ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN SPAIN NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND LOCAL POLICIES

NATIONAL POLICY The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its article 45, makes a reference to the environment: “ Everyone has the right to enjoy an environment suitable for the development of the person, as well as the duty to preserve it. The public authorities shall watch over a rational use of all natural resources with a view to protecting and improving the quality of life and preserving and restoring the environment, by relying on an indispensable collective solidarity. For those who break the provisions contained in the foregoing paragraph, criminal or, where applicable, administrative sanctions shall be imposed, under the terms established by the law, and they shall be obliged to repair the damage caused.”

NATIONAL POLICY The States forests of Spain has more than 8,000 kinds of plants and other 60,000 of animals, having the most different biological diversity in Europe. The Ministry of Environment of Spain has done an environmental policy plan for the next 25 years, making an emphasis on “sustainable development”. Among other aims, they want to plant 320 million trees in the next seven years, to reuse 1,200 million cubic metres of water every year and to build solar roofs on 3 million buildings. The plan is based on seven areas: economical increase, resources management, formation and research, fight against the climate change, social cohesion, sustainable tourism and waste reduction.

NATIONAL POLICY One of the main things to take care of is the group of the “figures of special protection” which are:  National Parks. (“Sierra Nevada” in Granada)

NATIONAL POLICY  Natural Parks.(“Bahía de Cádiz” in Cádiz)

NATIONAL POLICY  Natural places. (“ Playa de los Lances” in Tarifa)

NATIONAL POLICY  Protected landscapes. (“Río Tinto” in Huelva)

NATIONAL POLICY  Natural reserves.(“Laguna de Medina” in Cádiz)

NATIONAL POLICY  Natural monuments. (“Tómbolo de Trafalgar”)

NATIONAL POLICY  Periurban parks. (“La Corchuela” in Sevilla)

WITH NO DOUBT, THE MOST IMPORTANT ARE THE NATIONAL PARKS WHICH RECEIVE A LOT OF CARE. MAP OF NATIONAL PARKS IN SPAIN CABAÑEROS PICOS DE EUROPA TIMANFAYA SIERRA NEVADA DOÑANA CALDERA DE TABURIENTE GARAJONAYTEIDE TABLAS DE DAIMIEL ARCHIPIÉLAGO DE CABRERA ORDESA Y MONTE PERDIDO AIGÜESTORTES I ESTANY DE SANT MAURICI

REGIONAL POLICY In some of the articles of the Statute of Autonomy of Andalucía, there is a reference to different aspects of the environment, in order to protect it:  Article 195. Preservation of the biodiversity.  Article 196. Sustainable use of the natural resources.  Article 197. Production and sustainable development.  Article 198. Waste.  Article 199. Technological and Biotechnological development.

REGIONAL POLICY  Artículo 200. Prevention of forest fires and fight against desertification.  Artículo 201. Protection against pollution.  Artículo 202. Rural development.  Artículo 203. Efficient use of the ground and integral systems of transport.  Artículo 204. Rational use of the energy resources.

REGIONAL POLICY In Andalucía, there is an Environmental Plan whose main objectives are:  Increase the quality of life of the Andalusian people through the protection of nature and environment and the development of the social equipments, with a special attention to the countryside.  Make a contribution to the sustainable development through the environmental sustainability and the integration of the environment in all the policies of the Andalusian Administration.  Improve the environment through more rational and efficient relations of the human and productive systems with their environment.

REGIONAL POLICY And the Environment Department has got a lot of different projects to achieve them. These projects belong to a main programme called “Aldea Activa” which has the objective to offer the schools several resources and activities to make them become more sustainable places, where people work through the environmental education in order to get a bigger social conscience and compromise with our environment:

REGIONAL POLICY  Andalusian Eco-schools Network: This is a European programme which is very well- known in many countries. Among its objectives, it tries to make schools places where all the community work in order to have daily sustainability focused on several environmental topics such as “water”, “waste”, “biodiversity” or “energy”. There is an award for those eco-schools that can keep a required level of environmental quality which is called “Green Flag”.

REGIONAL POLICY  Trees, Forests of Life: Its main interest is to make the students see that the tree is one of the most important thing we have in the nature. The respect and care for it is what it is mainly taught.

REGIONAL POLICY  Activities in Environmental Education Centres: The schools may apply for an Environmental Education Centre where they take their students so that they do a lot of activities related with nature and the preservation of environment. The children usually spend a weekend there and they also improve their coexistence.

REGIONAL POLICY  Kioto-Educa, Fight against the climate change: This Environmental Education programme is addressed to all the schools in order to sensitize the students and the teachers about the need to save energy and fight against the climate change.

REGIONAL POLICY  Nurseries network: This is a new programme that tries to give power to the development of actitudes in favour of the preservation and sustainability of the natural landscapes of Andalucía. This programme takes place in the different nurseries of the network. It offers a guided visit called “The Journey of a Seed” where the students do many activities related to it.

REGIONAL POLICY  Botanical Gardens Network: This interesting programme is for all the schools that want to know the Andalusian vegetal heritage exhibited in the Botanical Gardens. Thanks to this network in Andalucía, nearly all the schools have a botanical garden nearby. The students learn a lot from the variety of vegetation that exist in these gardens, doing many activities.

REGIONAL POLICY  Cuidemos la Costa (“Let´s take care of the coast”): This programme is born from the Environment Department and the Education Department. Its main objective is to contribute to the knowledge and preservation of the valious heritage Andalucía has with more than 1,100 kms. Of coast, promoting its improvement.

REGIONAL POLICY In “Aldea Activa”, there is also a magazine about environment, called “Aula Verde” which speaks about many themes related to the different environmental activities we have mentioned before and a group of resources of environmental education called “Educam” that is a very useful tool for teachers.

LOCAL POLICY (CONIL) Conil is in the south of Spain, just on the south- west coast of the province of Cádiz. San Fernando

LOCAL POLICY (CONIL) It has near 19,000 inhabitants and it is situated in a privileged zone with a rich nature around it, a very nice climate and, above all, more than 14 kilometres of beaches, some of them nearly wild. Conil is well-known for all this and people from many countries of the world come here to enjoy this marvel.

LOCAL POLICY (CONIL) Obviously, the local authorities have to look after this richness and one of their most important actions is the preservation of the beaches, not allowing the construction very near the coast. Recycling is also one of their priorities and the town is doing a great effort to make people become aware of its importance. In the first half of this year, they have recycled more paper and glass than in One of the last things the authorities have done is the creation of the “Punto Limpio” (“Clean Point”) where anyone can take all kind of waste to be recycled, mainly those which are more dangerous for the environment such as batteries, radiographs or car oil. The environmental policy of Conil refers to all the themes about nature. The Town Hall has even suggested the citizens how to recycle, how to save energy, how to keep the beaches clean, etc.

LOCAL POLICY (CONIL) The Town Hall of Conil thinks that the sustainable development is a process of the search of solutions and balance, in order to get a modern, dynamic and habitable place where the economical and social developments can be compatible, without endangering the future of the natural resources, the environment or the quality of life of the citizens.

LOCAL POLICY (SAN FERNANDO) San Fernando is the city where I live. It is in the north of Conil, at 30 kilometres, very near Cádiz. In this city there is also an important environmental policy mainly based on sustainable development and recycling. Every year, there are programmes of environmental education for the schools of the city where the students learn a lot about everything related to environment.

LOCAL POLICY (SAN FERNANDO) The authorities of San Fernando carry out many campaigns to make the citizens become aware of the different aspects to improve the environment:

LOCAL POLICY (SAN FERNANDO) One of the newest things they are doing is the burying of the waste containers in order to have the streets cleaner: Before After

O UR ACTIVITIES Since 2002, we have done a lot of activities related to the environment, as a part of the curriculum, mainly of Natural Science and Biology. Some of them are:  Coastwatch: Every year, we collaborate with Coastwatch Europe. About 100 pupils and 5 teachers go to the beaches of Conil to watch their state. They report and analize the waste and anything that can call their attention.

O UR ACTIVITIES  Abandoned Towns: We have participated in the Programme of Recovery of abandoned towns of Spain in Granadilla (Cáceres) during the school year 2005/06 and Viérnoles (Santander), 2006/07.

O UR ACTIVITIES  World Forest Day: We also celebrate this day making sowings and plantings.

O UR ACTIVITIES  Reforestation:

O UR ACTIVITIES  We also do Bird Watching with our students with the help of specialist people from the Andalusian Environment Department.

O UR ACTIVITIES  Visits to Botanical Gardens:

O UR ACTIVITIES  Recycling: During our annual Cultural Week, we make recycling workshops: used paper to make little notebooks, used oil to make soap and old comics to make wallets.

O UR ACTIVITIES In every classroom of our school there is a box where students put the paper to be recycled and, when it is full, one of them take it to the big container we have got in the parking and from here the local recycling trucks collect it and take to the recycling plant. We also have a little container for used batteries.

O UR ACTIVITIES  “Enebrando dunas”: This activity of reforestation consists on planting junipers (juniperus sp.) in the dunes of the beaches.

O UR ACTIVITIES Some other activities we do are: Guided visits to natural protected places. One visit for each level, once a year. Lectures about consumption by specialist people from the Consumers and Users Organization of Cádiz. Environmental Gymkhanas where the students have to solve tests and answer questions and problems, all of them related to environment. We collaborate with people from the University of Cádiz at the recovering of cetaceans which come to our coasts.

O UR ACTIVITIES We celebrate the Environment day making several activities related to the theme of each year. (In the CD, you have the powerpoint our students make last year). During the school year or during the Cultural Week, we do different workshops in order our students take conscience about the resources we have with the recovery of old artisan jobs of the town. Last year, we worked with leather and palmetto leaves and we made fishing nets.

PROJECTS One of the projects we intend to do in the next years is to make a recycling point in our school, mainly for plastics. We also want to make a nursery with ecological agriculture. We need to improve our garden, creating ecosystems, especially with autochthonous vegetation. And we would like to take part in the Eco-schools Programme. Bye