Following a proposal by the Rural Schools Collective (CER) of Lanzarote, the Biosphere Reserve office will promote the learning of agricultural crops in one-teacher schools, through the project Manos al huerto (Hands in the Garden). The initiative will allow the educational communities of the Biosphere Schools to have meaningful experiences linked to their natural, rural, and cultural environments during the 2025-26 academic year.
This educational action, developed by the Permaterra association, aims to foster attitudes and habits that promote knowledge of the places families inhabit, environmental health, and healthy and responsible eating, through an understanding of our land's products and its natural biodiversity.
School gardens thus become a living and active educational tool, which will foster attitudes of respect for the environment, agricultural effort, and local resources among students aged three to twelve and their teachers.
In these particular outdoor classrooms, students acquire basic knowledge about soil, its preparation for cultivation, and different substrates and structures. They will also delve into the **management of school organic matter** (bio-waste), for the production and use of compost, vermicompost, and leachates.
Likewise, **workshops on agricultural and natural biodiversity, plant reproduction with seeds and cuttings, pollinators, predators, or aromatic herb preparations** are planned, among others. The chapter dedicated to water and irrigation in the garden will reinforce the connection with Lanzarote's agricultural culture and its value as a Biosphere Reserve.
The responsible councilor, Samuel Martín, highlights from this initiative "its will to inspire behaviors of respect and responsibility towards the environment in educational communities, and to stimulate scientific curiosity and interest in the process of plant growth."In 2015, the Biosphere Reserve Office of the Cabildo de Lanzarote initiated the "Biosphere Schools" project with the aim of involving and energizing rural schools on the island with the objectives of UNESCO territories, and incorporating the proposals that arise from these centers into the entity's action plans.