The concept of outdoor education is totally missing in our traditional education system. As a result students hardly get any opportunity to go out in nature areas and learn and gain first hand experience about the concepts of biodiversity, its importance and issues related to its conservation. Our young people have very little knowledge of different verities of wild animals, plants, birds found in our country because of their limited outdoor exposure and lack of opportunities in schools to take students on nature exploratory outings.

AFP is the only organization in Pakistan which is providing facilities to its members institutions to take their students on such outdoor activities. But due to its limited resources such activities are not available to a larger number of students on countrywide basis. In the past AFP has conducted number of nature study camps in collaboration with WWF-Pakistan and has also organize four National Children Mountain Conservation Meets to provide the opportunity to young people from different areas to have a first hand experience of natural environment and learn about its related issues. The feedback from these camps have been very encouraging. Teachers and parents has reported a great change among the students how have participated in these activities. Therefore it has been felt that that the scope of this programme of AFP should be expanded at national level. Some of the reports of these activities conducted in past are enclosed for ready reference.

4. Project Objective and Proposed Activity

a. To provide young people the opportunity to explore, discover and learn about the natural heritage of our country through organized nature study camps.

b. To create awareness and develop a better understanding of our natural environment and related issues among the young people by involving them in practical conservation activities through annual National Children Mountain Conservation Meets.

c. To make our youth ?Environment Friendly? by involving them in various small-scale activities like tree plantation, community cleanup work, wildlife survey and waste management programmes.

d. To give children a stronger voice in greater numbers to express their views and concerns at national and international level about the conservation of natural environment.

Through this project we will organize different short and long duration nature study camping outings in the different protected areas in and around the SGP focal districts during summer and winter vacations. Young students of schools preferably in the age group of 10 to 14 years will be invited to participate in these camps. Efforts will be made to attract children from all income groups by giving them appropriate financial support. Guided study tours of National Parks, Reserve Forests, Nature Areas, and Wetlands will be organized in and around the SGP focal districts. The basic idea of all such activities is to develop a better understanding amongst the young people of our country about our rich natural and cultural heritage and to provide them opportunity to explore, discover and have a direct experience of our natural and cultural heritage. During these outings they will also be invited to participate in various environmental projects like tree plantation community cleanups and wildlife survey to bring awareness among them to protect and conserve the environment through various outdoor activities.

5. Project Strategy

This project will expand the capacity of AFP to increase the scope of its existing outdoor education programme. AFP is already conducting such activities through its field stations and regional offices. But due to lack of resources the volume of activity is low. Effort will be made to increase the activity at a larger scale to provide benefit to more young people of far flung areas. These nature camps will be conducted in all four provinces in the focal districts of SGP. Each region has number of protected areas which will serve as open air class room for the outdoor education programme.

The project activities will be mainly conducted in protected areas such as national parks, reserve forests, wildlife reserves, wetlands etc. Following are the main sites where these nature camps will be held for the students of that region:-

· Ayubia National Park, Nathiagali, NWFP
· Kalam and Mankial, Upper Swat, NWFP
· Margalla Hills National Park, Islamabad
· Lalsohanra National Park/Cholistan, Punjab
· Tharparkar, Sindh
· Thatta, Mangrove Forest near Indus Delta, Sindh

Three National Children Mountain Conservation Meets will also be conducted under this programme to provide children form all over Pakistan to come and join a national level camp in a mountain ecosystem to learn about the unique role of mountain ecosystem. Participants of these national meets will also attend National Children Mountain Form and share their concern with the policy makers of present age. The children who will attend these meet will be given title of Eco Guards and will lead the community groups at their school level which will initiate small scale environment conservation activities in there localities.

The progress of children?s environmental activities will be monitored by the AFP?s regional offices through the nature clubs which will be established in the participating schools. Each club will be supervised by a teacher appointed by the head of institution of that particular school. Around 100 teachers will be trained by AFP to run nature club activities and monitor the progress of children?s environmental projects. Each participating school will submit a bimonthly progress report to respective regional office of AFP. Regional offices will verify the progress by site visits and submit their report to project coordinator.

Adventure Foundation has already conducted such activities during the past and has seen positive impacts of such activities on the young people. The latest example is the programme of National Children Mountain Conservation Meet which now held every year and 120 children from all parts of Pakistan participate and gain valuable experience in nature conservation. Using our past experience of such activities we will implement this project with active involvement of our partners such as WWF-Pakistan, Pakistan Natural History Museum and Provincial Forest and Wildlife Departments. In order to prepare a core team of 30 AFP volunteers to conduct these nature study camps and NCMC meets two training workshops will be conducted to train Camp Counsellors and Wilderness Guides.

In order to be a participant of NCM Meet and Nature Study Camps, children will be selected as per following criteria:-

ü Boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 14.
ü Interested in the environment and willing to benefit from the unique opportunity to live and work on eco-project in a setting of natural environment.
ü Nominated by a school or community group/NGO.

Selection Procedure
· Information about the Nature Camps and NCMC Meet will be publicized through Urdu/English print media and through networking with schools and concerned NGOs. Applications will be invited through the concerned schools and community groups/NGOs.
· On receipt and scrutinizing of the application pre-selected candidates will receive a call-up for interview close to where candidate lives.
· Selected children from upper and middle-income groups are encouraged to raise funds by sponsorships to pay their participation fee. Each selected candidate will be given a fund raising task to arrange a portion of his/her expenses. AFP will provide necessary guidelines and recommendation letters for fund raising to all the selected children well in time.
· Deserving Candidates from low-income groups will be provided financial assistance to meet the participation expenses.
· Candidates selected after interview will receive joining instruction giving all the information that they will need to report to the concerned reception center.
· Special Effort will be made to select 50 % students from low-income group particularly from remote areas and they will be given scholarships according to their financial backgrounds.
· Male and female students will get equal opportunity to participate in these camps.

An attractive brochure and poster will be printed to introduce this programme. At the first stage Education Institution in Lahore, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Abbottabad, Muzaffarabad and Rahim Yar Khan will be visited by the officials of AFP to inform the teaching staff about the concept of this project. Later on the scope of project activities will be expanded in other SGP focal districts through the regional offices of Adventure Foundation.

This programme will strengthen the capacity of AFP to carry on this programme even after the completion of the project period.