Kids in Nature Conference

Background

In Denmark, it is acceptable to take a school class out hunting, for a teacher and children to harvest game, butcher it, and cook it. Experiences such as these provide lifelong learning and give students the opportunity to reflect on topics including life and death, where food comes from, and their own place in nature. They can do this through real experiences, rather than seeing them in a film or reading about them in a book. This opportunity is far from a given in other countries. In Germany, nature guides dare not bring an animal into a school class for fear of losing their job or being shamed on social media. In Poland, children under 18 are not allowed to participate in hunting.
In the UK, there is little social licence for hunting.

Bliv NaturligVis - Become NaturallyWise

Become NaturallyWise is a voluntary nature communication team of hunters and anglers, run by the Danish Hunters’ Association and the Danish Sport Fishing Association with support from the Nordea Foundation. Over the past ten years, Become NaturallyWise has worked on intelligently integrating nature comm unication, through hunting and sport-fishing, into the Danish education system, focusing on Danish schools and kindergartens. This work has contributed to a largely positive view among the Danish population of harvesting nature’s surplus wildlife, including by hunting and fishing.

CONFERENCE

Based on the attention and international interest in how we, in Denmark, have succeeded in making nature communication through hunting and sport-fishing a significant strand in Danish education, we wish to hold a European conference on the subject.

Conference target group and purpose

The conference is intended for anyone interested in the subject, whether pro or anti. Typically, delegates will come from
NGOs, but also politicians and opinion makers, media, and
hunting organisations from across Europe. We will invite some delegates. The rest of the conference is open to all (numbers limited). Its purpose is to inspire, provide insight and professional knowledge, as well as to facilitate contact, create networks, and share already developed materials and concepts so that similar processes can be initiated in other countries, adapted to their respective challenges and needs. The goal is to inspire a pan-European process that can create an increased positive view of the sustainable harvesting of nature’s surplus.

Conference format

The conference will take place over three days, Friday-Sunday, 22-24 August 2025, with the main programme on Saturday, where selected Danish and international speakers will delve into topics through short presentations of around 30 minutes.

Partners:

The conference is held in collaboration between SCI Kingdom of Denmark, SCI Europe, The Danish Hunters’ Association, Become NaturallyWise, and Brahetrolleborg Estate.

Contact

Danish Hunter´s Association Head of “Become NaturallyWise” Franz Holmberg fho@jaegerne.dk
Niels Søndergaard Director of Wildlife Management & Lobbyisme nis@jaegerne.dk
SCI International Director Carsten Ottesen carsten.ottesen@scidenmark.com
SCI Euope Liaison Juan Magaz jmagaz@safariclub.org
SCI Denmark President Henning Olsen henning.olsen@scidenmark.com

PROGRAM