Status: ongoing

Project duration: 10/2025 – 10/2026

Grantee: Faremo Foresta

Location: Florence, Grosseto and Elba Island

The challenge

We live in an era marked by a growing disconnection between people and the natural world. In Tuscany, increasing soil consumption and degradation are driving down biodiversity and weakening local microclimates. School grounds and urban spaces often suffer from intensive land use, leading to severe water dispersion and the disappearance of native forest trees. Furthermore, early-stage reforested areas face practical challenges on the ground: they are vulnerable to uncontrolled weed growth and risk being accidentally destroyed by municipal maintenance crews.

 

The solution

This project introduces an urban rewilding and educational initiative to turn school playgrounds into miniature native woodlands (about 25 m² each). Led by professional landscape architects, the project relies on manual, low-impact groundwork – using deep soil cultivation, organic mulching, and strategic plant consociations to naturally retain water and improve soil fertility without heavy machinery. To build a real connection between youth and nature, the woodland is introduced to students as a “new class of companions,” helping them respect trees as living beings rather than objects. By involving students, teachers, seed-saving groups, and scientific experts, the project uses urban rewilding as a catalyst for civic engagement.

Project Objectives & Deliverables

• Miniature Native Woodlands: Creating 25 m² model plots in school playgrounds that replicate natural forest layers using native and bioindicator plant species.
• Soil Regeneration & Microclimates: Restoring soil fertility, boosting evapotranspiration, and improving the local microclimate through dense organic mulching and natural substrates.
• Seed Collection & Preservation: Harvesting and selecting wild, endangered, or rare local seeds to establish small, distributed community seed banks for regional conservation and exchange.
• Four Seasonal Lessons: Delivering a structured educational curriculum covering seed pedagogy, tree behavior, biodiversity, and practical forest stewardship across the school year.
• Perimeter Protection & Monitoring: Setting up physical perimeters to safeguard the plots from municipal lawn mowing, while conducting biodiversity monitoring and community mapping of the new habitats.

 

Long-term impact

This project leaves a permanent ecological and cultural footprint in local communities. These miniature woodlands will grow into self-sustaining habitats that continuously capture carbon, enrich biodiversity, and mitigate local climate impacts year after year. The low-cost, low-impact methodology serves as a highly scalable model for urban rewilding that can easily be replicated. Ultimately, by providing hands-on training in sustainable land care, the initiative fosters a sense of shared responsibility for the planet, turning teachers, students, and families into lifelong environmental guardians.