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The aim of the Sustainability and Environmental Education in Outdoor Sports (SEE) project is to develop, through the constitution of a solid European network and an increased sharing of competences, concrete instruments for environmental education through outdoor sports. The objective is to build a toolkit giving outdoor sports instructors the tools to integrate sustainability principles into their daily work and to educate their clients/students on ecological issues and how to minimise the impact of the sport they practice.
To achieve this, the partners involved in the programme are seeking to meet on a regular basis throughout the three years of its funding. Two initial discussions had already been held in Serbia and Portugal, but the last meeting in this sense was organised from 7 to 11 March at the CREPS in Vallon-Pont-d’Arc.
In order to move forward with the construction of this toolkit, the members of the CESN invited a certain number of national experts to speak about the environment and outdoor issues. Whether it be trainers from the CREPS, the teacher in charge of the caving sports section at the Vallon-Pont-d’Arc secondary school, the project manager at the National Resource Pole for Nature Sports (PRNSN), the educational leader, the director and the elected representative of the SGGA, the member of the Conservatory of Natural Spaces or the people in charge of the Bird Protection League, they all contributed their know-how and their knowledge in terms of environmental and sports education.
In addition to these local players, the floor was also given to international specialists: the members of Trash Free Trails, for example, made their contribution by presenting their programme to reduce single-use pollution on trails by encouraging citizen participation in “outdoor adventures”. The partners of SportNI and Leave no Trace were able to share techniques for organising environmentally friendly bivouacs.
However, these theoretical exchanges would not have been so valuable if they had not been accompanied by practical activities in the field! In this context, the invited European partners and experts directly put their discussions into practice by participating in climbing, caving and mountain biking activities in the heart of the National Nature Reserve of the Gorges de l’Ardèche.
On this occasion, they discovered innovative educational tools, used daily by the local instructors accompanying them. Caving guide Eloïse Coutaz and climbing guide François Laupin led introductory sessions on their activities, learning technical sports skills while integrating environmental and heritage education.
As the meeting was placed under the sign of sustainable mobility, all of the travelling was done on (e-) bikes. The mountain bike ride to the bivouac in Gaud allowed the partners to discover the Ardèche landscape, its biodiversity, its geology and its human heritage through sport. The commitment of the CREPS instructors during this exchange also enabled the members of SEE to immerse themselves in real micro-adventures combining mountain biking, caving and a rapid crossing of the Ardèche in a kayak.