First assignment of group n° 018
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First description of our project[modifier | modifier le wikicode]
First description of our project's idea
Title of your project
WalKop
1. What Problem do you want to solve ?
Each year in France, one inhabitant throw out more than 400 kg of trash. Of course it seems impossible to tackle the problem of all the trash in France. That’s why we will focus on hiking paths.
Why hiking paths?
Green tourism in France attracts lot of tourists. People who do hiking want to enjoy the forest, the sun and fresh air. Nevertheless sometimes they can’t due to the trash that some people have thrown away in the nature, hiker left disappointed. Thus, our problem is to clean our lands through a passion.
Besides hikers have to face other difficulties: - To lose yourself with badly signed hiking paths - Being hurt doing hiking on a not enough maintained trail : compared to Canada’s or America’a ones, we’re bad. Students and scouts have to validate a quota of civil service per year. We want to make people think about it. To make them keep trashes in their bag during their trip.
2. Why does this problem exist?
Such a problem exists as the french State did not invest enough money and human ressources to preserve forests and hiking places. In Canada for example, many politicies exist in order to keep forests clean and green. In France, it does not actually exist. Moreover, people are not always interested in taking care of the environment, they still don't think it's a big issue today. In 2015 that’s a huge problem. Due to the lack of investments, people doing hiking do not always find bins or markers on paths, they loose themselves as they’re unable to position in the forest. Paths are not well enough signed.
3. What breakthrough are you commited to creating?
Reduce risk and develop hiking in France
1- With partnerships with colleges / high schools and local departments:
- To educate youth, adults of tomorrow, about the environment, including the impact of each waste forgotten in the forest. - To establish a environmental trip service in schools - To obtain subventions and / or sponsorship for the purchase of necessary materials, food and extras.
2- To contribute to safeguarding the environment: - Improve the quality of the experience of green tourism by arranging and cleaning trails - Fewer hiking accidents - Facilitate the sense of orientation in the trail
3- To enable young people to engage in a solidarity project: - Rewarding experience with responsibilities - To discover nature by enriching his knowledge and skills - To discover new interests / passions during free time
A SMALL GESTURE FOR A BIG IMPACT Our goal is to show teenager the big impact of a few hours of work.
GIVE TIME TO GAIN CULTURAL RICHNESS. When we search our first student job, we are often asked to already have a first experience with responsibilities. Green Path provides it to you with an extra.
FREE TIME TO IMPROVE OUR ENVIRONMENT. In France we count 340 trails which means given the 56 156 km hiking trail, the 8000 volunteers are not enough to face the situation. In the long term we hope to increase the number of projects.
Potential experts already identified
Please mention the potential experts (name, affiliation, likelihood to convince him/her to join the final panel)
- Décathlon
- Fédération française de la randonnée, siège à Paris
- Fédération du scoutisme francais, siége à Paris
- Scouts et Guides de France, Lille Flandres
- Foreign tourists that use to do hiking in France and all over the world
Article about the project
Forests – a natural weapon against global warming
COP21 took place in Paris from 30th November to 11th December 2015. This 21st conference gathered more than 150 head of state from everywhere to take action for the environment. The event allowed the countries to find new international agreements in order to keep the global warming below 2°C.
What is the global warming? It is the consequence of greenhouse effect, a natural phenomenon increased by human activities such as intensive farming, deforestation or oil combustion. This issue concerns everyone, because we daily emit gases such as carbon dioxide when we drive. This year, the concentration of these gases reaches record levels.
In fact, the concentration of carbon dioxide was 270 parts per million at the end of the 19th century, today it is 400 parts per million. Trees and overall play a key role in our environment. They participate in regulating atmospheric carbon level thanks to the process of photosyn-thesis. Indeed, forests all around the world absorb a third of CO2 emitted by fossil fuels like oil and coal. These figures already show the importance of taking care of our forests.
According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), forests and other wooded land are mainly consisted by shrubs or bushes. Thickets of woody plants, represent more than 40% of the land surface. Nevertheless, forests do not just fight against global warming, they are also the homeland for more than half of terrestrial biodiversity. The forest is a fabulous subject for researchers. With plants that can be found there, drugs are developed and also we use the wood to build homes, furniture. Forests are the natural shelter of animals that can follow the biodiversity cycle. Furthermore, they are the dwelling place for some human tribes. They also represent an opportunity for family to enjoy fresh air on Sunday. They are rest area for walking and recreation. They allow people to go biking or running. For all those aspects, we have to respect forests. It means stopping polluting them. People pollute green spaces by leaving bottles, scraps, plastic wrap, etc. Those actions put in danger the ecosystem and the overall living species.
Face to the problem of forests’ pollution we must react, change our behavior and educate the future generation by explaining the current situation, its causes and its consequences. Some people already take part of an awareness movement like Leclerc stores with their campaign “Nettoyons la nature!” which gathers voluntary people across Europe for 3 days. The French association “Let’s do it!” organizes a similar operation during one day in forests, along rivers and streams in the city. Our project “Range ta forêt” is a continuation of these movements and aims at raising awareness about pollution and climate change. We want to involve people in our project and make them understand that if they want to walk in clean forests, they have to participate. They have to understand their role in the preservation of the ecosystem. “Forestry is not about trees, it is about people”. Jack Westoby, former expert at the FAO, already understood the importance of the forests in 1989. We want to emerge the idea that we are able to understand the stakes forests represent in our territory.
