Introducing children in the primary school to the concept of ecosystem services

The respect for Earth and life in all its diversity and the protection of the integrity of the environment are two of the fundamental principles declared in the Earth Charter 2000, which aims to build a just, peaceful, and sustainable global society. Due to the increasing effects of the environmental crisis, there is a need for a greater environmental sensibility and consciousness, and one path to reaching this goal passes through environmental education projects with children. Here we carried out a project for the involvement of children in environmental-related issues, using as a teaching tool the concept of ecosystem services (ES). The project aims to develop in children a sensitivity towards the environment, good social and civic competence, and make them more aware of environmental issues through the discovery of their territory. The topic of ES was introduced through a storytelling approach, and we described in a simplified version six ES, asking children to point out in the city map where they found these services in their town. The 17 children taking part in the project were 9 years old, we tested the considerations obtained with questionnaires appropriate to their age and level of comprehension, to evaluate the acquisition of new information and long-term knowledge. Then videos of urbanized and degraded environments in our territory were shown, and afterward, children were asked to make a proposal for the recovery of a degraded area in their town. Children had the chance to put into practice their proposal with an outdoor activity for recovering a forest in their town. After one year, a meeting with the children took place and they were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding the project, and the consequences it had for their lives. The results highlighted that the majority of children remember this project with a positive feeling and had an improved competence and critical sense regarding the environment and ecosystem services.