Tag Archive for: Italy

A week camping to fight the climate crisis

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By Michela Colpo and Francesca Santangelo

From the 25th to the 29th of July Turin (Italy) hosted the Climate Social Camp, an international event that sees the participation of movements, collectives and activists from all over the world. The goal is to create a moment in which people can confront themself and discover different realities, with the aim of discussing the issues of global warming and climate change.

Among the participants, the international movements Fridays For Future and Extinction Rebellion, both focused on the fight for climate justice. In addition, numerous people representing MAPA, Most Affected Peoples and Areas, showed up to share their stories and raise awareness about how the fight for the environment affects everyone and not only a small part of the population. Michelin Sallata, from Indonesia, and Nansedalia Ramirez, from Mexico, were two of the many guests who made touching and important speeches.

The organization of the camp

The camp was in a park of Turin, where different areas were settled up, such as the camping area, three marquees for conferences, evening events and meals, and open spaces for workshops and relaxation areas.

During the week, mornings and afternoons were moments for debates and group activities, analyzing the theme of the climate crisis from many different perspectives, also thanks to the multiple guests who proposed and addressed different topics, such as antispecism, ecotransfeminism, work, migration. This helped to analyze the theme of climate justice and climate crisis through a 360-degree analysis, raising awareness and educating about environmental problems from multiple angles, and spreading information about realities connected to a more ethical and sustainable development.

The camp was an event accessible to all: meals were vegan and gluten free, designed to be as inclusive and sustainable as possible, and a psychological support desk was also set up.

Fridays For Future at the Campus and the Friday strike

Throughout the week, a series of afternoon conferences organized by Fridays For Future took place at the Luigi Einaudi Campus of the University of Turin. This ended with the meeting “The great blindness: how to tell about climate change in the media”, a round table that saw some of the directors of the most famous Italian newspapers, such as La Stampa, La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera, discussing with activists about how in these days the media deal environmental issues and topics such as greenwashing.

The Climate Social Camp ended with the Friday strike, the symbol of the environmental movement Fridays For Future. The march started from the park and ended in Piazza Castello, where a last meeting was held to involve tourists and citizens to listen to the speeches of the participants of the camp.

Our magazine “.eco” followed the whole event: we want to mention the honorable behavior of the participants, who preserved the original state of the park without polluting it, and also to the environment of mutual respect and cultural exchange that was maintained during the whole event. This positive and predominantly young atmosphere, of lightness but also social commitment, could remember the festivals of the 60s and 70s, such as the famous Woodstock. But in this case, the music, the chats, and the new friendships are only the outline of the greater final goal: the fight for respect and rights of all living beings and of our planet.

New project to combat marine litter in the Mediterranean Sea lunched by Media Advisory_UfM and University of Siena

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The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation of marine litter in the Mediterranean as the use of single-use plastics such as gloves and masks has increased, threatening to stall and even reverse the progress achieved. Single plastic accounts for up to 50% of beach litter.

The new project “Plastic Busters: Fostering knowledge transfer to tackle marine litter in the Mediterranean by integrating Ecosystem-based management into coastal zone management” is led by the University of Siena and will facilitate the efforts of decision makers in effectively dealing with marine litter and achieve a good environmental status in the Mediterranean. The project will be implemented in Greece, Italy, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Spain, and Tunisia over the next 2 years with a budget of over €1 Million. It is co-funded by the European Union under the ENI CBC Med programme.

The main actions of the project are: implementation of national hands-on training activities and an e-course on marine litter monitoring, assessment, prevention and mitigation; 4 pilot campaigns on marine litter monitoring and assessment; 4 demos showcasing marine litter prevention and mitigation measures; creation of a coastal cities network and a roadmap of policy priorities for a litter-free Mediterranean.

The new project is part of the UfM-supported Plastic Busters regional  initiative, kick-started in 2013 to tackle the issue of plastic waste in the Mediterranean by addressing its entire management cycle.
The press conference will focus on the need to promote and mainstream the results of completed marine litter related projects and will provide a collective reflection on future challenges and opportunities for effective action towards enhanced environmental protection.
The conference will be online on 26th January  at 4pm CEST.
The conference will be in English.
Speakers will be:
  • Maria Cristina Fossi – Professor at the University of Siena and Plastic Busters Director
  • Francesco Frati – Rector of the University of Sienna
  • Thomais Vlachogianni – Programme/Policy Officer at the Mediterranean Information Office for the Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE/ Greece)
  • Sana Ben Ismail – National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technologies, Tunisian partner of the project.

All the project’s partners will be present.

Registration to attend the event onsite must be done via the following email: silvia.casini@unisi.it
This e-mail must include the following information: Full name, Media organisation and position, Email address and mobile phone number.

 

From North to South of Globe: events and activities around the world for the EE Day

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The fourth edition of the WorldEnvironmental Education Day took place from 14 to 26 October 2021.  The Weec Network invited all the stakeholders of the environmental education to join the World Environmental Education Day organising special events to highlight the importance of environmental educational actions all over the world.

Here are some of the Earth Day celebrations . 

In Portugal took place “Emc2”, an educational project that involved  100 students aged between 8-11 years old, with their teachers. They participated at 4 outdoor visits to coastal habitats, in order to know the endemic white crowberry plant. These visits occurred in mainland Portuguese coastal area of Torres Vedras and had the support of ‘Torres Vedras Environmental Educational Centre’ 

In the meanwhile, in Latvia, students from Madliena secondary school worked on project “Change your life-think more broadly”. It is civic participation project where students learn democracy and active partnership creating ideas, developing plans, looking for support. Project activities started in September and the students realized their ideas for better environment and for more beautiful and comfortable school surroundings. Work on project ideas devilment and realization make students more self-confident and responsible about place, where they live and study. It allows them to understand that their local work for better environment is a part of global issues. The improved surroundings of the school are used for school outdoor activities and became a good place for walks for everybody in Madliena. The support of local authorities and students` parents was important and helped the students to carry out their first so great project. 

In Brussels  COREN ran educational programs in environmental management in schools in Wallonia and Brussels. It

 organized activities on different themes: waste prevention and management, eco-consumption, rational use of energy, ecological footprint, food waste, citizen mobility . 

 

 

 

In Morocco,  the Hassan II International Center for Environmental Training is organizing a webinar entitled “Innovative approaches for the environment. ‘environmental education and sustainable development’ in collaboration with the WEEC network through the international expert Mr. David Zandvliet.

As well in Italy, on the EE Day, Istituto per l’ambiente e l’educazione Scholé Futuro – Weec network organized the Earth Festival first edition.

Three days, from 15 to 17 October, in Lombardy on the Lake Maggiore river, full of events, conferences and activities thought to people awareness raising  to climat

e change and environmental education. The Festival is Earth Prize’s heritage, that ‘s took place for three years.  

Joining  “All4Climate-Italy2021’’ initiatives, Weec Network prepared Staffetta per il clima, Race for climate: 26 events disseminated in 14 italian regions  training moments, round tables, conferences, contests, exhibitions, debates and meetings for the presentation of pilot projects / good practices / case studies on climate change education. The last  one took place on the 14th October, in occasion of the EE Day. 

 

The managing body of the CEAS Dorgali Cala Gonone promoted an online dissemination event with the release of presentations relating to the importance of environmental education centres and training activities for territorial, local and regional development and for the protection of biodiversity. 

Le Mille e Una Notte prepared nature workshops for children and teenagers with a sustainability theme to get to know the reality of the Tiber River up close, from 10 am to sunset. Activities are part of a European project I Rivers in full size (FGN), whose goal is to collaboratively develop a set of teaching materials based on an illustrated representation of the great European rivers and their catchment areas.  

The Park of the Royal Castle of Moncalieri organised a virtual visit for kindergarten pupils to learn about history of this place and the vegetation present in the large park (including many centuries-old trees). The event highlighted the importance of parks and gardens for people, to have a space for relax or free time, to socialize each other and know the area they live.

A journey through the Water: Online Diving in Lake Como

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Today a special event for World Water Day 2021!
Poland, Croatia, Greece, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Armenia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Italy. These are the countries that today will join the meeting “A Journey through the Water: Online Diving in Lake Como“.
Children from primary schools of these countries are participating in this wonderful event that presents Como Lake to the World thanks to the project Etwinning.
Here you can find the information to join the meeting:

Celebrating the World EE Day 2020, experiences and activities all around the world

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The third edition of the World Environmental Education Day took place from 14 to 26 October 2020.  The Weec Network invited all the stakeholders of the environmental education to join the World Environmental Education Day organising special events to highlight the importance of environmental educational actions all over the world.

The aim of EE Day is to focus on the complexity of the challenges in a world where everything is ever more interconnected. Several associations, environmental education centres, schools and institutions sent us information about their events in 2020. We would like to thank all those who wanted to promote environmental education this year, despite the pandemic.

Here we present a selection of interesting case histories.

 

Bénin
Cercle de Recherche pour l’Identification et la Promotion des Alternatives du Développement Durable (CRIPADD)

CRIPADD is convinced that an environmental education program for children is essential to raise environmental awareness. It is with this in mind that they initiated an animation campaign for the benefit of schoolchildren at the public primary school of Hio. It will focus on environmental themes drawn from their environment.

This initiative was set up after the momentous decision to ban mangrove cutting in Avlékété, an area of ​​impressive biodiversity, but overexploited. However, the decision of environmental protection is putting many families in economic difficulty.

 

Bhutan
Royal Education Council

Environmental education is one of the national priorities towards achieving the goals of Gross National Happiness. To this effect, Environmental Science for classes 9 to 12 was introduced as optional subject with the aim of developing youths who are in peace and harmony with the tangible and intangible environment. As a consequence, nature is used sustainably for the wellbeing of people and the nature.


Canada
International Francophonie (Francophonie internationale)
Revue Éducation relative à l’environnement

The Revue Éducation relative à l’environnement, part of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), has set up a Google discussion group (mailing list) concerning the field of Environmental Education. In this group, members can exchange information (announcements of colloquia, seminars or webinars; publications; call for contributions for an event; call for publication; links to a website or webpage, etc.), ask subscribers research questions on the subject of the list, help other subscribers by answering the questions asked, receive information… as long as it is in the field of Environmental Education. The language used by this group is French. This list is moderated and you will have the possibility to unsubscribe at any time.

To be a member of this group, send an email at revue.ere@uqam.ca

 

Chile
Fundación Cosmos

Fundación Cosmos manages the Rio Maipo Wetland Nature Sanctuary located on the central coast of Chile. This is one of the most important coastal wetlands in the area, both because it is home to more than 180 species of birds, and because of the environmental services it provides to local communities and the ecosystem in general. However, it is not free from threats and factors that deteriorate it and affect its biodiversity, such as the presence and accumulation of rubbish that reaches it through high tides or the flooding of the Maipo River. To commemorate World Environmental Education Day, they have organised a community rubbish clean-up, which is more important than ever, given the arrival of migratory birds in the wetland. Through the clean-up, the Fudación generates awareness about the origin of the rubbish and the possible destiny of the waste that we all produce, encouraging a change in behaviour with respect to it.

 

France
Association Centre de découverte du son

The Association Centre de découverte du son will organize a nature outing: “Sons Buissonniers”. Walks will be organised in search of musical instruments that nature can offer. Magical moments where a blade of grass turns into a whistle, fruit into percussion. Then pupils will discover how to manipulate and have fun with these sound objects.

 

France
Litt’Obs

Litt’Obs will organise an educational discovery of rays and sharks with a school public as part of the Festival Baie des Sciences in St-Brieuc, on 14th of October.

 

Italy
Department of Education Studies at University of Bologna

An informal group of professor and students engaged on environmental education is organizing a web event (in Italian) addressed to students of the Department of Education Studies at University of Bologna, on the 16 October, 11 am-1 pm.
Title: Educazione ambientale, scuola, Indicazioni Nazionali (Environmental education, school and National Guide-lines), relator Prof. Stefano Piastra.

 

Italy
“MAREARTE” Project, travelling exhibition

The “MareArte” project was born from an idea of the artist Diego Racconi as a collective of small paintings by international artists, received through the postal system. The theme of the works develops on the relationship between Man and the Sea, transforming art into a valid tool of awareness, through which to send a message to the community, stimulating virtuous behaviour and raising awareness of respect for the environment. The large participation of the artists with their personal postcards led to the development of the initiative by organizing a traveling collective exhibition, in which some specific works created by the artist Diego Racconi are also presented for a charity action in support of reality. that deal with the recovery of marine animals. The exhibition is structured and proposed thanks to the collaboration of various institutional bodies involving them for the promotion of the initiative in their own territory and is sent through the postal system from location to location in the various destinations, through a tour and a travel route using the postal system. The initiative focuses on environmental sustainability issues and for this reason the invitation to participate in the initiative is also extended to children, precisely to involve the new generations on ecological environmental issues and sustainability objectives. All the works received will be collected at the end of the exhibition in an artist’s book and will therefore not be returned. The Exibition is now hosted at the Museo Barca Lariana (MBL) – Pianello del Lario, Como, Italy

 

Madagascar
Institute of People and Nature (IPN)

The Institute of People and Nature (IPN) will take part at the celebration of the World Environmental Education Day with a webinar on “Environmental Education in Madagascar from 1985 to 2020: background and trends”. The main objective is to inform the audience about the EE actions taken in Madagascar Island since the start in 1985, their impacts and current trends. The target groups are: Members of IPN group (217 members from Malagasy public and private Universities); and Environmental Education, Conservation and Sustainable Development professionals, University students worldwide interested in EE and environment-related issues in Madagascar. It will take place on 14th October at 12:00 GMT. The webinar will be conducted in French. The speaker is Andrianambinintsoa RAKOTOMALALA (Environmental Educator – Sociolinguist, Faculty of Science, University of Toliara, MADAGASCAR)

 

 

North-Macedonia
School of OOU Vlado Tasevski, Skopje

The school of OOU Vlado Tasevski will organise a Climate Action Project and Climate Change and Environment Activities on: Climate Change and biodiversity loss; the effects of climate change; the solutions; pedagogy and education; sustainable education; and SSGoals.

 

Turkey
SUGEP

The Sustainable Development Youth Leaders Education program will develop knowledge, skills and attitudes about sustainability. This program not only increases knowledge and awareness, but also improves skills and enables individuals to make more informed decisions about the environment.

There are a few methodologies that will create a solution-oriented project approach to many issues such as global climate change, gender equality, disruption of ecological balance, separation of biodiversity, ending hunger and poverty, sustainability cities, clean and sustainability energy, life in water. They will find knowledge to improve have academic and personal skills through organizational skills, speaking in front of the community, speaking a speech, preparing a project report.

 

Uruguay
National Network of Environmental Education for Sustainable Human Development of Uruguay (RENEA), Montevideo

From 5 to 7 November, a virtual meeting will set up. Experts from all over the region are invited to present their experiences and reflections on Latin American environmental education. Environmental education for sustainable human development implies an ethical, political and social commitment in a given time and space with the formation of a citizenship committed to participating democratically in decision-making and the execution of actions aimed at a socially equitable development, supportive and balanced between human needs and environmental care. In this very special year, environmental educators have faced new challenges and generated new learnings. It is more than ever a good time to meet, this time virtually, to continue the tradition of reflecting and building environmental education together.

 

USA
California Institute of Environmental Design and Management (CIEDM)

CIEDM will support WEED2020 by participating in the global campaign with following actions:

1. Raise public awareness of WEED2020 by spreading its campaign messages through its social medias, along with those of other environmental awareness events in and around October 14-25, such as Earth Science Week, International Day for Disaster Reduction, and Image a Day without Water;

2. Maintain and enhance through physical works the ecological and environmental services of the homestead pocket forest at Arcadia EcoHome as a registered pollinator site, a certified wildlife habitat, a certified pollinator habitat, and a verified ocean friendly garden.

We invite you to sign our campaign on Change to ask the United Nations, institutions, private and public organizations of five continents, to recognize and celebrate every year, on October 14th, the World Environmental Education Day.

MedArtSal, sustainable management of artisanal salinas in the Mediterranean

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Ready, set, go! MedArtSal kick is a project to promote sustainable management of artisanal salinas in the Mediterranean. The eight partners of the project MedArtSal – sustainable management model for Mediterranean Artisanal Salinas are gathering in Rome, on 18 January, for the kick off meeting of this initiative funded by the European Programme ENI CBC MED 2014-2020 with a total budget of € 3.2 million and an EU contribution of € 2.9 million (90%).
Artisanal salinas across the Mediterranean are today facing many pressures due to profound socio- economic changes that have affected productive activities. The MedArtSal project that is being launched in Rome, aims to promote the multifunctional use of the artisanal salinas to diversify socioeconomic activity generating revenues in terms of good quality salt production, but also by obtaining other products that can be commercialized, or by exploring their potential for tourism, while respecting the natural values of the sites. The project will address common challenges for artisanal salinas in four Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Lebanon and Tunisia), with 10 pilot actions for the development of new products/services in selected salinas and 2 demonstration projects on the diversification of salinas products (i.e. food and cosmetics) and services (i.e. HO.RE.CA) carried out in La Esperanza, Cádiz (Spain) and Sidi Al-Hani (Tunisia).
«Investing in artisanal salinas means preserving our cultural heritage and landscape, local development and biodiversity. The final aim is to develop a sustainable and adaptable management model fostering the territorial valorisation of artisanal salinas in the Mediterranean region» says Gaetano Zarlenga, General Manager at University Consortium for Industrial and Managerial Economics, (CUEIM), Italy. The main beneficiaries of this project will be artisanal salinas and salt producers, small and medium enterprises around these sites and local communities from the Mediterranean region.
The project has a duration of 3 years and is led by CUEIM – University Consortium for Industrial and Managerial Economics (Italy) and involves the following partners: Association for the Development of Rural Capacities (Lebanon), Fair Trade Lebanon (Lebanon), IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (Spain), Mediterranean Sea and Coast Foundation (Italy), Saida Society (Tunisia), University of Cádiz (Spain), and Tuniso-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Tunisia).
Contacts
Lourdes Lázaro, IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (Lourdes.lazaro@iucn.org)

Learning and networking for sustainable development in the Alps

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YOUrALPS’ partners have the pleasure to invite you to the international conference for the presentation of the two main outputs of the project: the Alpine School Model and the OurAlps Network. The conference will gather together professionals of education, mountain education and mountain activities in the Alps; policymakers and public authorities; representatives of associations, protected areas and networks; as  well as young people passionate about  the Alps.

During the Alpine School Model presentation, the experiences of schools and non-formal organizations who tested the model during the project will be highlighted. A round table will also be held to discuss with international and national policymakers about Alpine education and about the possibility of assuring the model’s sustainability in the future.
During the round table dedicated to OurAlps, we will discuss together the importance of an international network of mountain education in the Alps, in relation to international strategies aimed at Youth.
On day 2 of the conference, workshops in small groups will allow an operational exchange on targeted themes for mountain education and the OurAlps network.

Register here

The conference is organised in the frame of the INTERREG Alpine Space Project YOUrALPS

YOUrALPS_Conference_Morbegno2019_VF

Trees around literature: a call

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“I’m interested in the particularity of each Tree – it’s ‘thisness’ (haecceitas)”, claims Canadian land-artist, photographer, and poet Marlene Creates, thus hinting both at the specificity of each singular tree and at the uniqueness of certain species at different latitudes. Literature, among other arts, such as film, photography, the fine arts, is one of those privileged terrains where Trees definitely enter our field of vision, our epistemic knowledge, our sensorial experience. In literary and artistic productions, Trees are ethically and aesthetically called into question (evoked, invoked, iconized, prized, iven attacked), with the aim to identify, describe, or allegorize their singularities and specificities, or to pay homage to their material, literal, cultural, ethnic, and symbolic meaning through a variety of textualities, including the new media.
Similarly, pioneering forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni reminds us that in order to be fully understood and appreciated Trees should be looked at in multiple ways, thus fostering the interplay of science and the humanities. Intertwining the symbolic with the personal, the scientific with the spiritual, the mythic with the functional, Nadkarni invites us to consider a Tree as axis mundi, an imaginary line that connects Earth and Sky, but also the individual with the communal. Trees, in fact, are at once single entities and part of a wider community and environment that secretly communicate with each other (Wohlleben 2016, Mancuso 2017) through their roots and a fungal network nicknamed Wood Wide Web.
Silently and invisibly, trees share information, register pain, learn things, and even protect themselves and each other to the point of becoming arboreal cybercrimes by hijacking the whole system and sabotaging their rivals. Finally, Trees are sites of naturecultural memory: their rings record generations of human and nonhuman encounters and narrations, together with their mutual interference in the shaping of our identities.

The aim of this one-day international and interdisciplinary colloquium is to  attract scholars, artists, experts in various fields to explore and assess the presence, value, and stance of Trees and Tree-like epistemic structures (arborescence vs ryzome, tree-shaped flows) in the Anthropocene.
It is intended that selected papers will be developed as chapters for an international publication.
Proposals from any discipline are invited and may address but are not limited to the following topics:
– Trees and their representations in literatures and the arts
– Metamorphoses of humans and non-humans into trees
– New (invented/fantastic) species vs extinctions of Trees
– Trees and identity, ethnicity, nationality

Politics, Ecology and Society in the Anthropocene

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The XII National Conference of Environmental Sociologists in Italy, titled “Politics, Ecology and Society in the Anthropocene”, will be held on 26 and 27 September 2019, at the University of Salerno.
The Conference will be focused on the organization and reorganization of political, social, and ecological relations within the era that some scholars define as Anthropocene.
At the same time, this concept will be critically considered. On the one hand, it is recognized the degree of uncertainty that the general scientific debate highlights about this concept, developing a deep critique. On the other, it is highlighted the geographical, social and political homogeneity implied by this concept, as it places in the background the inequalities which characterize the socio-ecological relations over time – for example those linked to colonial and neocolonial, gender, and human and extra-human natures relations.
The concept of Anthropocene marks a field in movement, both from the point of view of the quality of socio-ecological relationships, and from the point of view of the epistemological and methodological aspects that drive research and knowledge production.
This turbulence is theoretically and empirically important, involving the intertwining of
politics, society and ecology in all the areas of socio-ecological relationships that are
considered relevant.
On this basis and in consideration of the multiplicity of  approaches and research fields that traditionally characterize Environmental Sociology in Italy, a call for panels is opened, in order to organize the Conference in a series of sessions.

We invite all interested scholars to submit proposals for thematic sessions by 25 January 2019, specifying the following contents:
1) Panel title; 2) name or names of organizers; 3) three keywords; 4) an abstract to present panel aims (max 3,000 characters).
Proposals can be submitted in Italian, Spanish, or English, sending them to the following e-mail address: 12congresso.sociologiambiente@gmail.com.

Panel proposals will be evaluated and published by 5 February 2019, followed by a call for Conference presentations until submission deadline (25 April 2019). Presentations (title, proponents, 3 keywords, and a 3,000 characters abstract) will be sent both to the Conference address (12congresso.sociologiambiente@gmail.com) and the thematic session organizers.
Accepted presentations will be notified by 15 May 2019. Conference program will be published by 30 May 2019.

Conference Scientific committee: Alfredo Agustoni, Aurelio Angelini, Marco Castrignanò, Enrico Ercole, Alfredo Mela, Giorgio Osti, Luigi Pellizzoni, Lauro Struffi, Enrico M. Tacchi, Anna Maria Zaccaria. Local Conference organizer: Gennaro Avallone

Facebook Conference page

Strategy for ESD, the commitment of Italian Institutions

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by Patrizia Bonelli

The Italian Strategy for ESD was updated by the Ministry of Education in the Plan for Education to Sustainability on July the 28th 2017. The plan meets the goals of Agenda 2030 on sustainability.
Actually the road map towards the implementation of ESD in Italy has been long and difficult, marked by the following steps:
2009, 2010, 2014: Guide-Lines for Environmental Education
2015 Strategy for ESD law 221
2016 Agreement for PON (National Operative Program)
2015 Reform of school art.6 law107underlining the importance of: Knowledge and respect for environment Active & democratic citizenship
20/22 November 2016 States General – Paper of Rome
Signed by the Minister of Education & the Minister of Environment

18 July 2017 the Strategy presented to HLPF of UN by the Minister of Environment
28 July 2017 updating of Italian Strategy for ESD by the minister of Education in the Plan for Education to Sustainability
PON, National Operative Programme 2014/2020, for schools financed by Structural European funds is an important step but the most relevant is certainly the meeting of States General (Paper of Rome) which included scientific community, civil society, productive and economic world and Institutions. They agreed upon the Strategy for ESD for the implementation of agenda 2030 including strategies, projects, methods, actions. They identified priority areas in climate change, green economy, legality and environment protection.

The most important supporting principles of the paper of Rome take advantage from the existing opportunities as the alternation school –work to involve students from secondary schools in start-up and projects of research thanks to agreements between schools and public and private companies and enterprises.

The updating of the Strategy on ESD presented on the 28th of July 2017 is based on:
20 actions in 4 macro areas that intend to assure that all the buildings of the Ministry will be perfectly sustainable, from the central buildings to all the schools and Universities (5 million euro). Moreover, all the staff and teachers will be trained to promote awareness and ability in education for sustainability. For that purpose, 20 million euro are provided to introduce ESD in the schools of every order and level.
University and research are encouraged and economically supported in the offer of training, courses and graduation in ESD at any level. Scholarships for students’ mobility is financed by 65 Ph.D. grants coherent with the goals of agenda 2030.

Information and Communication will be widened not just to disseminate official positions and documents, but also good practices of single schools and research of universities for sustainability.

The institutional effort of the Ministry of Education (MIUR) has been always carried on in synergy with the Ministry of Environment (MATTM) but the Minister of Education is particularly involved in many strategic choices as Vector 4 of Agenda 2030 asks for “quality education as fundamental axis of SD being a crossing element for the change offering awareness and ability in communication”.
Knowledge is fundamental to fight poverty, to support economy, to promote an open and inclusive society.
Thanks to the Three-dimensional approach of ESD: environmental-social-economic, the challenge may turn into opportunities.
As a matter of fact, sustainability doesn’t relay just on education and didactics but also in the context and buildings.
Schools and Universities, as micro worlds, need to become completely sustainable, in the buildings themselves, to reduce energy and water consumption (production or storage), in the correct management of waste. Finally, ESD has to be included in programmes and curricula during all the scholastic years and beyond towards long life learning and no formal or informal education. Support, inclusion and empowering have to be ensured to no governmental organizations supplying no formal or informal education and methods of active education.
In the National Education System, ESD is not considered just a further discipline, it is included in the main teachings; in the Ministerial guide lines of 2015 each discipline is re-examined from the point of view of ESD.
Moreover, territorial agreements are strongly supported to involve Local Authorities and Civil Society to contribute to ESD programs with central administration and schools.
The plan behind the updating of the Strategy of ESD presented on the 28th July 2017, has been built thank to a working group of experts, ministerial directors and managers who worked to facilitate networking and collaboration among experts and educators in ESD for the promotion of actions and for the dissemination of knowledge and skills, lifestyles and models of sustainable production and consumption.
The working group made proposals for dissemination of ESD addressed to any level of education and upper education, actions for the development and support of research and university didactics sustainability oriented, the construction of informal education, the support of the good governance of administration.
The plan meets the goals of Agenda 2030 and make of sustainability the main axis which shapes all the policy of the Ministry of Education: from buildings, to teachers’ training, from the central administration to the access to the university, to didactics and research.
Moreover, the plan was informed by the supporting principles of ESD from UN documents to the Paper of Rome (States General). The Teaching coming from the Ministry of Environment that promoted The States General.

The Paper of Rome recommends to face ESD in an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary optics, according to a systemic vision of knowledge. To use interactive, participative, innovative methodologies, requiring an emotional and behavioural involvement, besides rational thought. It proposes to ensure teachers and educators a kind of training, arousing also the ability to build interdisciplinary routes and innovative participative teaching methodologies, and also to assess their efficacy.
It also invites to involve in education and training a wide network of actors: educators, students, parents, associations, institutions, societies, universities, research teams, an alliance between school and out of school world and to enjoy the reciprocal benefits. In the end, the Paper of Rome advises and insists to start from a stronger link with the territory, through concrete experiences on the field and exploration of the places.