Among the aims of the Institute of the National Park of Sila there is the promotion of Environmental Education and the dissemination of the culture of sustainability, in order to preserve and safeguard natural resources.

Information and awareness about certain contents such as:

• the need to safeguard the areas susceptible to alteration and the systems of specific naturalistic interest
• the need to preserve and enhance the historical-artistic-cultural heritage
• the need to identify and implement forms of boosting and financing the promotion of cultural, educational and recreational activities in the fields of interest of the Park, is one of the fundamental activities at the centre of the programme of action of the Institution.

The Park was accredited by the region of Calabria as INFEA Centre (Information, Education and Environmental Education). The INFEA System appears as integration of systems to a regional range, open and dynamics, where the regional administration has a role of listening, of proposal and coordination, favouring a continue meeting with the subjects occupied in the world of environmental education.

Environmental culture

The experience in the field of environmental education has shown that "doing" is the best teacher to acquire that "environmental culture" without which it is impossible to orient our actions in terms of sustainability and durability.

Starting from the transformation of the acts of everyday life, of the management and use of spaces and domestic practices, it is possible to immediately become aware of the links between man and his environment. These links are often hidden by the distance between the source of the natural and artificial resources that we consume and the deposits of the waste that the same consumption produces. Man produces and reproduces for the preservation of himself and of his species, but rarely cares about the environmental conditions which he leaves as inheritance to the next generations.

However a greater attention to natural resources, a consumption linked to real needs, a mode of being together not exclusively based on competition and profit, have become imperatives for our society.

The National Park of Sila wants to be an Institution that mainly carries out information, training and environmental education activities on the themes of protection and enhancement of nature and environment, natural resources, collective health, of the animal and plant species, of the historical, artistic and cultural heritage, the territory and the landscape.

Objectives of the Park on the subject of environmental culture

The main objectives set in promoting and spreading of the environmental culture and sustainability education promoted by the Institution are:

• The protection and the enhancement of the environment, intended as a territory that holds a heritage of nature, art, history and culture - valuable resources to be protected and enhanced;
• The strengthening of the cultural identity of the local community-fly for sustainable economic development and job creation;
• The attention to the education and training of young people and citizens through interactions with schools, associations and institutions;
• The commitment to addressing the issues related to the economy and sustainable development, enhancing local resources, protecting the environment;
• The promotion of environmental education projects and/or initiatives to protect and enhance the main natural, historical and cultural resources of the Territory;
• The promotion of research and/or initiatives aimed at safeguarding and recovering our cultural roots, especially rural ones;
• The realization of actions aimed at making known the primary activity and the cycle of the crops and the farms, the preparation of the food and the processes of production of the agro-alimentary, the importance of soil and water, plants and animals’ life, the manual skills and the skills of the rural world operator, the social role of farmers;
• The realization of actions in collaboration with the farms that already carry out activities of didactic and farming;
• The valorisation of the city-countryside relationship, bringing the consumer closer to the cultural, historical, environmental and productive values of the small local communities;
• The promotion of food education and taste education, to rediscover the methods of cooking and preservation and the flavors of before;
• The organization of school fields in which alternating moments of study and moments of recreational-sporting activities.

In short, our mission is to convey emotions, to make you intrigue with knowledge, to help falling in love with nature, to teach how you learn to respect everything around us. So it is not an environmental education in itself, with transmissions of simple naturalistic or scientific notions, but of the willingness to arouse in citizens a greater awareness about the problems of the environment and a capacity and desire of reaction and opposition to degradation.

We would like to get a cultural change that will lead us to consider the environment as a unique reality, a precious whole, "our home", and then move from a consumer culture to a culture of valorization and care.

We are convinced that people are able to change their living environment in order to improve their quality and that within the communities there is strength, creativity and skills to be able to intervene in the territory: for this reason we try to activate processes that start from the bottom. The involvement of local communities is fundamental, respecting their aspirations and their needs, by tightening appropriate collaborations to strengthen the effectiveness of educational action.