Ecuador

Education for Sustainable Development in Schools

Project completed

Organisation

Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad – INABIO

Website

Support area

Adaptation to climate change
Conservation of biodiversity
Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions

Funding

800164 €

Project duration

Dec, 2022 – Mar, 2025

Objective: Support educational institutions in acting in a climate and environmentally friendly manner

The UN Program Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) proposes a new educational framework focusing on the relationship between human beings and nature as a central component to be used in educational systems, which is unknown by most stakeholders in Ecuador. INABIO aims to integrate strategies and offer tools for schools in Ecuador, which allow them to carry out Education for Sustainable Development in practice. Students and teachers develop meaningful skills that foster sustainable development and ensure a balance between economic growth, environmental care, and social welfare. INABIO invited schools to participate in a call for proposals to submit educational concepts. These concepts addressed topics such as the rational and efficient use of electric energy in school facilities, appropriate use and conservation of water resources, ‘zero waste’ principles, and citizen science learning tools.

Initial situation

The UN Program Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) proposes a new educational framework focusing on the relationship between human beings and nature as a central component to be used in educational systems. It allows to modify daily and collective attitudes towards sustainable development and consequently to decrease the carbon footprint and improve climate conditions. However, ESD is so far practically unknown by most educational stakeholders in Ecuador. Its implementation requires external technical support for project execution and teachers’ training in methodological strategies to mainstream ESD in the educational sector in Ecuador.

Group of students photographing the nature

Students focused on documenting biodiversity and asking scientific questions about their local ecosystems.

The pilot directly involved 13 schools and over 8,000 students, teachers, and community members.

As part of the project's sustainability interventions, each school received an ecological garden and a composting system.

Capacity development

IKI Small Grants supported INABIO in their organisational capacity development through:

Design and preparation of a Call for Proposals
Improvement of financial management procedures
Enhancement of technical skills in photography and camera handling for biodiversity monitoring

Feature article

Inspiring Youth to Protect Biodiversity in Ecuador

Emily Lara from INABIO oversaw the technical implementation of the biodiversity education project supported by IKI Small Grants.

Project video

Project fact sheet

A more detailed overview of the project can be found in the INABIO project fact sheet

About the organisation

INABIO is a public research institute attached to the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE), with administrative, financial, and legal autonomy. The Biodiversity Database is INABIO’s main strategy for information management, built and developed with the support of several institutions, universities, and cooperation agencies. The research, development and innovation processes relate its projects to the Sustainable Development Goals, to the needs of the country and specially to goal 3 of the National Biodiversity Agenda, bioprospecting for conservation purposes and the promotion of bioindustry in Ecuador for the development of technology to minimise damage to the natural heritage.