My 12 months as a European Solidarity Corps Volunteer with the European Wilderness Society have finished and it was again time to pack up my bags and move to a different place. The time in Tamsweg has really flown by within this exciting opportunity to work in nature conservation and live in the beautiful UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Lungau. In summary, this year was....
Author - Ziva Alif
In the middle of March, between the 16th and 19th, I was supposed to attend my Mid-term Training. I was already looking forward to spend a couple of days in Salzburg, meeting and sharing my experience with other volunteers. Yet, unfortunately, Corona arrived and instead, I went into quarantine. I soon forgot about the Mid-term, believing I’d still go to....
For me, the lockdown was happening at an incredible speed. All the new measures the government announced one day after another – not only in Austria, but also in my home country Slovenia – meant that the first few weeks seemed like months. Never before have I seen our lives transform at such a high speed. One day, I was working in the office, hanging out....
Living in Tamsweg in the centre of the Alps provides one with a great opportunity to experience the true winter. A winter where the temperatures often go below -10°C in the mornings and where there is snow for several months. The first snow was already back in November and the 30 cm we received in one day caused power shortages and large transport issues. However....
On the Black Friday, the 29th of November, the European Wilderness Society team headed to Salzburg to participate at the Fridays for Future protest. At 15.30 we met in front of the railway station where the protest started, together with two other volunteers, Abigail from Baden, Austria, and Andi working in Munchen, Germany. Together we marched through the city....
Last two weeks were vey busy for me, as I went to my graduation ceremony in Oxford, followed by a meeting in Eberswalde. Thus, before I started my trip, there was also a lot of work in the office in the preparation for the Youth Green Conference, Insect Respect and Respect Nature projects next week. So last Tuesday I took the train back to Ljubljana in order to catch....
This week I organised my own project named Insect Respect, funded by Eure Projekte, in Finstergrun castle. I did a great workshop as a special guest with over 50 children at big youth event that the European Wilderness Society organised. All the kids were excited to learn more about insects and build insect hotels. In the morning, there was a presentation on what....
Biff, Hanna and me spent the last week in Slovenia in the search for wolves. While we were working hard during the day for European Wilderness Society, we worked even harder each night, driving around on dirt roads in deep forests in hope to hear a wolf. All this was a part of the annual wolf monitoring where we volunteered for four nights in a row. I’ve done....
Last week I was super excited for the first team trip to discover some Wilderness out of the office. This time, we didn’t go very far from home – I mean my own home, Ljubljana. We went to Soča river valley, one of the jewels of Slovenia. As the area is rather far and inaccessible from Ljubljana, I have wanted to go there on a trip for a few years now and....