The EduFire Toolkit project, funded by the European Union within the Erasmus+ programme, has successfully concluded this October. The aim of this project has been to provide educational resources for teachers and secondary school students, focusing on the understanding and management of wildfires in a context of lack of landscape management, which increases the risk of large wildfires.
“Participating in the EduFire Toolkit project has allowed us to contribute to addressing an urgent problem: the lack of education about wildfires and its link to landscape management and climate change,” explains Helena Ballart, head of the Landscapes and Resilient Societies Area of the Foundation and member of the project coordination team.
The main results of EduFire Toolkit include the development of open-access educational material specifically designed for teachers and secondary school students, in Catalan, Spanish, English, and Portuguese, and with a project-based learning approach. These resources are accessible and adaptable, with great potential for use in multiple educational contexts. These are two modules with nine units, covering topics such as the history and ecology of fires, behaviour, and management, prevention and adaptation to climate change of forest fires. In addition, practical challenges are proposed that students must solve, and a collaborative map and guide for teachers are provided to facilitate learning.
The EduFire Toolkit consortium has been formed by the Open University of Catalonia, the University of Lisbon, the Leitrim County Council (Ireland), and the Foundation, bringing a diversity of perspectives that has greatly enriched the project and allowed it to be approached from a multidimensional perspective. The Foundation has acted as the project coordinator, bringing our expertise in environmental education and wildfire prevention and management.
“We have worked as a link between the educational and wildfire communities, including first responders and other key stakeholders. We have gathered their needs and priorities to ensure that the educational material created reflected their concerns and conveyed relevant and practical messages to society,” adds Ballart.
Looking to the future, the results of EduFire Toolkit are expected to help raise awareness and train better-prepared generations to manage landscapes sustainably and resiliently.
“Working with EduFire Toolkit’s educational resources allows the educational community to actively contribute to forming more aware and responsible generations, preparing them for the challenges that may come,” Ballart concludes.
