When?
March 08th-21th, 2025
Group size
12 volunteers incl. 2 group leaders
This work camp is organized in the forest school Indelhausen, an institution of non-formal environmental education for school classes.
The forest school is a pedagogical institution founded in 1977. The building used to be the village school and now serves 1,000 students and teachers every year as a non-formal learning place on the topic of forest and nature.
Groups of students of the grades 7 to 9 of all school types usually stay here for two weeks and participate in different tasks of simple forest work, they take part to the school’s educational program about the forest, go on excursions or play games, have fun and do sports.
This project is about helping to take care of the beautiful Swabian Alb biosphere area and learning about forest education at the same time.
The program of the youth exchange has two goals:
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Assisting the foresters with nature conservation work. Every morning (2.5 to 3 hours) you will help with various environmental tasks that contribute to the protection of the surrounding biosphere area.
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Participate in forest education workshops. In the afternoons, workshops are organized on topics such as climate change, forest ecosystem and forest management, or biodiversity conservation.
Actively preserving the forest and learning why it is essential to do it go hand in hand; this is why the workshops about forest education in the afternoons are as important as the practical work outside in the mornings! If you're interested in environmental education and generally how to pass on important knowledge about the forest to future generations, this is the perfect project for you! You are also welcome to help organize workshops on forest education if you wish.
You will be staying at the forest school from 08.03 until the end of the project.
At the forest school you will be accommodated in shared rooms (2 to 4 beds). The building is quite big, there is a dining room, a common room where you can relax or play games, bathroom facilities with shared showers, as well as a gym hall, a volleyball court, table tennis tables and two climbing walls.
Meals will be provided by the school, so you don't have to cook by yourself. The forest school tries its best to serve local and bio food. There will be vegetarian and vegan options but we need to know about your needs in advance! There is little phone reception in the forest school. Wifi is provided but it is quite slow – you will be able to exchange messages but streaming videos will most likely not function.
The “Waldschulheim Indelhausen” is located in the small village of Hayingen in the middle of a geopark, at the southern end of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve “Schwaebische Alb” in southern Germany.
This area features diverse mountainous and cultural landscapes, protected ecosystems with rare plants and animals and notable forest, meadow and orchard habitats. The surroundings are perfect for outdoors activities like hiking. It is very rural, and there are many great view-points and various old castle ruins that are worth visiting.
Because Hayingen is quite far from bigger cities, the free time activities will be mainly done close-by in the nature, enjoying the beautiful surroundings and getting to know the local culture.
Register now as a group leader!
Register here if you would like to lead this Workcamp
If you have any questions about the project or your tasks as a camp leader, please send us an email or call us:
Email: projekte@ibg-workcamps.org
Phone: +49 711 649 02 63