Educating for local biodiversity

Environmental education refers to activities aimed at the development of individual and collective capacities to participate in a conscious and informed way in the improvement of the environment. In this way, environmental education is the full exercise of citizenship construction through the use of strategies and practical tools to stimulate action on the environment.

Considering playgrounds, green spaces and the environment around schools as an extension of the classroom, enriching knowledge and involvement with the local environment, LPN through its Training Center, in partnership with SPEA - Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds, organized an online training course for teachers, technicians in environmental education and citizens in general, entitled - Educating for Global Biodiversity.

The training action that had as trainers the teachers Jorge Fernandes - LPN and Teresa Oliveira - SPEA had an excellent participation, having been disclosed several activities that can be performed outside the classroom, in outdoor spaces of the school and the local environment as for example the following:

• Construction of virtual learning paths of biodiversity on Google Earth in the outdoor spaces of the school with an example of a didactic path at Escola Básica 2,3 António da Costa, in Almada.
• Exemplification of fieldwork activities for the analysis of the health diagnostic status of a green space, forest or woodland.
• Construction of structures for fauna, using second-hand materials: bird feeders/watering troughs; insect hotels.

The satisfaction found in the training action by the trainees will make it possible to schedule a future re-edition of this training action in view of providing innovative educational strategies and tools.

Through these approaches, teachers and environmental education technicians had access to a set of educational approaches that encourage and empower teachers and develop outdoor learning initiatives towards active citizenship with the aim of fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, the National Strategy for Environmental Education, European Strategy 2030 and National Biodiversity and Nature Conservation and National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change.