Open Space of Good Practices : explanations and example

The Open Space of good practices is an activity that enables knowledge sharing and that makes the participants of a project active in their learning process. AMSED set up this activity during the seminar “Let’s change our behaviour, not the climate!” that the association organised in Strasbourg from the 12^th to the 21^st of September 2017.

 

The activity took place during two morning sessions of the Seminar. The aim of the activity was for the participants to share practices they know, from their country or international, and to discover new ways of doing. The idea is that they can get inspired from it, and maybe reproduce these projects in their own country.

 

Different participants made a presentation on one topic they chose at the same time, the others chose which presentation they wanted to attend. The presentations were made out of different tools: videos, photos, powerpoints, etc.

 

Examples of good practices on the topic of the environment, that were shared by the seminar’s participants:

 

1. Water conservation practices (Tunisia)

 

‘Jessours’ in Tunisia

 

These are little partial dykes built in torrents and small valleys that hold the flawback waters and fertile silt that the waters carry. Each Jessour is made of a dam (Tabia or Kathra) that is perpendicular to the valley, and of an area to harvest sediments (at the bottom of the Jessour) that is a sort of terrace located upstream of Tabia, on which the crops are set, and which base is reinforced with rocks. Each Tabia has 1 or 2 spillways, on the sides and at the center. This layout is able to regulate the water flaws and enables the populations settled in the area to stay, by insuring them real possibilities of development. Jessours are likely to deeply change the relationship between the traditional factors of agricultural production and social behaviors facing a bigger availability of a rare and vital resource: water.

 

2. Green city (Italy)

 

The social cooperative Quartiere Intelligente helps with the redevelopment of the urban environment, by giving life to an unused space in the city of Napoli. Initially, the association organised low cost activities (for example film projections or workshops), and small performances with street artists. They also participate in public calls for events and create daily activities (for example creating a co-working area) to make the unused space inside the city more lively.

 

3. « Neatly towards Europe » : Earth Day – Observing Atmospheric Air – Harmonization of Legislation (Georgia)

 

NGOs and governmental organisations based in Tbilisi are making various efforts to regulate and control environmental issues, with the help of new technology tools. The idea is to use modern technology to estimate and analyse real environmental problems in the country in order to keep improving the existing situation:

 

• A huge campaign which includes people from governmental institutions, youngsters from school, members of NGOs, students, etc. They clean the territory of Lisi Lake in Tbilisi. The change that this project brought not only physical, it also helps changing the attitudes and mentality of the inhabitants.
• Three automatic stations for monitoring air pollution were established in Tbilisi. This online monitoring measures pollutant substances as: dust particles, sulfur, nitrogen dioxide, CO, O3, NO, etc. (this project is also stationed in 4 other cities of Georgia)
• The Express Laboratory carried out an environmental pollution study
• Ion-chromotographs are used for analyzing samples of water, air and atmosphere precipitations, based on international methodology.

 

4. Fight against air pollution in Strasbourg (France)

 

The city of Strasbourg put in place several ways of dealing with the problem of air pollution:

• Reduce the speed limit on the city’s periphery
• Install bicycle paths
• Favour the use of the tram for trips inside the city
• Make a system of stickers for the cars that pollute the most
• Remove the old vehicules from the traffic

 

5. Awareness raising on environment, alternative tourism (Tunisia)

 

In Tunisia, the association « Les éclaireurs de charme » set up actions in the field of alternative tourism to raise awarness and bring people to respect nature:

• Creation of touristic tours to encourage local arts and crafts
• Free hikes
• Organic meals and sale of organic products
• Cooking of the food with traditional methods
• Exploitation of local fruits (for example the prickly pear, to make jam, cream and coffee)
• Housing in eco-houses
• Contest for the best eco-tourism initiatives

 

6. Urban agriculture (Morocco)

 

The Awaldi center welcomes homeless children, and offers them to participate to urban agriculture activities. They also set an activity of waste reuse (car tyres, bottles, PVC,…) in order to create a nice reception space, for the children as well as for other associations.

 

Le Centre Awladi est un centre d’accueil pour les enfants sans abri, qui leur propose des activités d’agriculture urbaine. Ils ont également mis en place une activité de réutilisation des déchets (pneus, bouteilles, PVC,…) pour créer un bel espace d’accueil pour les enfants et pour les autres associations.

 

7. Biomass (Turkey)

 

Manure (animal waste) causes a lot of problems to peasants on their farms, because it brings smells and flies to the farmer’s storage. The point is to apply the biomass system, which is already applied on a large scale through big factories, to farms with 5 to 10 cattle, so that peasants can change their behaviour about climate change and initiatives can be taken collectively. The biomass system enables to turn the manure into a source of energy which can be used by peasants in their own houses and cars.

 

8. Recycling organic waste (Sweden)

 

Sweden is a model for all other countries in the field of recycling. The country recycles 99% of its waste by transforming it to energy, through incineration.

 

La Suède est un modèle pour tous les autres pays dans le domaine du recyclage. Le pays recycle 99% de ces déchets en les transformant en énergie, par un processus d’incinération.

 

Powerpoint presentation available on the facebook group of the seminar / Présentation powerpoint disponible sur le groupe facebook du séminaire.

 

9. Filter, water treatment (Turkey)

 

• After a five year’s serious research about the qualities of similar filters on the market, AK-KIM prepared prototypes, tested by TUBITAK and TEYDEP and got their product approved by professional labs in and outside Turkey.
• The UF module is made of perforated fiber containing especially developed modified PVDF, with nano-dimensional pores which have a high capacity of holding dirt. It also has a self-clean quality.

 

10. Water treatment of Danube waters (Ukraine)

 

• Organization of little groups of people to clean the river

 

• Education of the children at school to recycle and to be more aware about the environment

 

• “Recycle map”: Creation of a specific website to inform the people of the places where they can bring different kinds of waste for recycling

 

11. Recycling waste in Oasis Green Entrepreneurship (Tunisia)

 

• Recycling of the truncs, the palms and the nuts of the palmtrees in the oasis regions in Tunisia. The second-rate products of the oasis are thus reused and commercialised. The palms of the palm tree are used to make bassinets, hats, fixed fishery, windbreaks,… The trunc is recycled to make furniture and roofs. The dates, fruits of the palm tree, are cooked and commercialised as jam.

 

• Fodder for animals

 

• Composting

 

12. Fight against the massive use of the phone in public places (Ukraine)

 

Raising awareness in public places and public transportation on the risks on health that phones represent. This is made through various tools: calendars, billboards, posters,…

 

 

13. Water treatment(Morocco)

 

A public-private partnership in Morocco enabled the protection of the coastline and the treatment of the water. The municipality called in Lydec (factory in the field of energy), which invested more than one billiard of dirhams to carry off this project.

 

Thanks to this investment, the purification plant Eaucéan was set up. It is conceived to treat 35 tons of waste every day. The water treatment turns down into several steps. The first phase consists in collecting the waste of different sizes, which are then carried to the garbage dump. The oil are then carried to the cement plant to be burnt and the sand is used as trench backfill. At the end of the sanitation process, the water is sucked in by pumps and then evacuated in a long underwater pipe. Once the water is rejected, the natural currents of the ocean ensures its organic depollution.

 

14. A more social and environmental-friendly way of travelling (France)

 

• Couchsurfing: hosting and being hosted by locals for free. Link: www.couchsurfing.com

 

• WWOOFING (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms): volunteering in organic farms, in exchange of housing and food. There is one website for each country, membership costs 25 € for one year. Link: www.wwoof.fr (French website)

 

• HelpX (Help Exchange): volunteering in farms, hostels, restaurants, in exchange of housing and food. Membership costs 25 € for two years. Link: www.helpx.net

 

15. Recycling clothes, Green Entrepreneurship (Algeria)

 

La Recyclerie, based in the Djurdjura mountain range, is a production workshop which employs permanently 10 low-skilled women living in mountain areas in Algeria. These women produce various items (aprons, document holders, beekeeping outfits, work blues, children’s clothes, etc.) from recycled materials. They also deal with the sale of products in the Recyclerie store. Their products are also sold by other means, for example AMSED organizes sales booths in Strasbourg, in order to raise funds for the Recyclerie.

 

In addition to offering an activity to low qualified women with few opportunities, the project wishes to support these women more widely in their professional integration by:

 

• Organizing training sessions on job search methods, procedures and tools, facilitated by social workers who regularly come to the Recyclerie women’s meetings.

 

• Organizing vocational trainings to strengthen the skills of the beneficiaries. The women choose the field in which they are most interested in specializing (sewing, recycling, marketing and management, etc.)