IX. 3.1. Example of Projects in Environmental Education by a Primary School

The teachers at a village school were worried about a forest just outside the school grounds. It was a forest, having been abandoned for years, where only a few people from the village dared to go for a walk.  On the other hand the children were fascinated by the forest and they wanted to explore it and to use it for their activities. The children proposed to ask the community and their parents for help to make the forest cleaner, clean up waste, and make the forest more accessible. The children, together with their teachers made specific plans of what to do and when to do it. In three days - with the help of the community - the abandoned forest was made more appealing to people. Wild plants, typical of the area were planted in order to offer a variety of plant communities. Nice-looking stones were displayed along the footpath.  The whole community continued to help in ground preparation in order to plant trees of different species.

The forest is now being used as an educational site. It is an extension of the school ground but also a kind of ‘botanical garden’ to be observed all year long. Special school programmes deal with different aspects of the forest during the year, and teachers and children take care of it regularly. The villagers come now to the school for jogging and exercising and they also make use of the forest park during holidays for their leisure time activities.