The Hoopoe Summit: Day 7

On Friday the group went out with the rangers again for one last time.
They prepared three special activities for the whole group. At first we had to go out on the meadows and catch all the insects we could find. The task was to find at least a beetle, a bug, a fly, a butterfly and a wasp or a bee. It really made us look at our environment in different way as it focused our attention on the small creatures roaming the dry grasslands.

The highlights of our findings were a yellow mantis and a cuckoo wasp, in German called the golden wasp because of it metallic shine.

In another activity we were challenged to associate different tools like pliers or tweezers with the way bird’s beaks are formed and used. For example, the insect eating ran needs a long thin beak similar to a small thin tweezer, while the Eurasian spoonbill catches fish like you would with a small net.

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to the three rangers who did a really good job of showing us around the national park, introducing us to different bird species and ecosystems and generally providing a very divers and engaging experience for us during the whole week. Our thanks go out to Ruth, Daniel and Sebastian. We couldn’t have wished for better guides.

The evening programme was not presented by a country group this time but by Green Steps CEO Knut Wimberger.

He introduced us to the of China in tackling the climate crisis and afterwards took part in a panel discussion, that also featured Green Steps members Gudrun and Lukas and Austrian participant Julia as panellists. All of them have lived in China and were happy to answer the many questions that were raised by the audience. To end the official programme of the day we discussed the possibility of a sino-european youth summit as a way of empowering young people all over Eurasia to connect and take action against the climate crisis.

On Saturday, the following day, we finally presented the outcome of these days of work!