Consortium.
Lappel du sol, by Henri Robain
Project overview
The project starts with a summer school to increase the literacy of the young creators (June 2026). It will culminate in the International Youth+ Camp (July 2026) in France, where they will be developing microchallenges that promote learning about soil in an active, youth-friendly way.
The rest of the year will be used to develop an online platform for the campaign ideas to be launched and for participants to share their experiences in a safe and accessible way (December 2026).
In 2027 we will be launching the full campaign and aim to have over 1000+ participants join in, with 250+ completing all the microchallenges. This will be evaluated and the results transfered into a toolkit.
There will be an online training on the European Nature Academy to train environmental educators on the toolkit (June 2027) for their own activities and initiatives. The project ends in August 2027.
How can young people get involved?
- Join the summer school to increase your knowledge of soil science, challenges and conservation…
- Then join the International Youth+ Camp in Reims, France and co-create artistic challenges for the campaign…
- Still looking for more? Apply to the Youth Panel to oversee the campaign, giving advice and direction to make it youth accessible along the whole journey!
Applications are now open!
The top participants will have the chance to represent the project at the German Soil Orchestra meeting for all the Soil Projects in the SOILSCAPE consortium or attend the EU Soil Days event together with the project partners.
Join our Soil Summer School
The Youth Council meeting with Youth+ers online
The summer school will cover the basics to soil science and dive into the EU Soil Missions. These include challenges such as degradation leading to desertification, erosion, soil sealing and pollution. It will also cover topics related to conservation such as carbon storage, biodiversity, restoration. Lastly, it will look into science communication in preparation for the future SoilSparks campaign.
- Duration: 4 weeks from the 20th June – 17th July 2026.
- Language: English
- Format: Flipped Classroom with self-paced reading and 2 online discussion rounds per week
- Time committment: 5-10 hours per week including 2 hours for the group discussions in late afternoons/early evenings
- Reward: Certificate from the University of Hohenheim
For those who are students at the University of Hohenheim, you are able to get 4 ECTS for your participation in the summer school.
Join our Youth+ Camp
First in-person meeting of the EUROPARC Youth Council in March 2026
This Youth+ Camp will be focussed on being creative and brainstorming challenges that cover all the EU Soil Missions and learnings from the summer school into microchallenges that young people across all backgrounds could do to learn more about soil in a fun and hands-on way.
- Duration: 23rd – 27th July 2026
- Language: English
- Location: Reims, France
- Cost: food, accommodation and a stipend for travel (350€) will be covered
- Programme:
- Thursday: arrival at the youth hostel in Reims
- Friday: fieldtrip to the Montagne de Reims Regional Park
- Saturday & Sunday: Exploring storytelling methods and co-creating challenges
- Monday: Return home
The Youth Panel
This group of selected young people will be consulted along the whole project duration. This group will help advise the project leads, ensuring the challenges are doable, accessible and interesting for young people.
How can environmental educators join?
We have a few opportunities for environmental educators to join the project; to learn, share and amplify the project.
- Join the summer school! Use this opportunity to refresh your knowledge.
- Apply to join the Youth+ Camp. We have 4 spaces for environmental educators! Preference will be given to Junior Ranger mentors or coordinators at a national level.
- Promote the soil literacy campaign within your network and assist Junior Rangers in participating as a group led by a mentor.
- Join us for the Train-the-Trainer online course on the European Nature Academy in 2027.
- Help us translate the toolkit into your language for broader reach!
We look forward to engaging the whole EUROPARC network of Junior Rangers, Youth+ and environmental educators!
What is SOILSCAPE?
SOILSCAPE is a consortium of partners coming together to increase soil literacy using a diversity of creative media. It brings together many artists and scientists to create 8 Soil Orchestras and Community Working Boards. Each highlights the essential connection between soil, science, art and community, inspiring hundreds of arts-based initiatives. Together, this collective symphony tackles the challenge of shifting societal perceptions, engaging artists, citizens, soil experts and institutions through innovative communication campaigns, participatory art-science activities, cultural initiatives and creative, science-driven soil projects.
Funded by:
