The YOU DO – Italian Environment Fund presents the results of national competition for schools “Agri – culture: let’s build the atlas of rural landscapes” for nursery, primary and secondary schools, promoted by the Foundation for the 2023/24 school year as part of the “Agri-culture: let’s learn from the earth to take care of the landscape” project.
After having explored in 2021 the concept of the Environment as “everything that surrounds us” – an indissoluble intertwining of nature and history – and reflected, during the 2022/23 school year, on the future of the Landscape, the collective work of past and present generations who have defined their relationship with nature in it, the FAI, at the end of an ideal trilogy, has dedicated the 2023/24 educational program to the activity that has had the greatest impact on the shape of the Italian landscape, which is still essentially rural: Agriculture .
Italy is a country of fields, woods and pastures, and agriculture, which has shaped its profile over the centuries, is still the best tool for taking care of it today.
A cultivated landscape, in fact, is a protected, protected and maintained landscape, which preserves identity and vitality, and which today can offer extraordinary benefits to our health and that of the environment.
The path proposed by the FAI, rich and complex, was aimed at restore agriculture to its full cultural dignity, as it has had through history and tradition.
Agriculture is not just a practice, but it is a very broad field of knowledge that intertwines different disciplines and in this the past and tradition are founded with the present and innovation for sustainable development.
It is therefore a fundamental subject to contribute to the education, civic and environmental awareness of citizens, users and builders of the rural landscape of today and tomorrow.
As part of the project, the FAI involved thousands of students in the national competition “Agri-culture: let’s build the atlas of Italian rural landscapes”: the Classes from all over Italy created a descriptive sheet of the rural landscape of their territory, describing its characteristics, agricultural activities and crops with videos and graphics.
All the projects sent illustrated the variety of Italian territories, with one great attention to typical products, traditional and innovative agricultural practices and rural architecture: from Lucanian excellences, such as Matera breadto Sicilian ones such as the Bronte pistachio (CT), from the particular raw earth constructions found in the countryside of Novi Ligure (AL) to the urban gardens of Pisa.
The careful selection of the jury led to the choice of the winners’ works – Classes from nursery school to secondary school students, which stood out, with a level of depth consistent with their age, for the richness of their content, the care and originality of the presentation.
A a jury of experts has selected the best projects: the winners are invited on May 28th for the awards ceremony which will take place via streaming on the website www.faiscuola.it from 10.00am to 11.00am for nursery, primary and lower secondary school classes and from 11.30am to 12.30pm for upper secondary school classes.
The competition and the project within which it took place were strongly supported and promoted by the FAI Regional Presidency of Basilicata, directed by Rosalba Demetrio, through constant action by the School sector, managed with competence and passion by the Regional Delegate Liliana Riccardi and with the creation of a Conference on the topic, which took place in Matera on 19 March, at the House of Emerging Technologies.
This commitment inspired the training activities expressed in the schools of the regional territory, with the guidance of the FAI Delegations, determining an important result already in the first phase of selection of the works and the final outcome.
For the first time two of the winning schools are in Basilicata.
A special thank you to the managers for sharing the training aims of the project:
- DANTE ALIGHIERI Scientific High School, Matera – Headmaster, Prof. Marialuisa Sabino;
- GIUSTINO FORTUNATO Classical High School, Pisticci – Headmaster, Prof. Maria Di Bello.
* DANTE ALIGHIERI Scientific High School, Matera – FAI Friendly Class – Students: Elisabetta Montanaro, Sofia Rondinone – Teacher: Gianluigi Di Persia
* GIUSTINO FORTUNATO Classical High School, Pisticci (MT) – FAI Friendly Class – Students: Vittorio Emanuele Angeloni, Mario Salomone, Federico Liborio Romeo – Teacher: Concetta Santeramo.
We sincerely thank the FAI Group Leader of Pisticci and Valle dei Calanchi, Grazia Panetta, for having oriented and supported the educational institution.
To enhance this outcome and share good practice, the FAI Regional Presidency of Basilicata has scheduled on the same day, the afternoon of May 28th at 6.30 pm at Casa Noha, Bene FAI in Matera, an in-person ceremony with the winners, open to the press and with the participation of regional FAI leaders and the educational institutions involved.
The works of all the winners and honorable mentions are published on the website www.faiscuola.it, constituting an original “Atlas of Italian rural landscapes” told by the students.
