Protected Areas Open Days at Nature Park Medvednica, Croatia
June 2nd, Zagreb, Croatia – Nature Park Medvednica celebrated its Protected Areas Open Day in the framework of CEETO project and under the theme “accessibility and inclusion of all visitors”.
Last Sunday, the Public Institution Nature Park Medvednica organized the CEETO Protected Areas Open Days at the Parks’ main entrance Bliznec from 10am till 3pm. The main topic of this event was Accessibility and Inclusion of All Visitors and aimed to remind Park visitors there are many persons with disabilities that face a challenge when they want to visit the Park. For this reason, an invitation to visitors to arrive to the Park by public transportation, on foot or by bicycle was made.
Visitors at the Protected Areas Open Day - Photo by Nature Park Medvednica
At the event there were several institutions who work with people with disabilities (blind, mental problems, physical disabilities…), who had the opportunity to present their work and their projects:
- The Association for Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO) and the Croatian Association of Beekeepers “Pčelinjak” and “Propolis” introduced their project of inclusivity school for beekeepers and etiquette for better understanding of people with disabilities;
- The Institution for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons by Professional Rehabilitation and Employment (URIHO), presented possibilities of professional rehabilitation and their employment, as well as the beautiful hand made products for sale;
- The Rehabilitation Centre Silver promoted their puppy walking programme for the future service dogs;
- The Zagreb Association of the Blind introduced walking with the blind and lecture on the rules how to lead a blind person;
- The Zagreb Association of the Blind and their Mountaineering section helped the organization and realization of the educational walk through the Park;
- The “Mali dom-Zagreb”, a public institution that operates as a daycare center for the rehabilitation of children and youth, introduced their programme and products, organized a visual simulation with different visual impairments (glasses) for visitors, and showed different works of their clients;
- The Rehabilitation Center from Ilica presented the art work of their clients and their programme.
Exhibition of the Puppy Walking programme - Photo by Nature Park Medvednica |
Presentation on inclusion of people with disabilities - Photo by Nature Park Medvednica |
Exhibition on bee-keping by the associations- Photo by Nature Park Medvednica |
An organized educational guided tour along the Forest trail Bliznec (trail adopted for people with disabilities) was organized for persons with disabilities, together with lectures on nature protection:
- Underground fauna of Veternica cave, ADIPA, by Mr. Roman Ozimec;
- Bats of Veternica Caves, HBSD, by Vida Zrnčić;
- Creek crabs on Medvednica, PMF, by students of Molecular Biology;
Guided tour along the Forest trail Bliznec - Photo by Nature Park Medvednica
About Nature Park Medvednica and CEETO Pilot Protected Areas
Get further information on the natural values, touristic offer and tourism management challegnes that this park is facing by visiting the Nature Park Medvednica webpage and by watching the short video-teaser below:
Watch Nature Park Medvednica video-teaser online
Furthermore, you can visit all the CEETO Pilot Protected Areas in which different and innovative models for sustainable tourism are being tested.
