Results of the Youth Forum

The Minett Biosphere Youth Forum 2023 was the starting point for the development of prototypes for new awareness signs in our reserve. Based on the proposals developed between 12 and 16 July, discussions on the signage system in our biosphere reserve could be launched.

15 young adults from Luxembourg, Germany, France, Poland and Sweden took part in the second Minett UNESCO Biosphere Youth Forum last week. The Nature and Forest Agency (ANF) provided the Minett UNESCO Biosphere with experts and its premises at the Ellergronn Nature Conservation Centre.

During the forum, it was suggested that large banners highlighting the Minett UNESCO Biosphere could be installed in urban areas to raise awareness of the biosphere reserve in the 11 member municipalities. These signs should convey the message to people that they themselves are part of the biosphere.

The other prototype signs, developed together with the artists’ collective La Bonneterie ASBL and made from the tarpaulin of an old circus tent, are intended for use in the six core zones of the Minett UNESCO Biosphere and are designed to address visitors in a personal way. Whether or not the signs are to be put up, and where they should be placed, will be decided in consultation between the managers of the Minetter Dagebaugebitter Natura2000 sites and the biosphere reserve.

Prototypes, designed on the Youth Forum

The participants of the Youth Forum were particularly concerned about the protection of bats and ground-nesting birds (woodlarks), the preservation of the orchids that characterise our natural areas, and the coexistence of wandering sheep and dogs that are taken by their owners into the former open-cast mining areas of the south. 

The forum was made possible thanks to the support of the Ministry of Energy and Spatial Planning, the André Losch Fondation, the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and the Luxembourg Commission for UNESCO.