Biodiverciudad, the first initiative launched in Spain by the Jane Goodall Institute, as part of its international educational programme Roots & Shoots, was presented today. Ferrán Guallar, director of the Institute in Spain, explained that “the objective of this program is to create environmental awareness through knowledge and empathy with the flora and fauna that surrounds the inhabitants of cities, whose existence we are generally unaware of.” Guallar stressed that “currently the majority of the population, both world and Spanish, lives in cities, which provide advantages such as services and infrastructures, but also distance people from nature”. In addition, he stressed that “through the knowledge of our closest natural heritage, the new generations will also have sufficient motivation and awareness to be able to act in favor of the conservation of the biodiversity of other countries.”

For her part, Sonia Castañeda, director of the International Department of the Biodiversity Foundation, explained that “the reason why the Foundation collaborates with the Jane Goodall Institute is twofold: on the one hand, Biodiverciudad is the Institute’s first programme in Spain, which makes it emblematic and exciting. And on the other hand, because its priority audience is the little ones, in whose hands and attitude the future lies, and they must be given the opportunity to change things”. Castañeda added that Biodiverciudad is one more grain of sand at a time like the present, in which we are suffering a rapid and intense loss of biodiversity, and in which there are situations such as the tripling of trees, one in four mammals is in danger of extinction and the use of water has doubled.

Professor Roots, a character created to guide the participants in the different proposals of the program, also spoke at the event, who stated that “we surely know more brands of cars and their characteristics than names of the trees that surround us, as well as their importance and the living beings they house. Our task is to help discover, value and protect it.” Roost added, “We want to extend ties with other living beings that we now treat as objects.”

The Biodiverciudad program will develop four lines of action: monthly photo contest, informative biofiche, urban ecosafaris and proactive eco-initiatives. The program is aimed at audiences of all ages, but especially children and young people from 8 to 12 years old, students in the second and third cycle of Primary Education.

People from all the Communities of the Spanish state are invited to participate, through the www.biodiverciudad.org website, from which you can download the educational biofiches, sign up for the guided ecosafaris and participate in the games, the monthly photographic contest and the proposed eco-initiatives. The guided field activities, the ecosafaris, will take place in this first stage in Madrid and Barcelona.