Nature Connectivity | Ecoleader
What are the historical and cultural grounds of our relationship with nature? How do they explain the degradation of our environment? What role does contact with nature play in public and individual health? What does neuroscience say about the relationship between nature and the brain? Is investing in the relationship with nature economically profitable? A comprehensive overview of our relationship with the natural world.
Our Fall Session will start on 18 September 2024!
Course Length: 7 weeks
Class Days: Wednesdays and Saturdays
New Session
Our next Ecoleader Fall Session will run from 18 September - 2 November May 2024.
Course Description
To offer you a deep understanding of the historical, philosophical, and anthropological foundations of our relationship with nature: that’s the ambition of our Ecoleader training. The different modules will help you discover and deepen your own relationship with nature and show you how to integrate nature into your practice, business and activities.
Focused on the still unknown man/nature binomial, rather than on nature itself, the course will give you an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of disconnection from and reconnection to nature. This disconnection, which has been accelerated by the industrial revolution, is the result of a long conditioning of thinking which, although obsolete, is still existent. This university-level course is therefore an opportunity to revisit how we view the living world and to understand why, in the Western world, the recourse to nature as a tool for public and private health has been slow to gain ground.
Join us and discover a world that values and celebrates our connection with nature. The engaging lessons, solid knowledge and lively discussions are a unique opportunity to learn about everything that nature has to offer. At the end of this 6-week course, you will have the knowledge required to turn nature into an ally to help you improve your personal well-being, as well as that of the members of your organization.
This course aims to
Deepen your own relationship with nature
Inform you of the impact of nature on physical, psychological and cognitive health as proven by scientific research
Prepare you to deliver rational arguments in favor of the implementation of nature in your environment during your discussions with decision-makers
Show you how to participate in the development of a healthier and more equitable society
In the Nature Connectivity | Écoleader course you will discover:
Ecoleader Curriculum
Module 1: What is Nature?
✔ What are we talking about when we talk about “nature”? Why does this word not exist in all languages? What’s its origin? What does it say about our relationship to nature? A dive into history and anthropology that will provide a better understanding of how to restore our connection with nature.
✔ Assess the state of your own connection with nature through an astonishing reflective exercise in the forest
Module 2: Nature and Culture
✔ Our view of nature is the result of a cultural heritage whose extent we don’t even suspect. The American notion of “wilderness”, for example, has profoundly influenced many international nature protection policies. The European search for Eden continues, for its part, to impact many African and Asian countries.
✔ A parallel is made with indigenous cultures to reassess our relationship with the natural world.
Module 3: Envrionmental Sociology
✔ Not all social groups utilize nature in the same way: culture, gender, age, and socio-economic background shape the way we approach the natural world. These differences explain the failure of many activities, campaigns or political measures that do not take these specificities into account. This module that will teach you how to work more effectively with different segments of the population.
✔ Environmental injustice or inequality is the fact that individuals and social groups do not experience equal to environmental nuisances and risks, nor do they have equal access to environmental resources. Born in the United States, the fight against environmental injustice has taken on global proportions and, in the face of the climate crisis, lies at the core of the challenges of the 21st century.
Module 4: Disconnection From Nature
✔ A module that dives into the heart of the sometimes-surprising causes of our disconnection from nature
✔ Eco-emotions et disconnection
Module 5: Connection with Nature
✔ A module that addresses the notion of connection with nature: through studies and concrete examples, we distinguish the fundamental elements of an impactful connection with nature.
✔ Definition and measures of connection to nature
Module 6: Impacts of Nature
✔ Panorama of the scientific research on the epidemiological, psychological, physiological, and cognitive impacts of nature on humans. An overview of research, from its beginnings in the 1980s to the present day. Knowledge resulting from research is unfortunately very frequently ignored by public and private decision-makers. If today the public knows that “nature is good”, it generally ignores to what extent. This module aims to equip students with the scientific fundamentals of the impact of nature.
✔ Impacts of nature in cities: ecosystem services, city and nature relationship, international initiatives.
Module 7: The Legal Status of Nature
✔ In the late 1960s, a jurist proposed granting rights to trees and the natural environment as a whole. This idea caused a scandal at the time, but since then some countries have incorporated the protection of natural elements into their law or constitution. Where are we at? What are the enforced laws and what criticisms do they evoke?
✔ Alongside these laws granting protection to nature, this module also addresses the issue of access to nature by analyzing in particular the Scandinavian culture of free access.
After completing the Nature Connectivity | Ecoleader course, you can continue your training with the
Nature Connectivity | Certified Guide
Your Instructor
Julie is the General Coordinator at l’Université dans la Nature. As such, she collaborates with local organizations, schools, businesses, and policymakers in developing new projects that advocate for the integration of nature-centric practices into various sectors.
By teaching this class, Julie gets to live her passion of helping people (re)connect to and understand the intrinsic value of nature, whether it is by explaining how we arrived at where we are today, or by sharing the many amazing things that nature has to offer. Holding an MA in Dance/Movement Therapy, she is also a Certified Guide herself and has thus experienced first hand the impact that this innovative course focusing on the human/nature connection can have on the people that follow it.
Class Prices
UdN is deeply committed to social and environmental justice. Part of your registration fees funds projects to share the impacts of nature with disadvantaged populations (free participation in Nature (Re)connections, scholarships for classes, trainings, school aids, etc.).
Nature Connectivity | Ecoleader
1.290,00 CAD (886,00 € HTVA)
Or 4 monthly installments of 323 CAD (221 € HTVA)
Nature Connectivity | Certified Guide
2.210,00 CAD (1.518,00 € HTVA)*
Or 6 monthly installments of 369 CAD (254 € HTVA)
*This price already includes de Ecoleader class since it is a pre-requisite.
For those who have already completed Ecoleader at an earlier time and wish to continue with the Certified Guide training, the cost is: 920 CAD (632 € HTVA) or 3 monthly installments of 307 CAD (211 € HTVA).
Scholarship Application
L’Université dans la Nature awards one scholarship per semester. This scholarship allows the participant to follow our courses completely free of charge. To find out more about the requirements and to apply for a scholarship, head here.