Venta regional park was established in september1992 for the protection of the landscape of the Venta Valley, the natural ecosystem and cultural treasures. Forests cover half of the total area (10, 600 hectares) of the park. Quite a few rivers are flowing on the territory. There are small towns in the park as well as many villages rich in valuable historical and architectural monuments. The park is composed of botanical, zoological, geomorphic, hydrographic, geologic and urban reserves. Many varieties of plants and animals are protected here.

The Directorate of Venta regional park is a budgetary governmental organization. 5 people (4 specialists) work here. The principal aims of the organization are:

To preserve the unique local landscape

To protect the cultural heritage in the area

To preserve and protect the local fauna and flora

To restore damaged natural and cultural monuments

To implement monitoring, research, collect information on environmental issues

To facilitate the development of eco tourism in the park’s territory

To organize and realize educational, cultural activities, events, to advocate for natural and cultural protection

Since 2008 the directorate of Venta regional park has undertaken a new social initiative/challenge to host EVS volunteers. The park has space for informal education among the variety of ecological issues it deals with, thus providing additional benefits both for the staff and the young volunteers.

The hosting orgnaization is situatted in Viekšniai, a city in Mažeikiai district municipality, It is 17 km south-east of Mažeikiai.

The town of Viekšniai is the centre of the elderate which includes 36 villages. Almost 6000 people live in Viekšniai. The elderate of Viekšniai is one of the biggest in the region: it has two cultural centres, music school, public libraries, three primary and one gymnasium, museums. 12 private businesses are established in Viekšniai elderate. The community participates in the acitvities of Birziskos associasion, literature club “Vinkšnelė”, folk arts clubs.

The town of Vieksniai itself is very small. This means that there are few free time possibilities (no bars, cafes, restaurants, cinemas etc), also just a couple of shops. Winter time is especially quiet, and it can even be very boring for some. There is also a gap in youth population as most of the high school graduates are leaving to study to bigger cities. Vieksniai is very from the biggest cities of the country, transportation is limited and quite expensive.

The volunteers will have private rooms each and shared cooking, bathroom facilities. The administration of the regional park will be within walking distance from the living place. The village of Vieksniai has bus connections to major cities of the country.

Please explain:

what you can offer to volunteers in terms of Service and learning opportunities,

what will be the role of EVS volunteers in the Host Organisation,

the activities in which the volunteers could be involved and the activities the volunteers could create in your organisation. Please give examples of typical activities for the volunteers.

The Directorate of Venta Regional Park runs a number of activities, and a lot of them are available for EVS volunteers having in mind the non-formal and non-professional profile of the service. Volunteers will be understood as assistants, although fields of personal responsibility can be easily found too. A lot depends on the volunteer and his/her willingness to be active and creative. EVS volunteers will have an opportunity to create their own personal daily schedule and have other personal initiatives

By working in Venta regional park volunteers will learn to be part of a local team. This provides grounds for sharing and learning. Volunteer will bring new, fresh ideas into the organization, which in turn will give more opportunities to develop new working methods. There will be plenty of space for volunteer initiatives to further facilitate the learning process.

Volunteers will be challenged to integrate in the local community of Viekšniai town and elderate (as well as other towns located in Venta regional park). The volunteer will be able to test on himself/herself the tempo of life in the small towns. They will take part in many local cultural and social events. By working in Venta regional park volunteers will learn a lot from the uniqueness of the Venta region: landscape specificities, the Jurassic and Ice age margin area outcrops.

The activities in which the volunteers will be included:

1.Investigation, observation, cartography, estimation of flora and fauna in the Parks territory.

Going out on short observation expeditions with the parks ecologist. Night bird monitoring during summer, during the months of may-august taking measurements of trees, canoeing during fish monitoring, simple logistic support. The possibility to participate in these activities will be available mostly in summer a few times per week on irregular basis. The volunteer will have an opportunity in carrying out independent water fossil search by the river and collection of the exhibition.

2.Environment and environmental infrastructure maintenance.

As there is not so much maintainable infrastructure in the park, and it is usually being maintained by specialized establishments, volunteer will be asked to do it only occasionally. The task ranging from simples repair works to trash collection. From time to time volunteer will be given the opportunity to participate in raids together with the local forestry enterprise and agency for environmental protection.

3.Computer, office work. Preparation information to the web.

Volunteer will be able to write articles to the parks web page in his/her own language, implement small informational projects.

4.Photographing the natural and cultural heritage, preparation of presentations.

The parks activities include making pictures of various objects and events. The park needs photos for periodical reports on its activities. Volunteer would be an additional point of view, another “angle” to take pictures from.

5. The volunteer will be able to get involved in the ecological projects carried out by the students of local high schools. He/she will be able to stay with the pupils from different schools for a longer period of time (1 week in each school). The following villages are active in the following fields: village of Papile - young geologists’‘ club, village of Gudai – trash collection organized by pupils, village of Viekšniai – protection of cultural heritage, the village of Venta – environmental projects in schools. The volunteer will able to participate in the social activities of the children’s camp “Virvyte” during summer.

5.Recreation activities: assisting in guiding excursions.

Later, when the volunteers is better off with the local community and the language, he will be able to assist in guiding excursions (and not only for the foreigners). On average, the park is giving around 20 excursions per year.

6.Cultural learning in Lithuania.

7.Meeting the culture of our region, meeting new people, associations.

8.Learning Lithuanian language.