ESC: Seeds of change: six months in Terra Franca

The Palma Nana cooperative was found in 1983. It operates in the fields of environmental conservation and preservation, and the promotion of environmental and civic awareness with people and pupils. The cooperative organizes and manages activities of environmental education on behalf of the Italian Chapter of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).

Environmental Education and Responsible Tourism are the key priorities of Palma Nana’s activities. Aiming to promote ecological awareness, the cooperative organizes didactic activities in schools, updating and training courses, seminars, exhibitions, events, summer camps for youth, nature holidays for adults, family camps and excursions in natural and urban environments. The cooperative mainly operates on two fields: in the city of Palermo our staff works in and with schools, organizing daily excursions and school workshops. We also run a Center for Environmental Education (CEA) in the Madonie Mountains Park.

Serra Guarneri is both a tourist venue and a didactic structure. During the summer, we organize tematic holidays for families and adventure camps for young of different age. In autumn and spring, Serra Guarneri hosts school trips and a range of events in collaboration with diverse institutions that deal with the environment. We work in the structure -where we organize nonformal education activities; in the woods- where we cover both the botanic aspect of nature, and its sensory interpretation; and in the surrounding territory, trying to promote virtuous examples of the rural world.

Our main educational goals

-To stimulate citizens’ sense of interest and love for nature
-To facilitate tighter links between citizens and their territory
-To rediscover a form of active and direct knowledge of surrounding territory
-To stimulate civic behaviors of involvement and active participation in environmental issues, decision-making and policies
-To build the ability to connect local dynamics to environmental phenomena at the global scale
-To produce behavioral changes in people and communities.