Boschi per la Biosfera – Forests for the Biosphere

The project is based on the long cooperation in nature protection and environmental educational between the executing partners (Manfred-Hermsen-Stiftung and Giacche Verdi Bronte), and the ERASMUS programme for volunteer exchange. The project area comprises the river valleys surrounding Mt. Etna. This region is preparing for a UNESCO nomination of a Biosphere Reserve in order to foster sustainable and climate conscious development. 

With “Boschi per la Biosfera”, local schoolchildren were educated and encouraged to directly participate in reforestation efforts. This 6-months project reached out to 110 elementary school classes around the Etna, all together about 2,200 children. Each child participated in three different parts of the climate-forest education: One lesson at school, one educational excursion into the forest (or urban park), and one field excursion for seeding oak trees and Mount Etna broom. The project included 15 international volunteers, mostly from Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE), and young professionals from the Etna region, receiving training and permanent inputs from German and CEE experts in order to conduct education and reforestation activities with children. This yields a multiplier effect, since the skills and knowledge obtained by volunteers and young professionals through training and project work, can be used in their future careers and passed on to others in their home countries. Apart from environmental education and awareness raising on climate protection among the wider population, direct outputs include the restoration of approx. 10 ha with natural forest cover and the construction of an environmental education path.