New Project: “Discovering and appreciating wild herbs together“

Nature holds many different treasures that we often do not even notice as such – even though we can no longer imagine our everyday life without many of them. The many herbs that grow wild in nature and accompany us in various ways in our everyday lives are also part of this.

We are looking for people who:

– love nature

– are interested in botanic, cooking, literature, natural medicine, art & photography

– want to share knowledge with others & discover new things

In the project “Discovering and appreciating wild herbs together”, we would like to explore the diversity of wild herbs locally with many nature lovers in the Danube countries and in other European countries and show how they are used and what significance they have in the respective countries. We would like to research with you, exchange information, compare and learn a lot of new things!

To do this, we would like to use the online platform iNaturalist. Its aim is to promote the connection between people and nature, while documenting the world’s biodiversity. The project is run by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. In the spirit of a Citizen Science project, we would like to invite many people to participate in documenting the diversity of wild herbs and to exchange information on the online platform ViMA danube about their history, forms of appearance, types of use and significance for ourselves.  This can be done under different aspects:

– Places of origin/history

– Food & drinks (various recipes: as soups, spice ingredients, tea, liqueur etc.)

– Health (e.g. syrup, herbal mixture for healing)

– Tradition (e.g. festivities)

– Art (e.g. painting, making natural colors)

– Literature & music (e.g. poems and songs about wild herbs)

– Useful things in everyday life (e.g. scents / aroma, soaps)

We want to use these two online social platforms (iNaturalist and ViMA danube) and create a link between them to jointly observe, document and exchange about the environment, here wild herbs. In this way, we can learn from each other within social and scientific contexts and contribute to a holistic approach to natural phenomena. Two things facilitate our cooperation: iNaturalist names the respective plant with its Latin name and the one commonly used in the respective country, so that we speak of the same plant. ViMA danube is accessible in 6 languages, each person can write the comment in his or her known language or read the comments of the others. Let’s start and collect what we can think of on the topic!

The project starts on 01.08.2023 and runs until 30.11.2023. If successful, it can be continued with this or another topic. Participation is free of charge.

For successful implementation, we offer training for the use of the two online platforms iNaturalist as well as ViMA danube.

The project is initiated and coordinated by ILEU e.V. in the context of the international educational network Danube Networkers, in cooperation with the Botanical Garden of the University of Ulm, and partner groups in other Danube countries. It takes place with the active support of the ViMA danube volunteers, these are volunteers from different countries who support the idea of ViMA danube: Virtual Meeting Action.

The project is funded by the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg and the Digital Agenda of the City of Ulm.

If you have any questions, please contact vima@ileu.net, Marina Kuch or another person from our ViMA danube team will answer you.