Milano, 20 Nov. (askanews) – Nature becomes the protagonist in the gardens of nursery schools in Milan, thanks to ‘Corners of biodiversity’ by Scuola Forestami, the educational project for schools created by Forestami in collaboration with Parco Nord Milano, promoted by the Municipality of Milan and supported by A2A. The challenge is to raise awareness among the little ones about the importance of greenery for the well-being of the city, through educational activities such as workshops, sensory journeys and interactive initiatives.
‘We need to put in many trees, but we need the citizens of the future to be custodians of these trees, to have care and attention: they must learn it from very young and very young ages – explains Riccardo Gini, Technical Director of the Forestami Foundation -. So even in nursery schools we have tried to reawaken what is very difficult to find in the city and in urban children: that physical contact with nature, that experiential, emotional contact which is fundamental because when the forests we are planting are large, they will be considered their brothers and will grow together with the forest’.
There are 4 nursery schools in Milan involved in the Forestami School project between the 2024-25 school year and the first quarter of 2025-26, for a total of approximately 900 children.
‘The schools are within the Municipality of Milan, and the project itself goes in the direction of what we are doing, not only in those four schools, but with other systems and other projects in schools in general, but in the territory – says Elena Grandi, Councilor for Environment and Greenery of the Municipality of Milan -. So everything that aims to enhance biodiversity, to educate and raise awareness of those children who in the near future will be the ones who will take care of our cities and who we hope in the meantime to have prepared in a more beautiful way, is very important’.
The little pupils of the Memmi nursery school created a flowery meadow for pollinating insects and built a ‘butterfly house’ with aromatic plants. At Pescarenico, they explored sensory paths designed to observe avifauna and created feeders and small shelters for birds and butterflies. At San Mamete, the children created new green areas, vegetable gardens and reading spaces in the shade of the lime trees and even a ‘litter’ for earthworms, snails and wood pigs, while the Costa school entered the project in 2025 with a garden inspired by the undergrowth and a flowering meadow dedicated to biodiversity.
‘The children respond in an extraordinary way to these projects – highlights Councilor Grandi again -. I went last year to see the first phase of the previous year and I must say laboratories, biodiversity, the earthworms who build have their noticeboards, they build furniture with wood. So also the idea of recovering materials for soil protection: it’s all there in this project. It’s a really nice, very interesting project.’
‘Education – points out the Technical Director of the Forestami Foundation – is the element that can give us hope that the climate crisis we are experiencing can be overcome by new aware citizens, in which this entry of the word sustainability is no longer even the mantra we have, because it will become internalized in those who understand that an urban man and a natural man are the same thing, that they need each other’.
The four new ‘Biodiversity Corners’, presented in the historic farmhouse located in the center of the North Milan Park, are created for the second consecutive year thanks to the support of A2A.
‘We do these school projects with schools, because we want to transfer the culture of biodiversity, which is combined with the culture of the ecological transition on which we try to build awareness and a sense of responsibility – underlines Elena Tondini, Head of Brand Strategy, Communication and Media Planning of A2A -. Doing it through projects that lead children, in this case, to do and not just listen, makes it much more effective. And this then allows us to reach families, to reach teachers, and therefore to broaden the target thanks to our educational projects’.
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