Children & Youth

For Educators

Biodiversity Challenge Badge

The Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts and the Youth and Unite Nations Global Alliance have worked together to offer a Biodiversity Challenge Badge to young people willing to gain the knowledge, skills and values to protect, preserve and improve biodiversity. This publication introduces age-appropriate activities designed to introduce the concepts of biodiversity and to stimulate exploration through active-based learning.

UNESCO-CBD Biodiversity Learning Kit

The UNESCO-CBD Biodiversity Learning Kit is being developed jointly by UNESCO and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on the occasion of the UN Decade on Biodiversity (2011-2020).

Youth XChange Training kit on responsible consumption

This Youth XChange guide and the related website are intended as a tool kit to help teachers and trainers, NGOs and youth groups to help raise awareness of Sustainable Consumption and empower youth to put theory into practice.

Teaching Module on Biodiversity and Agriculture

Teaching students about biodiversity, or the variety of life on Earth, is a daunting yet exciting task. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity wants to support you in guiding students through a fascinating and exciting exploration of biodiversity issues.

For our first project, we’ve designed an educational module on biodiversity and agriculture. It comprises of an online educational web portal for primary school students and five accompanying lesson plans for educators. Educators can also download the children’s web portal in a booklet format. The resources are aimed at students in upper primary school (grades four to six), but could be adapted for other levels. Explore this exciting initiative. Click here.

Educational resource kit for mountainous regions

The kit was produced recently by the UNESCO Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences and its Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB). It includes a manual for teachers and an activity book to be completed by pupils, using a fun and engaging approach so that 10 to 15 year-olds living in mountainous areas can learn about their environment and its specific issues, such as soil erosion. Its contents have been designed as part of the activities for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).

Free PDF versions are available online in English, French and Spanish.

Biodiversity and Climate Change Presentation

As part of its 2007 edition of the CBD School Outreach Programme, the Secretariat created a presentation on biodiversity and climate change that was delivered by staff and volunteers to schools across Montreal, Canada, home of the Secretariat. This presentation is available here in PDF format and includes presentation notes. We encourage educators to look at this presentation as an example of a tool to raise awareness on climate change and biodiversity.
View the presentation.

Secondary Level Education on Biodiversity

For guidance on addressing issues of biological diversity at the secondary education level, see the following UNESCO publication: Biological Diversity for Secondary Education

Links

Various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government institutions review and host databases of teacher resources on biodiversity topics, as well as other topics related to education for sustainable development. Here are a few examples:

  • India's Centre for Environmental Education (CEE) has innovative programmes and educational material and builds capacity in the field of education for sustainable development. Learn more about CEE's work, including biodiversity conservation.

  • In the United Kingdom, the Global Dimension website offers a helpful guide to lesson plans, books, films, posters and websites with a global dimension.

  • Wolf Populations is a website where one can observe the behavior of wolves via video surveillance.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has developed resources to help children learn about biodiversity. Their Schools For A Living Planet website covers topics such as forests, habitats, water and marine ecosystems.