Communities & Education for Global Goals: a summer of learning and fun

The GSA Biosphere’s Community & Education team has reached the end of a busy summer leading projects and activities across the UNESCO region.

Biosphere Communities is one of our flagship schemes, with thirteen villages and towns now carrying our Proud Supporter logo and partnering with us in initiatives that develop climate resilience, lifelong learning, and support biodiversity in shared green spaces. The Biosphere Communities scheme has a lot of overlap with standalone projects, such as the SDG Trail which launched in June this year. The trail mixes physical and digital, encouraging exploration of local sites and getting involved through volunteering or simply trying something new. Each stop on the SDG Trail highlights a community or third sector group that is meeting one of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We know of course that people are striving towards SDGs in many more communities than those that appear on the trail – in fact we could have created the SDG Trail many times over! Groups and sites within the Biosphere Communities are especially active, as these areas are already engaged with the UNESCO ethos of sustainable development. Officers on our Community & Education team decided to run a mini project to find out more about what’s happening and where, to widen awareness of the amazing work underway across Galloway and Southern Ayrshire.

A few examples follow with loads of links for people to find out more and get involved – and please do share this page with others.

Sanquhar Enterprise Company has been involved with riparian tree planting on the Braehead Path using saplings grown from seed at HMP Dumfries. This meets SDG15: Life on Land.

Kirkcolm Community Hub has a calendar of events including a Christmas market and pantomime, coffee mornings, a family trip to Glasgow Science Centre, and regular ‘Welcome Wednesdays’ with an evening meal and entertainment at low cost.  This meets SDG10: Reduced Inequalities.

The New Town Hall & Bunkhouse at Whithorn (pictured) provides sports facilities including a gym and boxing club, meeting SDG3: Good Health & Wellbeing. They have also been awarded the Biosphere Certification Mark this year!

The MaidSafe Foundation is providing fantastic STEM education provision to primary schools and families in Ochiltree and further afield in Ayrshire, meeting SDG4: Quality Education.

Ballantrae Rural Initiative Care in the Community (BRICC) runs a thrift shop, encouraging people to reduce, reuse and recycle and meeting SDG13: Climate Action.

The Glentrool Hive has a thriving community garden, making nourishing, seasonal food more accessible to local people and meeting SDG12: Responsible Consumption & Production.

So that they can keep sharing more of the above, the Biosphere Communities have now formed a remote network, meeting online to discuss projects and ideas. Plans are for this to develop into a regular network of Biosphere Community meetings, through which individuals and groups can benefit from others’ knowledge and experience.

Parallel to the above is our own Biosphere Footsteps programme, designed specifically for our Biosphere Communities. This workshop series covers a variety of topics particularly around climate change and biodiversity, with events held indoors or outdoors and adapted to the needs of the locality. Our team delivered a number of Biosphere Footsteps workshops over spring and summer 2024 as part of our extensive lifelong learning offer which provides led sessions and supporting resources to schools, community groups, and businesses.

In April we ran bird workshops in partnership with the British Trust for Ornithology in the Biosphere Communities of Barrhill and Colmonell. We were thrilled to see how popular these events were as they opened our ears to the sounds of spring, and helped us better understand the number and species of birds that live alongside us. Later on the High Focus habitats of the UNESCO Biosphere were highlighted in workshops held at Moniaive and Dalry, where we explored flora and fauna in local green space. Over in Kirkcolm, one of our newest Biosphere Communities, we held a Bluebells and Birdsong event, and the sold-out Seashore Safari on the shores of Loch Ryan in June. Up in Ochiltree – the first Biosphere Community to be designated in East Ayrshire – we assisted the MaidSafe Foundation with one of their summer holiday STEM days focusing on biodiversity and a ‘love nature’ theme, delivering activities for children in the village’s beautiful community garden. In September we were part of the brand new Glentrool Forest Festival which had its HQ at Glentrool Hive; Antoine and Faith from the Biosphere team delivered a led a nature walk (pictured) and an indoor workshop on ‘Dragons & Damsels’. And last but not least we were at Ballantrae on South Ayrshire’s stunning coast, demonstrating wildlife recording using the iNaturalist app and taking new citizen scientists to try their skills outdoors.

We will continue to deliver workshops on interesting topics in our Biosphere Communities, which local people and visitors are all welcome to attend. These events are a great opportunity to connect more closely with some amazing rural communities and to learn something new about nature, heritage and the UNESCO Biosphere. Don’t forget that everything on our Learning programme is bookable on request – all of the above plus accredited Carbon Literacy training, Blue Biosphere and Learning for Sustainability workshops for young people, and our Biosphere Guide Training Course that supports small business start-ups. Find out more on our Learning page or email info@gsabiosphere.org.uk for any queries or to arrange a call back from a member of our officer team.