THE STORY BEHIND THE INSTITUTE
Institute Terra Viva was founded in 2003 by M.Sc. Janez Forte, University Graduate in Biology. It is private, non-profit institute, whose main program activities include education and research in the fields, studied by ecology. The institute has it's headquarters at Sv. Peter 115, 6333 Sečovlje. At the same address an agricultural farm Forte is registered, which togehther with the institute form a learning point for ecology, created within the LEADER program. In the previous years the institute has performed several trainings and lectures in the field of ecological agriculture, for both agricultural producers and students from BOKU University, Vienna. We ran a practical presentation of preservation of biodiversity in the agro-ecosystem (olive plantation) for elementary schools. We created a promotional exibition of underwater photography of Tihomir Makovec for Luka Koper harbour, within "Living with the harbour" program, titled "Life on columns". The institute has also ran several educational programs for tourist workers, students of Tourism and participants of educational programs within "AS- Archeology for all" project. Within the doors-open day of the Marine biology station Piran we enabled a production of a film, titled "Child and the Sea", for which we received a reward Prometheus of Science in 2011, designed for promotion of science. The Terra Viva institute is one of the founders of the Local action group (LAS Istre) for execution of CLLD (Community Lead Local Development) program for the year 2014-2020. During the preparations for verification of LAS the institute collaborated in creation of Strategy for the regional development for that time period, and included several suggestions for developmental and educational projects (Learning the processes inside the the agro-ecosystem of olive plantations, Identification of ecosystem services, Through discussions to knowledge and ideas, Learning point of ecology amongst olive trees). The basic guide of observing the processes in the environment is the ecosystem approach; it requires a complex treatment of ecosystems (also ones that are artificially created). The inclusion of geomagnetic observatory PIA and in short-term perspective its development into a geophysical observatory additionally grounds such approach. The institute runs several workshops and lectures from the domain of ecology and lectures from the domain of ecology and managing sustainable resources each year. In 2011 institute signed an "Agreement between Municipality of Piran and non-governmental organizations on the Municipality", meant to strenghten the collaboration between local government and non-governmental institutions. |
|