Title: Virtual Peace and Nature Trails

Author: Roxane Verhoeff, Marten van Harten, Peter van Dungen, and Petra Keppler. Bertha von Suttner Peace Institute, the Netherlands

Abstract: The presentation describes the development process of a virtual peace and nature walk through the city of The Hague, using smartphone media for education on the combined topics of nature and peace. This virtual update of The Hague Peace Trail (2.0) serves as example for modernisation to the Discover Peace in Europe Peace Trails (www.discoverpeace.eu), developed in 2013/14 by a consortium of peace education institutions in 7 countries. The Hague Peace Trail was created - in cooperation with the INMP secretariat/Nike Liscaljet - by Marten van Harten.

The Bertha von Suttner Peace Institute (founded by Petra Keppler and Peter van den Dungen) inherited the task of organizing Peace walks and asked intern Roxane Verhoeff, a Master of Science student, to update the Peace walk content and also develop an attractive tool for digital peace education. Using a new on-line format called AMP, stories, the digital version now combines the photos of the peace "stations" with poetry, visuals and interesting facts to guide the viewer through a virtual walk of the trail.

Apart from its educational value, the virtual possibilities are of relevance, as restrictions of the ongoing global pandemic of the covid-19 virus limit in-person visits.

This peace walk is interactive and the viewer decides when and where to enjoy it.

The presentation includes still images of what the final product looks like, peace poetry, an explanation of the reasoning behind the choice of this format and a description of the development process of the final product.

Video: https://youtu.be/NT8qLxZSbz0