II. International Wilderness Camp, České Žleby, Czech Republic

The wilderness camp will be held in České Žleby, Czech Republic at the protected area of the National Park Šumava. It will last 7 days, from which 2 days will be dedicated to travel and settling in and 5 days will be dedicated to fieldwork and excursions. We will invite 50 participants altogether (Young Climate Ambassadors from 5 other countries (i.e., Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Bulgaria, and Romania) of the Game On! project who will also participate at this international wilderness camp, allowing for international knowledge exchange and peer learning + the mentors from 9 countries + facilitators). There will be 5 participants from each of the Visegrad country. In general, according to surveys, citizens are more concerned about the drought that is already a visible impact of climate change than of climate change as such. Fieldwork at the wilderness camp is focused on tackling drought and ensuring better water management in the landscape. The program of the camp is coordinated with the EU project Life for Mires, restoration for landscape hydrology, and biodiversity of the peat bogs. Participants will have a unique chance to help re-watering the threatened peat bogs. These interventions should increase the groundwater level, stop the degradation of the rare site, and restart the peat-forming process. Works are site-specific. In some, it is necessary to repair and adjust former revitalization steps, while in others, peat dams in the drainage channels will have to be newly established. Besides, the fieldwork participants will visit places where the water regime in the landscape has not been adversely affected. In these sites, the participants will have a chance to see the correct function of landscape hydrology and study how ingeniously nature designed and created this system. The development has lasted for millions of years, and so it is obvious that insensitive interventions during landscape drainage give rise to revolutionary, yet unfavourable changes to which experts intend to put a halt. Participants will have a chance to see concrete places which have been intensively exploited by man in the past, thus changing the landscape and contributing also to climate change and biodiversity loss. Water has been frequently drained and/or channelled, and now it turns out that water is hard to retain in the landscape without wetlands. This means considerable complications for nature, and especially for numerous rare species of flora and fauna. It also contributes to global warming.​​ There will also be complementary workshops and lectures organised for the participants dedicated to exploring wild cats, wolves, and other rare carnivores living in the National park, impacts of climate change in the region, or the photography workshop. We will ensure also media coverage in the most viewed Czech media outlets about the camp and its purposes so there will be an educational effect also for the wide public and publicity for donors of the project. The wilderness camp aims to train young people from the four Visegrad countries as well as from Game on Partner's countries through personal experience to better understand the issues of climate change, humankind contribution to it, the connections between climate change and ecosystem change (mitigation and adaptation strategies) and the importance of preserving biodiversity.