Nature activities
Nature walks and guiding trips
During my Biology study I started out learning bird songs in 1980. Therefore, I got to know the Dutch organization IVN that organizes courses to become nature guide. In the spring of 1985 she got her diploma as a nature guide. Thereafter, I have been guiding nature walks in the environment of my hometown Leiden. In 1989, I became a tour guide with a travel company, SNP-natuurreizen, that is started by three biologists from Nijmegen University in 1987. During the years 1989-2000 I guided nature vacation trips in various European countries.
Pushing Earth Overshoot Day to December.
The Dutch text can be found by clicking the button right below this text.
Press release "How do we push Earth Overshoot Day to the end of December?"
On Saturday, March 30, 2024, a day will be organized in THUIS Wageningen (Stationsstraat 32) to ensure that Earth Overshoot Day is moved to later in the year. The event lasts from 10 a.m. to approximately half past four.
What is the Dutch Earth Overshoot Day?
Earth Overshoot Day is the day on which more products are consumed worldwide than the Earth can produce in one year. If every world citizen were to live like a Dutch person, it would fall on April 1, 2024 this year. That is much too early. Everything we consume after that date is intended for subsequent years. All that extra consumption comes at the expense of other people elsewhere in the world and at the expense of our children and grandchildren.
Our climate mayor Pauline Schakenbos thinks it is important to consider this. She welcomes this initiative and cordially invites everyone to come and think and act.
What are we going to do?
There will be a few talks on this Saturday, March 30, 2024, and organizer Lia Hemerik would like to collect with her colleagues and us, the Wageningen people, ideas for what we could do ourselves to achieve this 'overshoot day' later in the year. It obviously means that we have to use up our 'resources' less quickly, and that requires more conscious (and less) consumption, reuse, and other forms of food production that less deplete the natural resources of soil, water and raw materials in other countries.
To find out what you and we can do, four 20-minute talks have been planned, with plenty of time in between to talk about what you want and/or can do to put less burden on the earth, and also what you would advise others to do ( for example supermarkets, governments, your family, your employer). By exchanging ideas and tips, this day offers a lot of inspiration to contribute to postponing Earth Overshoot Day.
The overview of dates for Earth Overshoot Day for different countries
https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/
and the footprint survey
Nature guide course 2022-2023
We, Wim Chardon, Maja Stavleu and Lia Hemerik have organized and coordinated a course of more than 50 meetings (theory evenings and excursions) for a group of 34 persons. We had the help of many enthusiastic nature lovers to get to the result of 32 persons graduation at July 1, 2023.
see picture to the left (32 new nature guides and the three coordinators)
Toadstoolweekends KNNV
I have participated in two toadstool weekends of the KNNV Wageningen in the last years. Here I described my experiences and some toadstools.
Fluted bird's nest (Dutch Gestreept nestzwammetje)
trembling Merulius (Dutch Spekzwoerdzwam)
August 2020
Starting to organize a climate course in the environment of Veenendaal, Rhenen, Wageningen and Ede in the Netherlands. The first planning was to start in November 2020, but due to a lock-down because of Covid19 we (Ida Marsman, Marjolein Beukeboom and me) now plan to start in January 2021. see also the Dutch text (https://www.ivn.nl/afdeling/veenendaal-rhenen/nieuws/klimaatcursus-van-start-in-ede-en-veenendaal and https://www.ivn.nl/afdeling/ivn-ede/activiteiten/klimaatcursus-van-start-in-ede-en-veenendaal)
climate course "the green change"
This activity is organized by Ida Marsman, Marjolein Beukeboom and Lia Hemerik during 2021. The report is only available in detail in Dutch.
The participants with their certificates
IVN activities
From 1984 onward I first have been involved in writing the book "experience the dunes" (Beleef het duin"). Thereafter, I moved to Wageningen and came to be a member of the IVN department in Ede, the Netherlands. For this department I have been organizing a lot of different courses, gathering yearly the information for the excursion program and keeping the statistics of the excursions. For an overview see activities for IVN .
10 requirements to be a garden reserve
1. As little pavement as possible
2. Plant plants that attract animals
3. Make ponds with a natural shore
4. Greenery near or against the facade.
5. Natural property separation
6. No harmful pesticides
7. Do not prune during the breeding season (March 15 to June 15)
8. Compost heap
9. Junk corners and heaps of branches
10. Nest boxes and places to stay for birds
IVN course on climate change: The Green Change
Before the year 2020, we were all working very hard on climate goals. But that's a bit snowed under now that we are all still partly in lock down. The world seemed to stand still for a moment. The advantage of the lock down is that It is now becoming increasingly clear how people and the climate mutually influence each other. The course on climate is called the Green Change. In this course climate change is placed in a broad perspective and links between climate, nature and sustainability are explained. This course also aims at activating people by offering them tools to help themselves to take action. With knowledge about the ecological footprint, climate communication and climate justice participants are expected to design an action plan. At the end of the course you have a solid basic knowledge and skills to inspire and influence your environment to obtain a more positive, sustainable way of life.
here you can find the press release (in Dutch) of the climate course that will start in November 2020
