Educating Educators for Countdown 2010: A Creative Primer to Teaching Biodiversity
11 April 2007, Palermo, Italy. “The Biodiversity primer: cues for bringing up to the future”, a handbook for educators on biodiversity, has been published by the Regional Environmental Protection Agency of Sicily Region.
“E”, as Extinction, “H”, as Habitat, “S”, as Seeds, “N” as Natura 2000…and, of course, “B” as Biodiversity: each letter out of the 21 of the Latin alphabet is a teaching cue, offered by this original educator’s guide to elementary and middle school teachers.
The “Biodiversity Primer”, issued by the ARPA (EPA) of Sicily Region, is an educational tool created by Maurilio Cipparone, CEC member and WCPA Europe Training Task Force leader, who has directed the work of an educational team from Pangea Institute, an Italian NGO, IUCN member, dedicated to environmental education and training. The Primer has been planned as a contribute to the strategy the ARPA Sicily is implementing for a wide set of CEPA initiatives, aimed to involve citizens in Biodiversity conservation. The book is distributed for free to the schools’ network of the Island, but numerous copies have been given to parks and other institutions throughout Italy. The Primer, in particular, is being used in Sicily as a “textbook” for an ambitious “Junior Ranger” three years pilot program, which is involving thousands of schoolchildren, their teachers and their families, in Biodiversity conservation awareness.
Actually, the Biodiversity of Sicily is extraordinary: its values are mainly due to its geographical location, just in the middle of Mediterranean, but are strictly linked to the history and the culture of the Island, as evolved across the centuries. The IUCN Species and Survival Commission has identified several Biodiversity Hot Spots, many of them being now managed by a very complete network of more than 90 Protected Areas. Also for this reason, the Agency has implemented several training courses, all focused on Biodiversity issues, for educators from the Regional network of Environmental Education Centres, for park staff and for officials from the Regional Forest Agency. The strategy is being developed in the framework of Countdown 2010, being the ARPA Siclly one of the first Italian partners of the Countdown.
