Beneficiary:   The Bieszczady National Park

Slovak partner:   Poloniny National Park

Implementation period:   01/06/2018-31/05/2019

Realized project value: € 54 779.33 , including ERDF co-financing: € 46 562.42 ,

The Bieszczady National Park and the Poloniny National Park are places where the natural heritage is at your fingertips. The project assumed the modernization of the cross-border route Nowa Sedlica - Kremenaros - Wołosate and the creation of a Polish-Slovak educational garden in the Park in Wołosat. It has been embellished with many species characteristic of the flora of vascular plants in the Bieszczady Mountains. Workshops for teachers and guides were also organized. Moreover, in order to preserve the natural and cultural heritage of the borderland, the employees of the Bieszczady National Park and the Połoniny National Park participated in workshops in two border protected areas in Germany and the Czech Republic - the Bavarian Forest National Park and the Šumava National Park.

The main activities carried out under the project:

• Organization of workshops for teachers and guides to prepare staff to conduct classes in the "Mountain Guardians" program . They were attended by 24 people - 12 each from Poland and Slovakia, who will in the future create staff supporting border national parks in the implementation of the Mountain Guard program. The main aim of the five-day workshop was to introduce the Bieszczady nature, its problems and ways of protection. The workshops took place on the Polish-Slovak border - in the Bieszczady National and Polonina Nationals. During the workshops, there were classes on nature paths, as well as first aid and herbalism training. At night, there were astronomy classes entitled: "Heaven that connects", because in the Bieszczady Mountains there are ideal conditions for observing the night sky due to slight "pollution" with artificial light.
• "Nature at your fingertips" - modernization of the educational infrastructure by modernizing the cross-border route: Nowa Sedlica - Kremenaros - Wołosate . The educational garden created as part of the project allows you to get to know the habitats of plants characteristic of the Bieszczady Mountains, using various senses - sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. We will see here both species typical for natural (forest and meadow) and semi-natural (meadow and pasture) habitats, as well as species planted by former inhabitants as ornamental and utility plants. In the garden, there are also typical rocks that build the Carpathian flysch and teaching aids for recognizing tree species with a dendrophone, which, by taking out sounds from acoustically selected tree species, teaches you to recognize the grain and color of the wood at the same time. There is also a board with the wingspan of various species of birds (the so-called winged friends) and knowledge cubes, i.e. rotated cubes with animal species and their tracks and tree species typical of the Bieszczady Mountains. The task also included a presentation on the planted species in Polish and Slovak as well as the collection of documentation of the origin of the planted plants. The garden is accessible to disabled people in wheelchairs. sensory plants were placed on an elevation made of a stone wall to ensure their accessibility. There were 50 people from Poland and Slovakia, mainly teachers, guides and other border residents.
• "Together we can do more" - workshops in the National Park of Bavarian Forests and Šumava . Employees of the Bieszczady National Park (6 people) and the "Połoniny" National Park (6 people) participated in workshops in two border protected areas in Germany and the Czech Republic - the Bavarian Forest National Park and the Šumava National Park. good practices and exchange of experiences in the field of management and protection of border areas. During practical field classes, employees of BdPN and PN Polonina got acquainted with the educational infrastructure on footpaths and trails. Undoubtedly, a visit to the Bavarian Forest National Park and the Šumava National Park will be a source of new ideas in educational, research and design activities, and will contribute to strengthening the existing cross-border cooperation between the Bieszczady National Park and the Połoniny National Park, and at the same time more effective protection of the natural and cultural heritage of the Polish-Slovak borderland. There is also a mobile information point, which is a common stand for both parks at various events and festivals in the border area.