Course: 2015 Balkans Academic Expedition Environmental Peacebuilding & Sustainability: A Peace Park in the Balkans?

Jan 21, 2015 | International Peace Park Expeditions
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This accredited academic expedition will provide students with a unique, adventure based, experiential learning opportunity in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, one of the last bio-diversity hotspots in Europe, a place where the legacy of the conflict of the 1990s is being overcome with entrepreneurship, ecotourism and environmental peace building.  The registration deadline is February 15th.  Click here to register.

A quote in the New York Times effectively explains this new opportunity for adventure based environmental peacebuilding. "The Peaks of the Balkans Trail, literally links Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox enclaves, as well as Slavs and numerous Albanian tribes in three adjoining national parks, each showcasing the border region’s inestimable beauty.” 

International Peace Park Expeditions Executive Director Todd Walters has been working in the region since 2008, and was among the first non-military American to cross these borders on foot, and summit some of the peaks in the region since World War II.  He has run four successful group expeditions in the region and has a strong network of local partners involved in this transboundary environmental peace building through ecotourism efforts.  Ohio University's Director of Environmental Studies,Geoff Dabelko has partnered with IPPE to bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the course instruction from his 15 years leading the Environmental Change & Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. Ohio University has offered students from ANY University the opportunity to register, receive academic credit, and the instate tuition rate for 7 credits (regardless of where you live).

You will enjoy the phenomenal hospitality of the local people in all three countries. You will experience the unique “highlander mountain culture” and its traditional organic cuisine, music and dance, traditional clothing, centuries old architecture, and rugged way of life. You will climb cross border trails that were previously used by Roman soldiers and Kosovar refugees. 

You will stay in ecotourism guesthouses with local families. You will meet and learn from the people who live the work of environmental peace building every day of their lives. You will have the opportunity to witness Muslims, Catholics, and Orthodox from ethnic groups as diverse as Albanians, Slavs, Bozniaks, Serbs, and Roma communities living together side by side in peace. You will experience how the environment is being harnessed as a tool to stimulate cross border cooperation; and how entrepreneurship and ecotourism are providing an alternative model for sustainable development and real world livelihood creation.