A school education programme for Romanian pupils

Hariet Homm, Christoph Promberger, Barbara Promberger-Fuerpass, Annette Mertens, Munich Wildlife Society, Linderhof 2, D-82488 Ettal, Germany

The Romanian Carpathians form the most important stronghold for wolves (Canis lupus), brown bears (Ursus arctos), and the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Europe. The socio-economic changes after the fall of communism will lead to habitat alteration and changes in the hunting system, which will present a threat for these carnivore populations.

Children as the next generation will be responsible for the long-term survival of wolves, bears, and lynx. For this reason, the Carpathian Large Carnivore Project, a joint initiative of the Munich Wildlife Society together with the Romanian State Forest Administration, has initiated a school education programme about large carnivores, which was funded by WWF International. Based on experiences from other countries such as Canada, Switzerland, or Austria, we developed three packages for local primary and high schools in our study area.

• An interactive children booklet, illustrating a new little red ridinghood story, aims at grade 3-4. Little red ridinghood follows an owl through the forest and experiences the true nature of the three carnivore species.
• A package with interactive information sheets aims at grade 6-8. It includes the creation of large carnivore related handicrafts, games, and background information about the ecology of the species.
• A background information package for teachers to create attractive and informative lessons for biology courses.

Here we present a selection of the material with English subtitles.