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Nature-based Education (NbE) was created as an urgent response to a fundamental reality: the human–nature disconnection is driving climate disruption, biodiversity loss, and the deterioration of planetary health. This cultural and emotional rupture, deepened by educational models that isolate learners from living systems, limits creativity, empathy, resilience, and the skills needed to navigate an uncertain future. As learning environments become increasingly artificial and the nature-deficit disorder grows, NbE seeks to restore the vital bond between people and the Earth, enabling a necessary paradigm shift.
This innovation was created upon recognizing that traditional education is insufficient and often irrelevant, in the face of global environmental challenges. NbE offers a transformative approach that integrates critical and systemic thinking, experiential learning, and the understanding that we are part of the living systems that sustain life. Its purpose is to activate regenerative action, forming agents capable of caring for, restoring, and regenerating their territories.
This innovation was created to inspire love for the Earth, strengthen holistic well-being, and activate each person’s regenerative capacity—aligning education with the SDGs and with the urgent need to rebuild our relationship with the planet.
Nature-Based Education (NbE) comes to life by turning nature into a living classroom, redesigning school and community spaces to repair the human–nature disconnection. In practice, NbE activates head, hands, heart, and feet through outdoor learning, project-based work, citizen science, living maps, regenerative leadership, and activities that help learners understand and act within living systems. Schools naturalize patios, gardens, and green roofs, and work in strategic ecosystems, such as the Mallorquín Wetland or the Bogotá Hills, to activate processes of regenerative action.
Evidence shows that NbE improves academic performance, reduces nature-deficit symptoms, strengthens creativity, empathy, and well-being, and increases environmental agency. Networks such as Cerros and Dulce Sal confirm its effectiveness: over 160 institutions in Bogotá and multiple schools in Barranquilla have developed conservation projects, youth leadership initiatives, and regenerative green-business alternatives.
Although it does not rely on exclusive technologies, NbE innovatively integrates digital tools, transversal curriculum design, and experiential pedagogy to deepen connection with the Earth and advance planetary health. It is a proven, replicable, and transformative approach.
Nature-based Education (NbE) has expanded through a dual strategy: global policy influence and local replication. Internationally, NbE has been advanced by the IUCN, Salzburg Global and the Children & Nature Network, producing high-level declarations, technical documents (UNFCCC COP28), action agendas and a global community of practice that positions nature, living systems and planetary health at the core of education.
Locally, organizations such as OpEPA have scaled NbE through school networks that repair the human–nature disconnection and activate regenerative action. In the past 1–2 years, the Dulce Sal Network in Barranquilla has grown to 20+ schools, 26 teachers, 90 youth and 13 partners, strengthening regenerative leadership and establishing governance structures and action plans. The Bogotá Hills Network now includes 166 schools, demonstrating the scalability of NbE in urban and peri-urban ecosystems.
Main achievements also include the publication of global NbE declarations, the launch of resource platforms and the consolidation of a global NbE community of practice sharing tools and case studies.
Over the next 2–3 years, NbE aims to influence the UN General Assembly and IUCN World Conservation Congress, finalize the Salzburg Declaration on NbE, expand networks across Latin America—especially in cities with overlooked ecosystems—and advance regenerative educational paradigms that align culture, learning and planetary health.
Nature-based Education (NbE) has been continually adapted and expanded to better address the human–nature disconnection and the challenges of planetary health. The innovation evolved from a method into an integrated ecosystem of strategies blending Indigenous knowledge, experiential learning, climate and biodiversity education, and regenerative approaches. NbE now embeds a living-systems perspective and advanced paradigms such as regenerative and sumbiosic development, along with Inner Development Goals to strengthen empathy, awareness and wellbeing.
Its pedagogical structure was enhanced to integrate four dimensions—head, hands, heart and feet—ensuring that learning activates knowledge, sensory perception, deep reflection and regenerative action.
New methods were added: fluid learning, citizen science, outdoor expeditions, living and emotional maps, and strategic use of digital tools to bring nature into classrooms and enrich ecological connection. At the institutional level, NbE introduced nature-centered governance, encouraging schools to give Nature a formal role in decision-making. School networks such as Dulce Sal expanded lines of action (circularity, NbS, climate-adaptive environments), strengthening territorial impact.
Finally, NbE incorporated global behavior-change frameworks and policy pathways to accelerate scaling and consolidate an education system aligned with life and planetary resilience.
To test or adapt Nature-based Education (NbE), the process begins with territorial mapping, as first developed in the Cerros Network and later replicated across BiodiverCities. This involves identifying learning landscapes, key actors, and territorial dynamics, validating what is happening in local ecosystems and within the school community. This foundation is followed by institutional diagnosis and immersive educator experiences that rebuild connection with living systems and address the root of the human–nature disconnection.
Next comes capacity building through NbE methodologies—fluid learning, citizen science, outdoor classrooms, living maps—and cross-curricular integration. Schools naturalize their environments with Nature-based Solutions, activate nearby ecosystems as learning sites, and engage youth in regenerative action through conservation and green-economy projects.
Scaling requires linking these actions to local alliances and public policies to ensure long-term impact.
For implementation support, contact OpEPA (opepa@opepa.org
). For global resources: IUCN CEC, Salzburg Global Seminar, and the Children & Nature Network.
