MY FAVORITE HERO… THE WOLF! Environmental Education Programme about the Wolf in Parnitha and Greece

Little Savvas, who adores the wolf and knows all of its traits, is celebrating his birthday. His parents, who never say no to him, organize a children’s party with all his friends invited. The venue? The unique forest of Parnitha. The programme includes yoga and plenty of games. But also… a restless little wolf, eager to grow up, constantly upsetting the genuine “Greek wolf family” with its mischiefs. The party has only two rules: to be very careful and to respect the natural environment.

“MY FAVORITE HERO… THE WOLF!” is the new Environmental Education Programme created by ARCTUROS’ Pedagogical Team with the funding and cooperation of the Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency (NECCA), under the supervision of Forester Anna Derveni. It is a modern fairy tale about the wolf, told with specially designed narrative materials. The story is written with a touch of imagination -wolves, after all, don’t really “speak” human language- but also with many truths: yes, there really is a pupil named Savvas who loves wolves; he inspired us and we thank him greatly! Yes, wolves did move down into Parnitha because of the deer—by their own admission! And yes, we humans must respect the rules of visiting such an important National Park as Parnitha; if we do so, everything will be just fine!

The programme is available online for implementation on the NECCA website at https://edu.necca.gov.gr/wolf and is addressed to preschool children and pupils in the first years of primary school. Its general aim is to inform and raise awareness among young children about the reappearance of the wolf in Parnitha National Park, as well as about the species’ biology and ecology in Greece. It consists of 4 narrative video-presentations, rich educational activities and games, implementation guidelines for teachers, and multimodal information covering all its themes.

The Pedagogical Team of ARCTUROS, with more than 30 years of experience, is an interdisciplinary group composed of educators, biologists, museologists, graphic and digital designers, and has designed a wide range of programmes for pupils of all ages and for teachers. The pedagogical design and conceptualization were carried out by ARCTUROS’ Head of Environmental Education, Haroula Kromiadou, and philologist–educator Konstantia Liouza. The scientific supervision of the material was undertaken by Dr. Alexandros Karamanlidis, biologist and General Director of ARCTUROS, together with Lambros Krampokoukis, Coordinator of ARCTUROS’ Research Actions. The illustrations were created by ARCTUROS’ collaborator Giorgos Papageorgiou, while the graphic design was handled by Aria-Angeliki Bousoulegka. Finally, the website was developed by Nikos Paschalidis.

For over 30 years, ARCTUROS has been fighting for biodiversity conservation, working with state and educational authorities, committed partners, and citizens, in order to pass on this rare and unique heritage of our land to our children and give them the chance to live a life filled with the beauty and benefits of nature. Recent developments regarding the management of the wolf population in Parnitha highlight even more the importance of Environmental Education for children, as the most appropriate tool to create informed citizens who will know how to behave when they are in the forest.

Fully respecting every decision aimed at this purpose, we believe that first and foremost we should investigate all biological and ecological developments in nature and, only if there is indeed a need, intervene with systematic and specialized methods. We are now fortunate to have rich scientific tools and sufficient know-how, but we must first learn from the wisdom of nature itself, which safeguards environmental balance.

This educational programme was designed within the framework of the project “Management actions for protected areas, species and habitats in the responsibility area of the former Management Authority of Parnitha National Park”, with MIS 5033697, Operational Programme “Transport Infrastructure, Environment and Sustainable Development (OP-TIED)” 2014–2020.