{"id":1041,"date":"2021-10-07T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/?p=1041"},"modified":"2021-11-12T05:54:16","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T05:54:16","slug":"onj-beta-community-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/onj-beta-community-feature\/","title":{"rendered":"ONJ &#8211; beta community feature"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"804\" height=\"605\" src=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5665.png\" alt=\"ONJ - post cover\" data-id=\"1042\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5665.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/?attachment_id=1042\" class=\"wp-image-1042\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5665.png 804w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5665-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5665-768x578.png 768w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5665-16x12.png 16w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 804px) 100vw, 804px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"726\" height=\"545\" src=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5664.png\" alt=\"Graz\" data-id=\"1044\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5664.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/?attachment_id=1044\" class=\"wp-image-1044\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5664.png 726w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5664-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5664-16x12.png 16w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 726px) 100vw, 726px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Friday, Oct 1, 2021.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are invited into the ONJ headquarter in Graz to our first formal meeting with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.naturschutzjugend.at\/\"><u>Austrian Nature Protection Youth<\/u><\/a>. You might have read about ONJ in our August newsletter, where we welcomed one of ONJ\u2019s nature education centers, the <a href=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/community\/storchenschmiede\"><u>Stork Forgery<\/u><\/a>, as a beta user community to the ARK. Well, this feature is about the admirable organization behind the Stork Forgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I set the Stork Forgery back in 2017 as the location for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greensteps.me\/hoopoe-summit-2021.php\"><u>Hoopoe Summit<\/u><\/a>, I hardly knew anything about ONJ. A friendly relationship with Ilse Szolderits, regional ONJ coordinator and Stork Forgery manager, resulted in an introduction to Susanne Plank, the current head of the national organization. Susanne is a biologist and pedagogue who abandoned her PhD in search of making impact with nature education. She found in 1997 her home in ONJ and is since a few years the first female head since the organization\u2019s inception in 1952.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ONJ is in terms of members a rather small organization compared to the usual suspects in Europe like <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pfadfinder_und_Pfadfinderinnen_%C3%96sterreichs\"><u>scouts<\/u><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%C3%96sterreichischer_Alpenverein\"><u>alpine association<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;or <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Naturfreunde\"><u>friends of nature<\/u><\/a>, but after my meeting with Susanne and our visit to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.naturschutzjugend.at\/biberburg\/\"><u>Beaver Castle<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 another education center like the Stork Forgery &#8211; I am inclined to rank ONJ in terms of climate positive impact in pole position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ONJ not only sets its educational focus on primary school children (up till age 10 in Austria) and therefore works with the age group where most impact can created in terms of lastingly establishing sustainable behavior and habits; it also owns and maintains 165ha (read 1.65 million square meter) of land to conserve or restore biodiversity. ONJ is therefore a rewilding organization par excellence and contributes significantly to the diversity of human and non-human nature. The organizational motto \u201cnature for youth \u2013 youth for nature\u201d and the triple action diagram \u201cexplore nature, experience nature, conserve nature\u201d reflect this on paper; I had the opportunity to see ONJ in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"954\" height=\"734\" src=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.10-AM.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1045\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.10-AM.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/?attachment_id=1045\" class=\"wp-image-1045\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.10-AM.png 954w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.10-AM-300x231.png 300w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.10-AM-768x591.png 768w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.10-AM-16x12.png 16w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 954px) 100vw, 954px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"985\" height=\"749\" src=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.01-AM.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1046\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.01-AM.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/?attachment_id=1046\" class=\"wp-image-1046\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.01-AM.png 985w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.01-AM-300x228.png 300w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.01-AM-768x584.png 768w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-7.18.01-AM-16x12.png 16w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 985px) 100vw, 985px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Susanne showed me one location for human and another for non-human rewilding during this visit. Saturday noon she took me to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oenj-steiermark.at\/index.php\/oeko-inseln\/inseln\/156-grazer-urwald\"><u>Grazer Urwald<\/u><\/a>, a 3ha large plot in the city\u2019s green belt where a 19\/20<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0century landscaping entrepreneur planted and collected among other foreign species two <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sequoiadendron_giganteum\"><u>giant sequoias<\/u><\/a>. ONJ runs since years day camps on the ground and opened in 2019 a day care nature education center which deserves the highest Forest School certification available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"564\" src=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/limited-use-of-plant-species-diversity-in-agriculture-1024x564.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/limited-use-of-plant-species-diversity-in-agriculture-1024x564.png 1024w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/limited-use-of-plant-species-diversity-in-agriculture-300x165.png 300w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/limited-use-of-plant-species-diversity-in-agriculture-768x423.png 768w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/limited-use-of-plant-species-diversity-in-agriculture-18x10.png 18w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/limited-use-of-plant-species-diversity-in-agriculture.png 1056w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>https:\/\/www.bioversityinternational.org\/fileadmin\/user_upload\/online_library\/publications\/pdfs\/Agricultural_biodiversity_and_food_security_Chapter5_2003.pdf\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Our second destination is a Natura 2000 area along the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oenj-steiermark.at\/index.php\/oeko-inseln\/inseln\/142-woerth\"><u>Lafnitz river<\/u><\/a>, where ONJ has purchased 13ha of agricultural land and busies its members with the restoration of natural biodiversity. A patchwork of plots of different size surround the Beaver Castle, an old farm which was turned into ONJ\u2019s regional base for education and conservation. Susanne tells me that corn and spruce monocultures threaten the natural biodiversity like nothing else in Austria \u2013 and ONJ tries to intervene wherever possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-layout-2 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-industrial-farming-reduces-biodiversity-1-589x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1296\" width=\"383\" height=\"666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-industrial-farming-reduces-biodiversity-1-589x1024.png 589w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-industrial-farming-reduces-biodiversity-1-173x300.png 173w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-industrial-farming-reduces-biodiversity-1-768x1335.png 768w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-industrial-farming-reduces-biodiversity-1-884x1536.png 884w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-industrial-farming-reduces-biodiversity-1-7x12.png 7w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-industrial-farming-reduces-biodiversity-1.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 383px) 100vw, 383px\" \/><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/foodprint.org\/issues\/biodiversity-and-agriculture\/\">https:\/\/foodprint.org\/issues\/biodiversity-and-agriculture\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<p>The maintenance of ONJ eco-islands is labor intensive. The wetlands need to be mowed twice a year and the meadow cuttings need to be removed from the land. The difference between fertilized and renaturated meadows or agriculturally exploited land and land left to itself is however striking as the pictures below show. While the fertilized meadow grows green grass only, the renaturated meadow on the right is home to a substantial variety of plants and insects. Susanne showed me the yellow pipe grass, which was used in the past to clean tobacco pipes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"901\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5673.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1048\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5673.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/?attachment_id=1048\" class=\"wp-image-1048\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5673.png 901w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5673-300x165.png 300w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5673-768x422.png 768w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5673-18x10.png 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 901px) 100vw, 901px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"807\" height=\"605\" src=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5674.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1049\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5674.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/?attachment_id=1049\" class=\"wp-image-1049\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5674.png 807w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5674-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5674-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/IMG_5674-16x12.png 16w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 807px) 100vw, 807px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We are looking forward to a lasting partnership with ONJ!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We met with the head of Austrian Nature Protection Youth into the ONJ headquarter in Graz. The first step to a lasting parnership.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1297,"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions\/1297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ark.greensteps.cn\/page\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}