Game On for Climate Action
Young leaders of change
The goal is to create a new generation of aware, prepared, and motivated citizens ready to confront the climate crisis. This is achieved through innovative methodologies and a strongly collaborative approach. The ambitious objective: build a European network of young people committed to tackling climate change.
CLIMATIC: a role-playing game to understand climate
With CLIMATIC, students engage in a role-playing game that guides them through the dynamics of global climate systems. Through simulations, strategic choices, and realistic scenarios, they develop critical thinking and decision-making skills related to climate change.
Training those who teach: a program for educators
A dedicated training program for teachers aims to innovate environmental education and bring more experiential and participatory approaches into the classroom.
From theory to action: co-designing sustainability at school
Students and teachers work side by side to implement concrete sustainability actions within their schools: initiatives that improve spaces, change behaviors, and strengthen the role of the school community.
Connected with Europe: transnational exchanges
International exchanges offer students valuable opportunities for dialogue, alliance-building, and experience-sharing, strengthening collective action. They also transform schools into hubs of innovation, participation, and experimentation with sustainable practices.
2025-1-IT02-KA220-SCH-000357540
Towards a shared management strategy
At the heart of the project lies the development of the Strategy for the Sustainable Management of Mediterranean Forests (SSMMF)—an operational framework tailored to different forest types and future climate scenarios. The strategy is the result of a participatory process involving experts from multiple countries and is built on an integrated approach:
• Advanced geospatial tools—including remote sensing, GIS and climate modelling—are used to identify priority areas for protection and restoration, supporting forest planning and risk management.
• Pilot-site testing in Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia allows the strategy to be validated on the ground and translated into concrete, actionable recommendations.
• Capitalisation of results ensures that knowledge, tools and best practices are shared and disseminated throughout the Mediterranean region.
Oikos’ contribution: turning knowledge into change
Istituto Oikos plays a key role in ensuring that the scientific value generated by the project becomes a driver of real transformation. Its main contributions include developing an online course on Mediterranean forest conservation and management, strengthening cross-border cooperation in the Prespa/Ohrid area (Greece, Albania, North Macedonia), and leading the development of the Medforval Strategy 2026–2035—a shared operational framework for 18 high ecological value forest landscapes that make up the Medforval network (link to website).
The project is funded by the Interreg Euro-MED Programme and coordinated by the European Topic Centre on Spatial Analysis and Synthesis (ETC-UMA) at the University of Málaga.
It involves 7 partners across 6 European and Mediterranean countries: Istituto Oikos, The European Topic Centre on Spatial Analysis and Synthesis (ETC-UMA), The International Association for Mediterranean Forests (AIFM), International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies of Chania (CIHEAM-MAICh), Centre National de la Propriété Forestière (CNPF), Public Institution Galičica National Park (PIGNP), Faculty of Forestry, University of Sarajevo (UNSA FoF).
Tools for resilience
Through City-to-City Cooperation, we support the Municipality of Maputo in strengthening its institutional capacities. We share expertise in urban planning, water and waste management to reduce climate vulnerability.
Infrastructure that protects
In the heart of the railway district, we contribute to the development of innovative infrastructure that improves daily life. We test Nature-Based Solutions to reduce flood risks from heavy rainfall and build a multifunctional community center for local residents. At the same time, we plant 6 hectares of urban green spaces—living areas that bring breath and vitality back to the city.
Hygiene, health, and economic opportunities
Improving public health is essential: we invest in the construction and rehabilitation of latrines and handwashing stations in key locations such as schools, markets, and health centers. At the same time, we promote a circular economy by supporting the women’s association ComSol, which collects and recycles waste. Through technical training and market access, waste becomes a resource—generating income for women and offering an environmental recovery opportunity for the entire neighborhood.
Education at the heart of change
Students and teachers from five KaMavota schools learn about the impacts of extreme weather events and how to respond with sustainable behaviors. Climate education programs and the innovative Climate Smart School model integrate climate change topics into the school curriculum. Over 1,200 citizens participate in awareness campaigns, clean-up activities, and care for local spaces: concrete actions that strengthen the bond between community and institutions, transforming urban areas into shared public assets.
Multiple Disciplines, One Goal
We use a multidisciplinary approach encompassing archaeology, geoarchaeology, and paleoenvironmental studies to reconstruct the history of ancient settlements and landscapes. Excavations and soil analysis aren't just for understanding the site's history; they also help protect it from illegal interventions. The aim is ambitious: to enhance its potential to strengthen its candidacy as a site of cultural and natural interest.
Multiplying Knowledge
We believe that knowledge must be shared. That's why we promote the exchange of know-how between local experts and international researchers. We organize advanced training courses, seminars, and workshops to transfer skills and enrich the Lebanese university system with new, cutting-edge technologies and methodologies. We want to train a generation of professionals capable of protecting and valorizing the heritage with innovative approaches and tools.
Living Heritage for the Community
Qalaat el-Hosn is more than just an archaeological site; it's a piece of the territory's identity. Through educational activities in schools, guided tours for students and tourists, and the training of new local guides, we want to give this heritage back to the community.
Moreover, round tables with institutions, protection agencies, and local operators help define guidelines for integrated territorial development, one that successfully combines cultural valorization, environmental protection, and economic growth. This is a model of sustainable tourism that doesn't just invite observation, but encourages participation, storytelling, and the reliving of Lebanese history, nature, and culture.
Women, guardians of the rangelands
Around 50,000 hectares of land at risk of desertification are being restored thanks to the commitment of the Rangeland Guardians: 420 Maasai women trained to remove invasive species, rehabilitate pastures, and restore soil fertility. Alongside them, 70 young people learn to monitor ecosystem health using digital tools, collecting data for more sustainable land management.
Women and herders are also gaining new economic skills through marketplace literacy courses, which help them manage livestock and natural resources more effectively — linking environmental protection with financial independence.
Clean energy for a new form of independence
Resilience also comes from innovation. In collaboration with local and international partners, the project supports the national agency RUWASA in its accreditation process with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and in establishing a technical unit for the management of sustainable water projects.
At the local level, five multifunctional solar plants are replacing diesel pumps - a small revolution that brings clean energy and safe drinking water to more than 8,000 people while powering small-scale businesses. To fight deforestation, 5,000 families have received energy-efficient stoves distributed by a network of 30 local ambassadors: a simple yet powerful action that improves health, reduces emissions, and creates new economic opportunities.
Resilient education and institutions
Resilience is also built through knowledge and participation. RESTORE trains 328 local representatives on climate risk and sustainable ecosystem management, while 72 teachers and 18,000 students take part in environmental education and global citizenship programmes. An investment in the next generation, helping them understand that sustainable resource management is the key to their future.
Sustainable development requires transversal skills and participative methodologies to involve students in the ongoing social and environmental transformations.
With this project we want to activate a new educating community to be ecological, informed and aware. We do so by proposing a participatory educational model focused on protection of biodiversity and environmental sustainability.
It is what we called "Wild school" and it is designed so that it can also be replicated beyond the project, in other school contexts.
In addition to the theoretical and practical classroom courses offered by Istituto Oikos educators, there are also concrete environmental restoration interventions to make the green areas of schools more hospitable to pollinators, birds and small mammals, so that the urban biodiversity increases, starting with school areas.
Training teachers and educators for an open, green and innovative school
To increase their knowledge on the main themes of environmental sustainability, teachers will have a new online on-demand course available, which will be added to the materials already available on LeaF - Learning for the Future, the Istituto Oikos e-learning platform.
A group of teachers from 4 schools in Milan and Busto Arsizio will also have the opportunity to participate in "training" courses on the proposed methodologies and they will receive the Wild school kit to propose again the model to their colleagues.
Citizen science paths and activation with students
Knowledge necessarily comes from experience: this is why we will train "Green Agents – Territory Guardians", students aged between 9 and 12 who will be able to take on the role of small field researchers, supported by Istituto Oikos naturalists. Green Agents will also participate in organising communication and mobilisation activities involving their peers.
School open to the territory
We also want to involve the local authorities (Municipality of Milan, Municipality 3 and the Province of Varese) in this 'school sustainability' path. The aim is to strengthen the dialogue between school and territory. We will do this with different targeted initiatives, including a communication and awareness-raising event led by Wild school protagonists themselves.
Young people's interest in environmental sustainability issues is growing year by year and the increasing attention to making sustainable choices is an encouraging sign. Now is the time to utilise an already fertile ground and to build a school truly ecological and actively committed to promoting change.
Wetlands are really delicate and vulnerable ecosystems, mainly threatened by human activities: pollution, drainage, reclamation and over-exploitation. The Po Valley, one of the most endangered areas, includes some “isolated” natural areas that are extremely important for biodiversity, especially in correspondence with large rivers. In this context, well preserved humid areas are key resources to ensure that different species connected to water environment live, reproduce and scatter across new areas following their lifecycles. It is really important for small animals, like amphibians, that these areas are close to each other and connected. In the last four years we have been working to give value and reconnect 6 humid areas in the Po Valley, in order to create a “network” in which animals could move freely.
We therefore modified wetland hydrology to avoid filling of the areas, that would disappear otherwise; we created new small puddles with low water for amphibians’ reproduction, safe from fishes that prey on their eggs. We removed invasive and not indigenous plants and planted new ones, more suitable for the environment, improving in that way the condition of the whole vegetation. In each intervention area, we have conducted wildlife surveys at both the planning stage, to base the intervention on the presence of local species, and at the end of the project, to assess its effectiveness. All these areas have now the necessary equipment to host school visits and tours: today visitors can closely admire nature and discover its beauty, hidden at times, without affecting its balances.
Thanks to the cooperation of all the actors of the territory and to the support of Cariplo Foundation, these new “water bridges” contribute today to preserve and protect the local biodiversity of the areas included in the Ticino park, Rile-Tenore-Olona Local Park in the Municipalities of Cassano Magnago and Albizzate.
Food security, lack of quality educational opportunities, social marginalisation and lack of stimulation for the young generation: these are the main problems that the Chaldean Christian community in Lebanon has to face every day. It is exactly on this front that we have decided to intervene, together with our partners.
With the SALAM project, we want to help reduce discrimination and promote the integration of this minority into the community, focusing on school children and unemployed youths.
Environmental awareness and education
We organise specific training for 60 teachers and workshops for 500 students, to promote an educational process focused on inclusion and solidarity. The activities focus on peace education, environmental education and conscious citizenship topics: it is an opportunity for students, teachers and families from different denominations to discuss and grow.
Vocational training
80 unemployed young people are involved in job orientation courses in the agricultural sector, so that they can develop new knowledge and skills. The training is especially aimed at refugees and women. This represents a concrete opportunity for them not only to support their families, but also to develop their self-confidence and awareness of their role in society. The objective is to counter the social disease and isolation of the most vulnerable people.
The project also intervenes on the food security: food parcels are distributed to 150 vulnerable families—Lebanese, Iraqi and Syrian Chaldeans—to mitigate the devastating effects of the serious economic situation in Lebanon. At the same time, courses on urban farming and food drying aimed at women will increase the availability of food for families, while promoting the creation of small businesses as a means to increase economic income.
The Shouf Biosphere Reserve is the largest protected area in Lebanon and of the Middle East’s entire Mediterranean area. Here, the lack of water resources due to climate change is a serious problem: according to studies conducted by our partner Al-Shouf Cedar Society in 2017 and 2018, annual precipitation decreased by 43% on average over the last 30 years, while the average monthly temperature is increasing: +1°C in January and February, and even +4°C in August. This leads to a reduction of 6 to 8% of the total volume of water resources, including those for agricultural irrigation. The risk is therefore a significant reduction in production with obvious consequences for the income of the local population.
In this context, it is necessary to urgently intervene to limit the negative effects of climate change, to promote a sustainable adaptation solution and, at the same time, to revive the local economy, which is mainly based on agricultural production. We do this through the introduction of a smart technology for the irrigation of small plots of land in Mrusti Municipality, within the Shouf Biosphere Reserve. This solution consists of an automated irrigation system that analyzes data from a local weather station, satellite images and sensors inserted into the ground to measure the degree of humidity and temperature. The different data collected are translated into an algorithm that allows to calibrate the amount of water, avoiding waste and thus allowing farmers to irrigate lands for longer periods.
The first step for adopting this technology is the collection of information on selected lands, with the active participation of local farmers. This phase will be followed by the restructuring of the existing irrigation infrastructure and the installation of the irrigation system. Technical and practical trainings will allow farmers and local government technicians to learn how the system works.
A wide communication campaign will promote the benefits of the technology, through informative materials, video tutorials, participation in local and national fairs. Workshops will be organized at national level to disseminate good practices and lessons learned, with technical recommendations for future use. The exchange of knowledge between technical operators, research institutes, universities and farmers' associations is therefore essential. So that everyone can contribute to respond effectively to the threats of a changing climate, with innovative and replicable solutions.
Sun bear, an endangered species
Informally named after of its typical yellowish horseshoe-shaped patch, the "sun bear" is one of the rarest species of tropical bear in Southeast Asia, classified as threatened by IUCN Red List (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Protecting this species and its habitats in Rakhine and Sagaing areas is one of our biggest challenges. The first step is to establish the exact distribution of specimens: through our field research we have managed to confirm the presence of the species in these two regions, spending nights in almost unaccessible forests, where the only way to travel is on foot or by boat, sleeping in impromptu base camps.
This is the first time such scientific and systematic studies are carried out on the Malaysian bear in these areas.
One of the biggest threats that endangers the Sun bear is poaching: specimens are often hunted for their gall-bladder and paws, highly considered within Cinese traditional medicine but extremely rare to retrieve. The knowledge of the black market helps us channeling our work especially at institutional level. We know bears are sold to dealers for up to $300: a fortune for a population that lives on average with less than $2 a day. It is therefore essential to make local populations realise that the bear is a common good and that threatening its survival means depleting the local natural heritage. For this reason we have launched a thorough awareness campaign addressing the whole community.
Habitat loss also seriously endangers the species existence. Not only the transformation of forests into cultivated land, human settlements or resource extraction areas, but also the deforestation for fine wood production or cultivation of natural rubber, divide and reduce the habitat where the Malaysian bear traditionally lives. In order to tackle these phenomena and offer new income opportunities to the population we have started a long-term protection programme, entrusting 35 villages (around 3,000 people) with the management of 60 km2 of forests.