Are you a nature lover? Then this is the perfect workcamp for you! Here you will have the opportunity to spend 2 weeks working and living in the forest. Your main task will be to plant trees as part of an active contribution to conservation! You will also be helping out with several other conservation tasks, such as forest maintenance, constructing and repairing protective fences, and preserving the biotopes in the area. By working on these activities, you will also learn a lot about the ecosystem of a forest!
Accomodation & food:
You will be living in the leisure centre, which is located in the middle of the forest. Some of your meals will be prepared for you by the accommodation team. You will cook your evening meals together as a group.
Location & leisure:
You will be living in a beautiful building at a site in the middle of a forest, where you will be able to have a barbecue and sit around the campfire in the evenings. A minibus will be available for your group to use so that you can also get to know the surrounding area and travel to the local swimming pool, the animal park or the climbing area. Trips to the river Rhine with its many castles, to Koblenz, Mainz, Heidelberg or Frankfurt are also possible. The closest town to your accommodation is Bingen, which offers its own sights and attractions.
Conservation work with sheep and cattle in great surroundings and sightseeing in the big city! Both of these can be experienced during this camp on the outskirts of the metropolis of Hamburg.You will be working in the Höltigbaum nature reserve, a former training ground. A varied mosaic of different habitats has developed on the nature reserve since the last Ice Age. As a result, different successional stages of open soils, grass or mule corridors, and even some shrubs, can be found here, along with many rare and endangered animal and plant species. Where there used to be tanks, there is now vast, savannah-like grassland. Today there are sheep herds, goats and Galloway cattle in the area grazing all year round. Through this grazing, the areas are kept open, bushes are prevented from overgrowing and the biodiversity is preserved. You will support the animal "lawnmowers" at work and remove foreign plants such as bracken or small birches in order to prepare the ground for the underlying and displaced heather. Through this action you will be making an important contribution to nature conservation work, since using heavy equipment for the same tasks would destroy the heath. The work will take place on the pastures in the nature reserve. If you are lucky, you will see the cattle and sheep at work too.In addition to the practical work, you will learn a lot from the "Haus der Wilden" employees in Weiden: about nature and environmental protection in general, and the nature conservation concept of a semi-open pasture landscape in particular. You will also learn a lot about the local flora and fauna, about year-round grazing as well as cattle and sheep farming in the field of landscape maintenance.More information (unfortunately only in German) about the Höltigbaum nature reserve and the "Haus der Wilden" in Weiden can be found here: www.hoeltigbaum.de
Accomodation & food:
You will be sleeping on air mattresses in one communal room of a community centre. The community centre also has a kitchen, a living space and toilets available for use. You will need to go to the nearby tennis hall to shower (around 200m), where you can make use of the communal showers. The group will prepare and cook meals together in the community centre.
Location & leisure:
In your free time you can take a trip to the second largest city in Germany, where a variety of leisure activities await you. Your accommodation and worksite are located in the Rahlstedt district. The heart of this district is just a 10-minute walk away, and within 30 minutes by train you can be in the city centre of Hamburg.www.hamburg.de (German) / www.hamburg.com (English)It's also worth taking trips to the beaches at the North Sea and the Baltic Sea at the weekend.
Requirements:
You will need to be prepared to walk long distances on foot, since every morning you will be waking around 2km (30m) to the conservation area (and back again in the evenings); a good level of physical fitness is required for the physically demanding work.
This work camp is for nature lovers as the work will be mainly outdoors. The volunteers will help to renovate historic buildings at Gut Friederikenhof. Gut Friederickenhof is located directly at the east coast of north Germany (between Kiel and Lübeck). Together with you we would like to prepare the walls for future. Our aim is that these about 100 years old buildings stay for another century.
Accomodation & food:
The volunteers will stay in the holiday-apartments directly at the farm. Here you can get some impressions: www.gut-friederikenhof.de. Food is included, but meals have to be prepared by the volunteers.
Location & leisure:
Excursions like swimming or short trips to nearby towns can be planned.
Requirements:
Please bring a sleeping bag, workingClothes (gloves), a mattress pad and Motivation.
Age:
18-26
Location:
"gut friederikenhof" in ostholstein (schleswig holstein).
Language(s):
English
Airport:
LBC: Lubeck Blankensee (Luebeck, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available
Together with the employees from the Wahnbach Reservoir Association, you will be completing various conservation work projects around the reservoir. You will be undertaking maintenance work in the meadow areas to promote the development of special plants, as well as be removing the so-called "Springkraut" plant from several locations around the inflows of the reservoir, since this stops the shore plants native to the area from growing properly. To protect the reservoir, you will be repairing the barriers that stop cars and other vehicles from driving too close to the water. The shrubs along the walking trails around the reservoir need to be cut back, and you could also build small bridges, in order to better develop the wonderful landscape. You will definitely learn many things about drinking water and water conservation through participating in this camp.
Accomodation & food:
Idyllic but remote house with several beds in each room. The group will prepare and cook meals together.
Location & leisure:
The camp is location in a very beautiful region of Germany – rural, but with big cities such as Cologne, Bonn and Düsseldorf nearby. You can therefore go on numerous excursions during the camp. There is an outdoor swimming pool in Much (10k away) and your accommodation building has a large outdoor area with a campfire circle. The towns of Koblenz and Mainz are also located along the river Rhine and worth a visit.
The volunteers are welcome to help the association with revitalizing a piece of abandoned land and make it viable for sustainable gardening. Together you will create garden beds and afterwards plant herbs, vegetables, shrubs and trees. Later on, this area will also be used for social purposes and as a meeting place.There will be all kinds of gardening work to do, sometimes physically demanding (for the ones who like to use their personal strength!). During your volunteering, you can learn a lot about "Perma-Culture", a concept where selected plants are cultivated together in a way that only needs a minimal amount of energy and fertilizer. The inventor of this cultivation method won the Alternative Nobel Prize!You will learn gardening work by practicing it. It is a great chance to get experience in the agricultural area, learn about permaculture and sustainable use of nature. At the same time, you can see the association as a good example of an alternative and very social way of producing and consuming food. As there will be close contact with German native speakers, this workcamp is a good possibility to improve your German language skills.
Accomodation & food:
You will live on the Eschenhof farmland. We will build up a small campground. You can choose between camping in big tents and sleeping in single or double tents. Therefore, it is a simple but good life. There is a shelter with tables and benches, where you can eat and play together, a bar and a fireplace, as well as many beautiful areas for relaxation. We will do the cooking in a rather professional kitchen. It would be great if you could bring some musical instrument you can play. There will be plenty of time in the evening to sing and dance all together.There is a supermarket nearby where you can buy all the essential things, or you just harvest it freshly from the garden.
Location & leisure:
Groß Ruenz is a small village located in the Northwest-Mecklenburg region, which is famous for its beautiful alleys and lakes. In about 5 km distance, you can find a beautiful place for swimming. The medieval town of Luebeck, with its numerous sights, is about 23 kilometers away. The Baltic Sea with its nice beaches and coves is not far either. A visit to selected places of the nature reserve is also planned.There will be a joint decision regarding which places the group will visit.
Age:
18-26
Location:
Groß ruenz
Language(s):
English, German
Airport:
HAM: Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available
Volunteers will help to renovate the archaeological nature trail of the community. Some kind of work will be to install a new footpath and create new information boards about the nature trail. The archaeological nature trail passes many interesting phenomenon's. Also, the volunteers will help to maintain public parks and the orchard. Work in a community.
Accomodation & food:
The volunteers will stay in a kindergarden. Food is included, but meals have to be prepared by the volunteers.
Location & leisure:
Excursions can be planned, swimming, short trips to nearby towns.
Requirements:
Please bring a sleeping bag, working clothes (gloves), a mattress pad and motivation.
Age:
18-26
Location:
Lohmen is a village between guestrow and goldberg. the region is famous for its lakes and forests. lohmen is surrounded by a natural park. there are interesting possibilities for outdoor activities like a labyrinth, sports grounds, pedestrian walkways and more. there is a lake in walking distance, where you can swim. lohmen has about 850 inhabitants and was founded approximately around the 12th century. for further information about lohmen visit www.lohmen.de (only available in german).
Language(s):
English
Airport:
SXF: Schonefeld (Berlin, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available
During your time in Nürtingen you will have the opportunity to take part in various projects in and around town. The tasks are diverse and will require your creativity and motivation. The following projects await you:
Designing a schoolyard:
If you enjoy working with children and like using colours, paints and sand paper, then this is the place for you.
Forest Work:
One part of the group will also be working in the forest for a few days. Building benches and raised seating, taking care of the plants and renovating the roof of a shelter…
Working in the Village:
Here you will be repairing the aging parkour fitness course in one of the local districts. You will be building ‘insect hotels' which will be installed here, under the guidance of an expert.
Accomodation & food:
You'll be staying in a former Kindergarten, right next to the Mörikeschule. The group will prepare and cook meals together.
Location & leisure:
Nürtingen has around 41,000 inhabitants and is in the Neckar valley near to the Swabian Alb. Ride your bike through the beautiful landscape, to nearby bathing lakes, along the Neckar or in the biosphere area at the foot of the Alb. In your free time you will also have the opportunity to enjoy the outdoor pool, to visit a climbing forest and to explore Nürtingen and the student city of Tübingen. The state capital Stuttgart is only half an hour away by train and offers many possibilities: museums, opera, shopping, planetarium, theatre etc.
If you are enthusiastic about nature and protecting the environment, the come to the Märkische Schweiz Nature Park: 40km to the east of Berlin, the park not only offers unique natural and cultural landscapes, but also the backdrop to our project. By working together with the park's administration team and the Drei Eichen environmental education centre, you will not only get to know the park and its surroundings, but you will also play an active role in shaping it. There will also be young people from the local area on-site. On the grounds of the Drei Eichen environmental education centre, there is an old wagon which we would like to paint and/or decorate. This is one of the many ways in which you can bring your creative ideas into the design of the camp. There are plenty of surfaces which need a new lick of paint, certainly enough for everybody to lend a hand! On the grounds of the Drei Eichen, which is in the middle of the nature park, there are also many opportunities to learn more about plants and animals, climate protection and alternative ways of living. The main aim of the Drei Eichen centre is to maintain the local landscapes as habitats for rare species of plants and animals. On certain days we will be helping with the maintenance of these landscapes by removing shrubs from the meadows or removing vegetation from the sand dunes. We will also build "Wohn Kästen" (box homes) for wild bees and bats, which we will hang around the Drei Eichen centre.Whether you are landscaping, working with your hands or helping with creative design; all work will take place outdoors. Besides this, there will be a diverse programme of environmental educational activities for you to take part in!http://www.dreichen.de/
Accomodation & food:
You will be staying in shared rooms in the "Drei Eichen" (Three Oaks) environmental education centre, which is located in the middle of a forest, around 4km away from Buckow (www.dreichen.de). The group will prepare and cook meals together.
Location & leisure:
Educational Activities: You could take a GPS tour of the nature park, go on a guided walking tour on the topic of "biological diversity", visit the bat museum, go swimming in the various nearby lakes, visit local cinemas and bars. In Buckow, there is a campfire where you can sit around at night, a climbing wall and also a canoe hire in the nearby area.
Requirements:
Please bring weatherproof working clothes (with long sleeves and full-length trousers) with you, since you'll be working outdoors.
« The outside world did not interfere, because it seemed so distant, and so we spent our spare time getting to know each other and learning about each other countries', languages and cultures. Everyone was completely relaxed. This simply would not have been possible on any other type of holiday. VAP enabled me to have a truly memorable experience. »
