As part of the task on communication and public dissemination of RESTORESEAS, the Natural History Museum Vienna has developed a new tool to bring the topic of conservation and restoration of marine forests into the spotlight in the landlocked country of Austria: our new marine restoration e-Bike “Jeanne”!
“Jeanne” presents a rolling and interactive workshop directed at school classes in the ages of 10-14 years old, and is intended to be used in outdoor locations such as parks, where it recreates the environment of marine forests within the city. Using different analogue and digital media, the new e-Bike “Jeanne” focuses on “marine forests”, their importance, their threats and the restoration work performed by the RESTORESEAS project. We, Helena and Pedro, respectively student and PI in the RESTORESEAS consortium, have already tested “Jeanne” on tour to communicate natural science outside the walls of the museum and raise awareness for marine forests and their restoration.
Inspired by the traditional Japanese street theatre “Kamishibai”, “Jeanne” is a stage to tell the story of marine forests in an interactive way. To start off the journey, we use an illustrated handscroll theatre to convey the story of how marine forests have come about, how humans have coexisted with them and benefited from them for millennia, and how we are now nearing tipping points towards ecosystem collapse. We highlight that the gradual destruction of marine forests affects us globally and also reaches an inland country like Austria and, vice versa, that our actions here in Austria contribute to the endangerment of the marine ecosystems, pinpointing the bridges of climate change, pollution and fisheries. Links established often relate to the river Danube as a land-sea connection and the origin of seafood as a reminder that what we eat is reflected in what happens in the sea. It was a pleasure for us to see how easily these topics were picked up by the children and how well they could connect the issue to their own landlocked surroundings, despite many of them never having seen the ocean before. Our goal of conveying a sense of responsibility for an environmental issue that is not obvious, but without a doubt intrinsically tied to the whole world, was rewarded with understanding, engagement and passion!
Our second element of learning is a self-guided sensory experience in the park that allows the children to establish a connection between their own surroundings and marine forests. The suggestive guidelines were implemented on a website. While drawing comparisons between a park, representing the remainder of a forest within a city, and marine forest ecosystems, the website also presents ongoing efforts of RESTORESEAS to conserve and restore coral reefs and marine forests in different parts of the world. This includes a compilation of videos where school children in Brazil, involved in some of the RESTORESEAS projects, share their own perspectives on marine conservation and restoration.
The self-guided learning experience is paired up with a quiz to summarize essential and catchy information on marine forests and their protection.
To finally let their creativity run wild, the kids can create their own stop motion videos and tell their own stories about the marine world. This is always the crowning experience of our excursions to the park, as the creative revelations of this production can range from elaborate dramatic pieces about the rise and fall of destructive industries to crime stories of polluters that are caught red handed and (potentially more often than not) avenged in a “shark eats guy” storyline.
The reception of this project has so far been overly positive and our own experience of playing the illustrated handscroll theatre, conveying all this information to a young audience and gaining from their insights and efforts, has been rewarding. We could happily witness an honest engagement with a subject that is not necessarily closely connected to the children’s daily life, nor well-covered in schools or the Austrian media. A social responsibility for conservation and restoration can be achieved by promoting and understanding of the interconnectedness of the planet, which is crucial for the conservation of marine ecosystems. We look forward to raise further awareness and actively ask for the own contributions of the children in our audience, so we can inspire each other to further strive towards the conservation and restoration of marine ecosystems.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the work of the following persons who greatly contributed to this project. The concept was developed by the RESTORESEAS team at NHMW – Pedro Frade, Maria Pinto, Iris Ott – together with Susanne Kiesenhofer from ARS Electronica Centre (multimedia design) and Jakob Illera from Inseq Design (bike design), who physically constructed the bike. Content was created by Maria Pinto and Pedro Frade and includes materials provided by several RESTORESEAS partners like Paulo Horta from UFSC in Brazil. The Science Communication Department of NHMW contributed with translations to German and language adaptation for children where needed. Pedro Frade and Helena Silberhumer performed trials with schools and implementation into museum programs is now in the hands of the Science Communication Department of NHMW (Iris Ott and Melanie Pilat).
We are currently looking for further sponsors and partners who can help us run this program free of costs for schools in Austria. Please get in touch with us at if you would be willing to help us financially or if you have a background in environmental science and would like to give us a hand with bringing the bike to reach further publics, or if you are a stakeholder in the environmental sector and would like us to feature the bike in one of your events.
Written by Pedro Frade and Helena Silberhumer, NHMW