Photo 1: Snow-covered entrance to the educational trail in the yard of Fran Krsto Frankopan Elementary School
EDUCATIONAL TRAIL TO BE OPENED AT BROD NA KUPI In April of 2011, PI “Priroda” began with the implementation of SOŽITJE, a project co-funded by the EU and the 2007-2013 IPA Operational Programme Slovenia-Croatia. The project involves four partners, two from Slovenia: Ljudska Univerza Kočevje (Adult Education Centre of Kočevje), the leading partner, and Zavod za gozdove Slovenije (Slovenia Forest Service), and two from Croatia: Risnjak National Park and PI “Priroda”. The Project will end on 31 March 2013. As part of the project, PI “Priroda” has designed and set up “The Way of the Bear”, an educational and didactic trail dedicated to bears, in which the features of Gorski Kotar are linked to the life of the bear. The trail takes visitors through a lovely orchard of old, native types of fruit trees in the immediate vicinity of Fran Krsto Frankopan Elementary School and a small river called Kupica. The aim of the trail is to teach visitors about the basic characteristics and habits of bears, and to help modify the adverse attitude of people towards bears. The orchard through which the trail passes presents a collection of old, indigenous types of fruits trees, mostly apple and pear trees, that are today rare in Gorski Kotar, and the fruits of which bears sometimes enjoy eating. The second half of the trail will be on the Slovenian side of the border. For the needs of the international SOŽITJE Project, 1000 copies of a tri-lingual brochure entitled In the Homeland of the Bear: Kupa Valley and Gorski Kotar Seen through the Eyes of the Rulers of Highland Forests were printed. The brochure supplements the installations set up along the educational trail, and it gives a summary of the basic results of research conducted during the project. In addition to the Croatian language, all chapters of the brochure have been translated into the Slovenian and English language. Like the educational trail, the brochure has an educational role, and it primary aim is to raise the awareness of people in areas in which bears range, that is, in the “homeland of the bear”, which stretches across both sides of Kupa River, and to help create a positive attitude towards the coexistence of people and bears. Written from the viewpoint of a bear, the brochure provides basic facts about the bears of Gorski Kotar and the environment in which they live. The opening ceremony of the educational trail and the brochure launch will begin at noon on 16 March in the premises of Fran Krsto Frankopan Elementary School at Brod na Kupi. Photo 2: A part of the educational trail, displaying the distribution of bear species around the world.
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