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Environmental education and forest pedagogy
Environmental Education Centre
„We bring the forest closer to people with the heart, the hands, the mind and all the senses.“
The Environmental Education Centre was set up in 2008 and is part of Lesy hl. m. Prahy, the organisation that has looked after Prague’s small watercourses, ponds and forests since 1992. In our programmes we draw on practical experience of caring for Prague’s countryside and try to involve the people of Prague directly in caring for the environment of their city.
For kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, families and senior citizens we have programmes in the spirit of so-called forest pedagogy. Many of our tutors are certified forest educators. We focus mainly on the water and forest ecosystems.
We also offer specialised tours — of forest management or of the composting plant, for example — expert-led walks into parts of Prague of natural-history interest, and programmes tied to pond harvests or to planting trees together. We will show you around the zoo corner by the gamekeeper’s lodge in Malá Chuchle, home to some 30 species of animals living in this country.
Since 2011 we have been running the project Bringing bees back to Prague’s forests, under which we are gradually restoring apiaries or establishing new ones. We use the restored beekeeping in our programmes as well.
In 2016 we opened the Prales Eco-centre (Prague Forest Centre) and significantly broadened the range of programmes. The grounds are freely accessible and offer plenty of opportunities for fun and learning.
In 2025–2028 selected public events and school programmes run by the Environmental Education Centre and the Prales Eco-centre are co-financed by the State Environmental Fund of the Czech Republic on the basis of a decision by the Minister of the Environment. (More details under Projects)
Environmental education, upbringing and awareness
„Environmental education, upbringing and awareness (EVVO) should lead to thinking and acting in line with the principle of sustainable development, to a sense of responsibility for maintaining the quality of the environment, and to respect for life in all its forms.“
The task of environmental education is to pass on as much knowledge about the environment as possible, to teach us to treat nature gently and considerately, and to convince us that it is worth taking an interest in the environment and improving it. It is a preventive tool of environmental protection and is aimed at all of us, regardless of age or education. It is provided by environmental education centres, eco-centres and non-profit organisations, but also by schools and school facilities on the basis of their school education plans.
The methodological basis and development of environmental education in Prague is set out in the Regional concept of environmental education, upbringing and awareness of the City of Prague, which always runs for 10 years. A new regional concept for 2016–2025 has been in force since 2016, approved by the Prague City Council at the end of January 2016. A new regional concept is now being prepared.
The regional concept is followed by individual action plans, which set out the tasks in more detail and are drawn up for individual years or longer periods. Environmental education in Prague is based on the State programme of environmental education in the Czech Republic and its conceptual documents.
Forest pedagogy
Forest pedagogy brings the forest ecosystem, sustainable forest management, the point of managing forests and the benefits the forest brings people closer to visitors. Its basic principle is perceiving nature with all the senses, guided by specially trained foresters (foresters with teaching knowledge and experience) directly at their everyday workplace — in a particular forest.
Lesy hl. m. Prahy are part of the working group on forest pedagogy in the Czech Republic, established by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2007 as an advisory body to the director of the department of forestry concepts and economics. The working group provides methodological and coordination support for forest pedagogy in the country: it prepares methodological materials for forest educators and organises nationwide events for Forest Week and European Forest Week. It brings together forest educators from across forestry organisations, prepares seminars for them, holds talks with other ministries and runs the website www.lesnipedagogika.cz.
Forest kindergartens and clubs
We have long supported forest kindergartens and clubs operating in the natural areas we manage. The way of teaching that forest kindergartens pursue under the motto „outdoors with the children in any weather“ is very close to our own approach to the environmental education programmes we prepare for children from Prague schools and nurseries. Like the forest kindergartens, we try to teach children directly in nature, where authentic experience takes the place of teaching aids and presentations and where children’s personal experience is the ideal way to develop their relationship with the environment.
Since 2011 we have worked with the association Mezi stromy, which runs a forest kindergarten club in a log cabin on the edge of the Milíčov forest near the Milíčov pond. In 2016 we began working with the association ASELOD (since 2021 Lesní mateřská škola DO LESA!, z. s.), which runs the DO LESA! forest kindergarten based in one of our buildings on the northern edge of the Hostivař forest park. In 2024 the children’s forest club Chmýříčko started up at the Prales Eco-centre.
