Ecoregion Mentor Training Completed

Over the past years, Green Steps has gradually expanded its mentor training into a three-level learning pathway that connects place-based learning with bioregional education. With the publication of the Ecoregion Mentor Training, the educational framework is now complete, allowing participants to progress from supporting individual learning communities to facilitating collaboration across entire ecoregions.

The mentor pathway follows the nested structure of the Green Steps ARK. Community Mentors learn how to moderate local learning communities and school classes. Commons Mentors deepen this experience by designing place-responsive educational formats and supporting collaboration between communities. The new Ecoregion Mentor Training extends this perspective to the bioregional level, preparing participants to coordinate learning across an ecoregion and support the development of Commons and Community Mentors.

The training also introduces one of the central ideas behind the ARK: ecoregions are not only ecological units but meaningful territories for nature conservation governance and environmental education. While most educational programs are organized around administrative boundaries, ecosystems rarely follow political borders. Learning to understand one's home through its forests, rivers, mountains, grasslands and species distributions provides a complementary perspective that strengthens ecological literacy and regional stewardship.

To support this objective, the Ecoregion Mentor Training includes practical assignments in which participants research and document the ecoregions of a selected country. The first educational best-practice examples have been developed for Spain and Azerbaijan by our ESC volunteers Adrian Camacho Sanchez and Zahra Aghazada. These publications demonstrate how the same methodology can be applied in very different ecological and cultural contexts while following a common structure. They are intended both as learning resources and as templates for future mentor contributions.

These new publications build upon earlier regional overviews such as the Ecoregions of the Balkans and Ecoregions of the Soviet Union, gradually expanding the ARK library into a growing collection of bioregional learning resources. As additional countries are documented by mentors, the library becomes increasingly useful for educators, municipalities, youth organizations and nature conservation initiatives seeking to connect learning with the ecological realities of their region.

Watch the recording of the first training cohort:
- Session 1: https://youtu.be/Zu7LBe-KEVA?si=jlnUW8w5XvPWDKYC
- Session 2: https://youtu.be/_q-KSE7q2bQ?si=MNBLS94NmXot68VA 

The completion of the three-step mentor training marks an important milestone for Green Steps. It establishes a coherent educational pathway that enables participants to move from facilitating local outdoor learning experiences to understanding and supporting the larger ecological systems in which these places are embedded. In this way, the ARK combines place-responsive pedagogy with systems thinking and bioregional stewardship, helping learners discover not only where they live, but also the living region to which they belong.

Further reading:
https://ark.greensteps.me/library/ecoregion-mentor-training
https://ark.greensteps.me/library/ecoregions-of-azerbaijan
https://ark.greensteps.me/library/ecoregions-of-spain
https://ark.greensteps.me/library/commons-mentor-training
https://ark.greensteps.me/library/community-mentor-training
https://ark.greensteps.me/library/okoregionen-des-balkan
https://ark.greensteps.me/library/ecoregions-of-the-soviet-union

Interested in extending your classroom into neighborhood, town, region and beyond?
• Check out our manual videos on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThEuPb_5zeLj8HSqU0W60QAPKvnzkCVW
• Get started here: https://ark.greensteps.me/page/create-community/
• Write us an email: [email protected]

Subscribe to newsletter:
• https://www.greensteps.me/membership.php