As part of their biology class, students of 4° class (G8/Y9) have discovered the concept of sustainable development.
On May 21 2010, a workshop in the Part de la Tête d’Or allowed teachers to study the concept of sustainable development.
This educational sequence was organized in two steps:
First step = Outdoors workshop
After giving the devinition of sustainable developtment*, the animator shows the way through all outdoors installations in the park to discover the importance of the well thought-out use of natural materials that are used while respecting the environment: the giraffes’ house built in larch wood.
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This material presents many assets linked with its rustic character, its great growth potential and its lanscape value, but mostly with the quality of its wood. Larch wood is original by two aspects: natural durability and excellent mechanical properties make it perfect to create structures in external conditions. |
The problems linked to invasive species ** have been developed with the example of turtles from Florida that are collected by the park and gathered in a specific pond.
Towards the 1970s, Florida turtles were massively imported from America through European pet shops. This became a real trend that was supported for two decades at least by sellers who kept on “forgetting” to explain to buyers that these dwarf turtles (no bigger than a 1€ coin at birth) would grow to 15 – 20 cm and weight 2 to 3 kg. From 1989 to 1994, more than 4 million turtles have supposedly been imported and sold in France.
In France, a recovery programme has been established. The welcoming sites have signed a charter that confirm their commitment to care for the healthy individuals that they retrieve and shall use them to bring awareness to the general public.
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In August 2006, the Part de la Tête d’Or Zoo in Lyon inaugurated its Center for recovering Florida turtles. That way, the garden hopes not to witness more anonymous abandonment that would be detrimental to the ecosystem and the balance of co-existing species. Now, if someone wish to leave a turtle, they will need to go to the park’s administration to receive a deposit slip. |
The zoo wlecomes animals from all around the world. It spreads over 6 acres and hosts several hundreds of animals, including great mammals, some of them being very rare such as the Atlas lion that went extinct in the wild in 1922. A scientific collaboration bring some of them together in the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire of Lyon.
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The visit of all enclosures was the occasion to discover the international an european programmes for the breeding of endangered species that the parc joined, such as the Panthère de l’Amour. |
The EEP European Programmes for growing and protecting endangered species appeared in 1985. These programmes aim at initiating, monitoring and offering guidance to favor the breeding of enfangered species while protecting its natural caracteristics.
Recommendations are published yearly to explain which animal should breed while others will not, which individuals should be transferred from one zoo to breeding farms… In order to prevent consanguinity issues, zoos proceed in exchanges of individuals, prevent the breeding of some animals with consanguinity, or better one given population.
This theme made our students particularly enthusiastic.
Second step = indoor activity
The activity took place in the form of a game based on challenges on the theme of sustainable development. This activity has been a source of great motivation for all students.
Acknowledgments :
We were lucky enough to enjoy perfect weather during this outing.
We wish to thank all the chaperones.
Thank you also to students for their keen interest in this animation and for their behavior throughout this outing.
* Développement Durable : The expression « sustainable development », first appeared in 1980 in the World Conservation Strategy, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UICN).
A few years later, it will spread with the publishin in 1987 of the report on World Commission on environment and development, Our Common Future (report Brundtland, Head of Commission, Mrs Gro Harlem Brundtland). The definition recongnized today comes from this text: “a development that answer the present’s needs without compromising the capacity for future generations to answer theirs.”
** Invasive species: foreign species that develop without constraint and invades a an environement.
