The project is being implemented with support of the Central Baltic Programme 2014-2020 (www.centralbaltic.eu). Project CB786 “Nature Access to All (NatAc)”. The total budget is 965 773 €, including funding of European Regional Development Fund 762 932 €.
Environmental Board’s budget is 126 968 €. Funding: the European Regional Development Fund (www.centralbaltic.eu) and the Environmental Investment Centre (www.kik.ee)
The project result:
- 14 existing nature sites in three regions (Kurzeme, West-Estonia and southwest Finland) improved to become accessible to all, , including people with disabilities, seniors, young families travelling with baby-strollers etc;
- travel guide (guidebook) and website (looduseleligi.ee) on accessible nature tourism destinations in western Latvia, western Estonia and southwest Finland.
- tourism-related products and solutions for people with disabilities (tactile objects, information in Braille script, audio and video solutions, information signs, senses-based solutions etc). From Environmental Board nature interpretation toolboxes and methodology for disabled people. Toolboxes will mainly focus on the traditional senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch. Study tour to Denmark to learn best practice – experience exchange visit by all project partners, municipality and tourism specialists.
The implementation period:
01.05.2019 – 31.10.2021
Target groups:
- Local and foreign travellers
- Tourism entrepreneurs and service providers
- Local municipalities and nature parks
- Non-governmental sector uniting people with disabilities
Partners:
- Kurzeme Planning Region (Lead Partner), Latvia
- MTÜ Lääne-Eesti Turism (NGO West-Estonia Tourism), Estonia
- Keskkonnaamet (Estonian Environmental Board), Estonia
- Metsähallitus, Finland
Chest of senses for nature interpretation
As part of the project, last year we created a new and innovative educational tool, which helps to interpret nature for people with disabilities, particularly – with visual and hearing impairments.
The educational tool is designed as a hemispherical case that contains a set of elements found in nature. There are three types of cases: forest, bog and coast. The cases can be discovered and experienced by children or adults together with the nature education specialists or guides. It gives students the opportunity to discover natural textures, sounds and smells, and draw connections between the objects. In the pockets there are different plants, stones, fossils, plaster animal foot-prints and eggs and many other stuff, which allows to understand flora and fauna through the five key senses. There are also numerous tactile cards in each case characterizing each of the ecosystems with tangible photos of animals and plants, as well as QR codes with animal and bird sounds. There are 28 assignments in total,
and each case can be used in nature or indoor.
If you are interested in hiking a nice trail and learning about nature in an engaging and playfyl manner, feel free to contact us and ask for an excursion! Read more: Chest of Senses | Keskkonnaharidus
Chests of senses have been made with support of the Central Baltic Programme 2014-2020 as part of the project CB786 “Nature Access to All” (NatAc).
Information provided by:
Margit Turb
Project Manager
Tel.: +372 518 6747, [email protected]
The final conference of the project “Nature Access for All” took place in Ventspils on 23-24. September 2021. The participants were from Latvian municipalities and project partners from Estonia and Latvia. The Environmental Board was represented by Nele Sõber as a member of the project steering group and Margit Turb as the project manager. The aim of the project was to improve the availability of nature tourism in Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The project activities made several hiking trails, fishing areas, nature education even more accessible to people with special educational needs (including wheelchairs, prams, blind people, people with hearing impairments, etc.).
The event was organized as a cozy event. In the first part, presentations on the project activities and achieved results were presented through the eyes of both the project's lead partner and the Latvian organization Apeirons, which brings together people with special needs.
We became part of the experience of how to stay active in a wheelchair. However, Nele Sõber took the participants' thoughts towards possible further activities by introducing the Healthy Parks Healthy People program, which started in Australia and has been coordinated by the European Union of Protected Areas since 2019. The aim of the protected area program is to raise awareness of the benefits of nature in improving health, to develop a cross-sectoral network (social + environmental) at both local and European level, and to share ideas and experiences.
After the lectures, we went on an excursion to get acquainted with examples of accessibility in the Ventspils region. The second day became especially active when we got acquainted with the work done on the 8 km long hiking trail.
Acessibility Day in Estonia was taking place in Pärnu on 14.08.2021.
In the first half of the seminar day, Christel Sogenbits from the non-profit association Challenge Your Minds, Toomas Mihkelson from the Pärnu Chamber of Disabled People and Silver Pulk from the Pärnu Association of the Blind shared their experiences and ideas for improving the accessibility of natural objects. The main view was that existing infrastructure, in particular, needed to be made more accessible. It is also very important that information stands, websites and other information solutions also take into account people with special needs.
In the second panel discussion, Tatjana Koor from Enterprise Estonia, Anneli Lepp from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and Kaja Lotman from the Environmental Board discussed further activities. It was emphasized that a large budget is not always decisive, but that goodwill and proper planning are the keys. To obtain a result suitable for the target group, experts from the target group should be involved already in the planning of activities.
Margit Turb, the environmental education specialist of the Environmental Board, was pleased with the meaningful discussions. "Hopefully, the thoughts and conclusions that emerged from the conversations will contribute to new steps. Many solutions, such as fishing and recreation places and information stands in Western Estonia, are good directions that are worth taking an example from,” she said.
In the courtyard of the beach hotel, people could test their minds. Those interested could try to move around in a wheelchair on different slopes and obstacles. They also got an idea of how to move blindly with a guide dog and use smart devices, and introduced braille and descriptive translation. It was also possible to get acquainted with various hearing aids and test the waving. Through various simulations, it was possible to test how difficult it is to perform daily activities, for example, in case of muscle weakness or rheumatism.
The Environmental Board offered those interested the opportunity to participate in recreational trips on the Pärnu coastal meadow hiking trail. The Environmental Board has developed a “mindless” or meaningless educational tool that can be used to perceive odours related to nature and tactile objects. The needs of the blind and deaf have been taken into account when creating the teaching aid. The marshes are bog, forest and coastal themed and can be borrowed from the Environmental Board.
Accessibility Days in Latvia, Estionia and Finland were organised to give a chance for disabled families to meet and spend time together, while hiking, seeing new trails, learning about nature through various senses and simply spending an exciting day in nature.
Accessibility Days were organised with support of the Central Baltic Programme 2014-2020 as part of the project CB786 “Nature Access to All” (NatAc). Estonian day was organized by MTÜ Lääne-Eesti Turism, Pärnu City Government and the Environmental Board.
Information provided by:
Margit Turb
Project Manager
Tel.: +372 518 6747, [email protected]
At the beginning of May, a webinar on accessible nature tourism was organized. The webinar was attended by 365 participants from all over Europe.
The accessibility of nature from the user's point of view was presented by Sanna Kalmar, a Finnish travel blogger and accessibility expert. The experience of the Central Baltic with nature accessibility solutions was shared from Latvia by Alise Lūse, the lead partner of the NatAc project, and the experience of Southern Europe was by Dafne Farré Lladó, an environmental education specialist at the Barcelona Nature Parks Network.
Hosted on May 7th 2021 through EUROPARC Federation´s channels, this webinar was organized by the EUROPARC Federation and the Nordic-Baltic Section, the Environmental Board, the Kurzeme Region, MTÜ West-Estonian Tourism, Pärnu City Government and Metsähallitus. Supported by the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of the Central Baltic Program 2014-2020 project "Nature Access to All".
Video of webinar "Why and How to Make Nature More Accessible"
Link to EUROPARC webpage: Why and How to Make Nature More Accessible? - EUROPARC Federation
Presentation by Sanna Kalmar "The Meaning of Accessible Nature – Being outdoors as part of the national identity (PDF)"
Presentation by Dafne Farré Lladó "Don't Stay at Home! Accessibility in the Natural Parks Network of Barcelona Provincial Council (PDF)"
Presentation by Alise Lūse "Nature Accessibility Solutions & Promotion of Understanding in the Central Baltic Region (PDF)"
Videoclip about Chest of Senses is available on the Environment Agency's YouTube channel. The presentation was prepared for the webinar and is in English.
The guidebook for Chest of Senses with rental information is available on the environmental education portal in the study materials section. See more on the English page: "Chest of Senses".
The Chest of Senses is a toolbox for introducing nature to those who cannot see or hear. Just before Wetlands Day, Priit Kasepalu, Vice-Chairman of the Estonian Association of the Blind, introduced the bog case to Marko Reikop. You can see the program on ETV's website (in Estonian).
The Chest of Senses is a hemispherical case designed to teach children and adults with visual and hearing impairments to the nature of forests, bogs and coastal areas. The tool can also be used by regular users. It gives the opportunity to discover natural textures, sounds, smells and draw connections between the objects.
Teaching aids in Estonian 8 sets and in English 2 sets. The methodological guide of the study tool has also been translated into Latvian and Finnish.
Read more from portal of environmental education.
#keskkonnaamet #natac #centralbaltic #natureaccesstoall
The Environmental Board and the Ministry of the Environment of Estonia invited teachers, specialists of nature and environmental education centres, nature guides and all other interested parties to participate in the virtual conference "Protect what you love!" The conference took place on the Worksup platform on October 21, 2020.
Margit Turb from the Environmental Board and Peep Jürmann from the design agency Velvet introduced a new educational tool for nature learning - Chest of Senses, which is created within the framework of the Interreg Central Baltic 2014-2020 project Nature Access to All.
The video presentation can be found on the environmental education portal of Estonia (in Estonian).
At the beginning of March 2020 in Pernova Nature House, the seminar “Accessible nature tourism – why and to whom?” had almost 50 participants – including entrepreneurs, nature lovers and local government representatives.
In the first half of the day, introductory presentations of the project “Nature Access to All” took place and the theoretical and practical possibilities of developing accessible nature tourism were discussed. In the second half of the day, travellers with special needs shared their experiences and challenges in using nature tourism services. Jakob Rosin shared his thoughts from the perspective of the visually impaired, Tom Rüütel from the mobility impaired, Jari Pärgma from the hearing impaired and Liis Niinemets from the perspective of the mother of a special child.
The meaningful seminar day ended with exciting discussions in the tables, where answers were sought on how to overcome the obstacles to the development of accessible nature tourism.
Anneli Haabu, [email protected], tel + 372 527 0660
Last updated: 06.10.2021