The Kindergarten of the lagoon: a Manifesto for an outdoor education project in Venice

Venice and its lagoon represent an emblematic example of co-evolution across the centuries, recognized also by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The close connection between Venetians and the surrounding ecosystem, however, has cracked in recent decades, due to many factors, driving to a significant decrease in the ecosystem state. Anyway, if we were able to reconnect young people to Nature by fostering a personal and friendly relationship with the lagoon they inhabit, we could stimulate the citizens’ pro-environmental behaviors. To achieve this goal, outdoor education seems to be a promising path that may be beneficial for developing responsibility toward the lagoon ecosystem, since it has shown to positively influence children's relationship with the natural environment, as well as improve their self-perceptions and social skills. The "Kindergarten of the lagoon" project, recently promoted in collaboration with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, aims to offer pre-school children a quite innovative outdoor education program based on the observation and exploration of the lagoon. In this work we present the “Manifesto of the Kindergarten of the lagoon”, describing the objectives of this educational program. To carry out the project in such a multifaceted, heterogeneous, and complex social-ecological system, a pedagogical approach is not enough: expertise in lagoon ecology and sustainability is also required, both to choose places representative of a transitional waters environment and to assess the overall sustainability of the proposal.