Nature Invites Dialogue: The Frankfurt Zoological Society Updates Information Infrastructure and Navigation in the Carpathian National Parks and Nature Reserves

Togeth­er with staff from the nature con­ser­va­tion fund, the Frank­furt Zoo­log­i­cal Soci­ety (FZS) is intro­duc­ing a com­pre­hen­sive, stan­dard­ized infor­ma­tion sys­tem. This includes new entrance signs, large infor­ma­tion boards, and warn­ing or pre­ven­tive signs. In total, around 1,000 new infor­ma­tion units will be installed across 13 nature con­ser­va­tion areas.

High-qual­i­ty infor­ma­tion helps reduce the impact of tourism on the unique ecosys­tems of the Carpathi­ans. At every stage of their jour­ney, vis­i­tors are remind­ed that they are in a pro­tect­ed area, mak­ing them less like­ly to stray from des­ig­nat­ed trails. Sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of tourist infra­struc­ture is there­fore a key focus of FZS’s work in Ukraine.

High-qual­i­ty tourist infra­struc­ture is not only a mat­ter of com­fort, but also of safe­ty. That is why we install warn­ing signs to inform peo­ple of poten­tial dan­gers. All infor­ma­tion signs include the con­tact details of res­cue ser­vices. Even if tourists get lost, being able to report the last sign they saw can sig­nif­i­cant­ly speed up and reduce the cost of search and res­cue, said Ser­hii Pid­mo­hyl­nyi, coor­di­na­tor for the devel­op­ment of tourism in nature con­ser­va­tion areas at FZS Ukraine.

Work on updat­ing the signs began in 2023, as the process involves many stages. First, staff at each park con­duct­ed an inven­to­ry of the exist­ing infra­struc­ture to iden­ti­fy where com­mu­ni­ca­tion need­ed improve­ment. After that, infor­ma­tion was col­lect­ed and pre­pared, includ­ing pho­tographs, maps, and texts.

To make the Carpathi­ans more wel­com­ing for inter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors, Eng­lish-lan­guage ver­sions of the infor­ma­tion were added to the signs. Many of them are locat­ed along pop­u­lar hik­ing and trekking trails and pro­vide details about rare species of flo­ra and fau­na, nat­ur­al land­marks, and cul­tur­al her­itage sites.

Spe­cial­ized experts were also engaged in devel­op­ing the signs, some­times from unex­pect­ed fields. For exam­ple, spe­cial­ists from the NGO Met­ta, which focus­es on the men­tal health and well-being of Ukraini­ans, con­tributed to stands on nature ther­a­py.

A key inno­va­tion in the updat­ed nav­i­ga­tion sys­tem is the use of empa­thet­ic and acces­si­ble lan­guage instead of strict com­mands. In col­lab­o­ra­tion with Bloom Büro, a cre­ative agency spe­cial­iz­ing in research, strat­e­gy, and design, the arche­types of the Guardian and the Sage were cho­sen to set the tone of the mes­sages.

Each sign now com­bines a clear rule with a human expla­na­tion, invit­ing vis­i­tors to engage and take respon­si­bil­i­ty. This approach turns rules into a dia­logue with vis­i­tors, help­ing them feel like part­ners in nature con­ser­va­tion rather than sub­jects of con­trol.

Four nation­al nature parks in the Carpathi­ans have already received com­plete sets of equip­ment to upgrade their nav­i­ga­tion infra­struc­ture, and nine more will do so by the end of 2025. All signs are made of high-qual­i­ty, envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly mate­ri­als and are weath­er-resis­tant. Their design allows for instal­la­tion with­out addi­tion­al equip­ment, which is cru­cial in hard-to-reach moun­tain areas.

In addi­tion to updat­ing sig­nage, the Frank­furt Zoo­log­i­cal Soci­ety also sup­ports the ren­o­va­tion of tourist routes and eco-trails. This project is made pos­si­ble through finan­cial sup­port from the Ger­man Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI).