Restoring Land Through Grazing
Reflections from the second Restoration Academy youth camp in the Slovak hills.
In August, 25 participants from across Europe gathered at the central bus station in Bratislava, Slovakia, with backpacks filled with hiking gear, ready for a new adventure.
Our Destination:
The Smolenice Hills, where the second Restoration Academy youth camp would take place. This EU-funded project, coordinated by five NGOs, is designed to engage young people in hands-on nature restoration.
The Slovak Hills, with some of Europe’s oldest tree species, are an incredible landscape, yet they face significant ecological challenges. Non-native species have taken root, crowding out the native flora and altering the balance of the ecosystem. In the past, wild grazers like cows and sheep maintained the open spaces that support biodiversity, but with their decline, these habitats are being overtaken by dense forests and grasslands. Our mission was clear: to restore some of these sunlit areas and give the land a chance to breathe again.
Restoration Work
Our restoration work involved creating a two-meter-wide path around a designated area, which would later be fenced off to allow goats to graze naturally and manage overgrowth. Clearing the path was no small task, participants worked in teams, cutting grass and removing obstacles to set the stage for the next phase of restoration.
This hands-on experience also introduced us to the complexities of restoration planning. How do you decide which areas to restore? What methods should be used to support the species you want to protect? These questions challenged us to think about restoration as a delicate balance between preserving existing landscapes and facilitating new growth.
Walking through the hillside, we began to grasp the long timescales involved in ecological restoration. A moment of controlled destruction, cutting grass or removing invasive plants, can set the stage for decades of recovery and biodiversity. This process reframes the human role in nature: while we often see ourselves as protectors, we sometimes need to step back and create space for ecosystems to evolve on their own.
The days were filled with hard physical work and the evenings brought moments of connection. We camped under the stars, drank water from the well, and immersed ourselves in Slovak culture. Nights spent surrounded by a field of goats and cows, with the peaceful sounds of nature, reminded us of the land’s resilience and our place within it.
Perhaps this youth camp is part of a larger movement, a gathering of young people responding to the urgent need to restore the planet. Together, we are shaping a future where ecological restoration is not just a practice but a way of life, connecting people and nature in a shared purpose.
Restoration Academy Project information
Restoration Academy is an EU Erasmus project aiming to:
🌿 Equip other youth organisations and youth workers with tools.
🌿Promote and initiate nature restoration activities with young people
🌿 Emphasise youth-oriented educational and volunteering activities in nature as a tool to empower and connect young people
The organisations working together on this project are
🌿 Youth Academy, Finland
🌿 Finnish Nature League, Finland
🌿 Tree of Life, Slovakia
🌿 RE-PEAT, the Netherlands
🌿 KMOP, Greece
Find out more here!
Written by Holly Bartley, with images by Frankie Turk
