Pictures © Barbara Knowles and Demeter László

Ecology, landscape and conservation

Local enterprise and agriculture

• Study tours. Each year we organise one or more study tours to give local farmers, young entrepreneurs and village mayors an opportunity to learn from communities outside Romania how to set up and run successful activities and businesses to provide new employment and business opportunities, revitalise their communities or gain grants for new projects. Recent tours gave delegates the opportunity to learn about a quality milk production project in Hungary, a family owned meat processing company in Slovakia and how to develop a successful B&B in Austria. In May 2010 we supported a study tour to the Peak District National Park in England, where 15 delegates learned about a wide range of rural enterprises that allow hill farmers to make a living in a protected landscape. Many of these enterprises could be replicated in our region of Transylvania. Sponsor a delegate on a study tour, at £350 per person.
• Milk processing facility. The rural economy is dominated by milk production, since milk and cheese are the main or only cash items sold by traditional farmers here. EU food hygiene regulations and falling milk prices mean that this way of life, that has sustained the communities for generations, will become impossible without adoption of modern methods and facilities. Without an income from milk, farmers must sell their cows, and the productive hay meadows - sustained by traditional methods for centuries and full of flowers and animals rare or extinct in Western Europe - will be abandoned to scrub or ploughed up. Working on a successful model pioneered by the ADEPT Foundation, we will set up a milk processing facility in the region to provide practical support for the rural economy. This social enterprise will buy milk from local farmers at a fair price, train and employ local staff, and produce new high value milk products that comply with the new regulations. It will share the benefits between the employees and investors.

Children/education

• Outdoor environmental education for local schools. We are developing a range of activities to teach children about the wildlife and ecology of their region, and why it is important to conserve these special habitats and species. Outdoor activities are a good way to forge a positive emotional connection in children towards their environment and its natural treasures. We already run some very popular outdoor lessons on the life of ponds and streams, and are developing new education resources on hay meadows. Sponsor an outdoor lesson for a class at £25 per group, or the development of new activities at £75 per activity
• Stories about nature and us. This project will raise community awareness of their connections with the natural environment. We will ask children to collect stories about their natural environment, related to a specific place. Selected stories will be published in a book, recorded on film, and communicated through the media and websites. We aim to enhance the cognitive and emotional bond between children from rural areas and their natural environment, and raise awareness amongst children and through them in the community about the spiritual and practical value of the relationship between man and nature, when people know and use nature for their needs, but in the same time they respect it.
• Holidays for children from local children’s homes at Lake Balaton (Hungary) or North Yorks Moors (UK). Several excellent children’s homes operate in our region, run by the St Francis Foundation and the Csibész Foundation. Friends in Hungary and Yorkshire have offered free accommodation for children from these homes to enjoy a holiday. We are seeking sponsorship for transport, activities and excursions to make these holidays possible.

© Barbara Knowles