Arquivos children

World Environment Day marks the announcement of the winners

By Fabíola Sinimbú – Reporter at Agência Brasil
Published on 06/05/2025

On this June 5th, World Environment Day, six youth-led projects from every one of Brazil’s biomes were recognized for presenting proposals that combine conservation and environmental solutions with the appreciation of traditional knowledge from local communities.

These initiatives won the Criativos Escola + Natureza Award, which encourages children and adolescents to transform their realities through youth empowerment and is promoted by Instituto Alana.

“We now know that children are the population most affected by climate change and racial inequalities worldwide, yet they are not always considered when it comes to solving these problems—or even listened to about what affects and troubles them,” says Ana Cláudia Leite, an education and childhood culture specialist at Instituto Alana.

Elementary and high school students and their educators will receive an online educational journey, which will lead them to activities related to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).

According to Ana Cláudia, the goal of this journey is to foster exchange between school communities and their territories, enable the technical improvement of the projects, and boost visibility and social impact.

“There will be content, connections, and experiences that can expand these children ability to take action in their territories and strengthen these projects so that they can scale up, influence their surroundings, and foster more dialogue and partnerships—whether with the private sector, government, or third sector.”

The award also includes a financial incentive of R$12,000 per team, with R$10,000 for the students and R$2,000 for the educator or adult mentor. The winners were chosen from nearly 1,600 projects from 738 municipalities across the country.

“We received projects from quilombola* regions, from communities linked to Indigenous groups, and from areas with multiple Indigenous communities close to schools. There are also projects from dense urban areas. They’re diverse not only in what they propose and how they foster social transformation, but also in the students’ life stories,” explains Ana Claudia.

Biomes
In the Caatinga biome, in the town of Carnaíba, Pernambuco, students at Paulo Freire State Technical School developed a low-cost filter made from pine husks and activated charcoal to reduce the toxicity of manipueira, a by-product of cassava flour production with high pollution potential.

“The girls who live in the Quilombo do Caruá community noticed that even though the spaces where cassava flour is milled and cooked are vital as sources of income and symbols of resistance, they’re also a place that produces a large amount of waste. So, they proposed a solution to the problem they observed,” explains Gustavo Bezerra, the teacher who supervised the project.

In the Cerrado biome, students from the State Institute of Education, Science and Technology in Codó, Maranhão, created an autonomous water reuse system that collects and filters water from fountains and taps for non-potable use, such as flushing toilets.

“They built the entire prototype: plumbing, barrels, the robotic part. They wanted the system to be fully automated and sustainably self-programmed to reduce both waste and human intervention. They did everything themselves, without any engineers. They were their own engineers,” recalls teacher Vivian Sousa.

While in the Cerrado the solution came through engineering, in the Pantanal biome, students from the Sebastião Rolon Rural Municipal School in Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul, turned to art to address the frequent wildfires. After researching how rural populations can help reduce fire outbreaks, the students developed an educational theater piece to raise community awareness through culture.

“Many students are children of farmers or cattle ranchers. Wildfires are common here. They often didn’t know who to call or what to do when fires happened. They said there was a lack of information, and until then, no one really knew what to do. Through the project, they began to find answers,” says teacher Stella de Souza.

The project was so successful that students and teachers are now working to expand its reach and the formats used.

“We intend to create books written by them, and comic books too. We’re trying to align the content with other subjects so we can expand the concept and reach not only adults but other children as well,” Stella adds.

The pursuit of balance with nature also came from diverse experiences. In the Amazon biome, inspired by the success of Indigenous community practices, students from the Amazonas Institute of Education in Manaus developed a project to integrate traditional knowledge into the school curriculum.

The phrase, “You, with your knowledge, can help us. And we, with ours, can help you,” spoken by a member of the Tukano people and heard by students during a visit to the Bahserikowi Indigenous Medicine Center, had a lasting impact. After that experience, exchanges increased, and transformation happened inside and outside the school.

“I didn’t know back then that some of my students were Indigenous. Later, I found out from one mother that she had told her daughter not to say she was Indigenous. She was afraid her daughter would be discriminated against or bullied like she had been,” recalls teacher Márcia Gomes.

As the project progressed, those students began to proudly share their knowledge and heritage as guardians of sustainable living.

“When I saw them finally saying they were Indigenous, talking about their culture and traditions, I realized the project had gone beyond learning—it was about self-worth and serenity,” Márcia emphasizes.

On the opposite end of the country, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, a group of students from Saint-Hilaire Elementary School was inspired by Futuro Ancestral, a book by Ailton Krenak, to deepen their connection with nature.They saw the nearby Saint-Hilaire Park as a potential space for connection and realized how distant the community had become from nature.

“They started talking about it—‘We’ve never been to the park. We could go, but it’s always burning.’ They began monitoring it and saw fires becoming frequent after reading the book. One of them said, ‘We could make a project about this,’” recalls teacher Maria Gabriela Souza.

A series of educational, artistic, and environmental activities in the park was developed by the students to raise awareness in the community.

“They created storytelling sessions, theatrical performances, and a literary fair using works by Indigenous and Black authors like Krenak and Antônio Bispo. They worked hard, created educational kits. It was a success. The whole school got involved,” the teacher says.

Traditional knowledge from shellfish gatherers and artisanal fishers in Estância, Sergipe, inspired students and teachers at the Federal Institute of Sergipe to develop an environmental education model for conserving the Atlantic Forest biodiversity found in mangroves and coastal scrublands.

The project combines multiple activities—like documentary production, trail signage, and flora and fauna identification—bringing together the traditional community, students, and teachers in immersive biome experiences.

“There’s a guided trail led by shellfish gatherers and students, and a ‘sustainability bike ride,’ where one student rode alongside her grandmother. We aim for strong social inclusion, beyond the Institute and partner schools, to involve the community and especially families,” says teacher Márcia Santos.

She notes the project also fosters youth leadership.

“They took an active role in this educational process because they are also teaching. The idea is for young people to spread this environmental education involvement so that others in the community can also engage,” she adds.

The Award
Created in 2015, the Criativos da Escola Award is promoted by Instituto Alana, a nonprofit organization focused on children’s rights. Its goal is to encourage youth to transform their realities and build leadership through the Design for Change methodology, developed by Indian educator Kiran Bir Sethi.

Complete list of winning projects by biome:

Amazon | “Dialogue with Nature: Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon and Sustainability”, Amazonas Institute of Education, Manaus (AM)
Cerrado | “Water Reuse System Prototype for Promoting Sustainability and Responsible Use of Natural Resources”, State Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Maranhão, Codó (MA)
Caatinga | “Filtropinha: From Waste to Resource”, Paulo Freire State Technical School, Carnaíba (PE)
Atlantic Forest | “Ecotech”, Federal Institute of Sergipe, Estância (SE)
Pampa | “Putting the Heart in Rhythm with the Earth: Reforesting Minds and Hearts”, Saint-Hilaire Elementary School, Porto Alegre (RS)
Pantanal | “Fires in the Pantanal”, Sebastião Rolon Rural Municipal School – Nazaré Extension, Corumbá (MS)

*Quilombos are hinterland settlement founded by people of African origin as part of resistance movements against enslavement

Alana takes the reality of children facing climate emergency to COP 27

Children are one of the groups most affected by climate emergency and need to have a voice and a leading role in environmental policies and, by building a better world for them, we will build a better world for everyone. Under this perspective, Alana Institute lands in Egypt this November to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27), an annual conference promoted by the United Nations (UN) to mitigate the impacts of climate change through mechanisms that can be applied globally.

COP 27, which is usually attended by heads of state, businesses, decision makers and activists, has been held annually since 1995. In 2020, the event was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The COPs have resulted in some of the most important environmental agreements in history, such as the Paris Agreement, which, among other things, aims to keep global temperature increase below 2°C.

“Alana Institute’s mission is to promote and protect children’s rights as an absolute priority. Our main goal at the COP is to advocate for placing children’s rights at the center of the debate on climate discussions in order to defend their right to life and to a balanced and healthy environment,” explained Laís Fleury, International Relations Officer of the Alana Institute.

Children at the center of the COP negotiations

COP 27 started on November 6, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and is expected to bring intense debates on climate finance, climate adaptation and compensation for losses and damages (measures to repair those impacted by the consequences of climate extremes, such as floods). It is also, once again, seeking ways to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C. In these discussions, the Alana Institute hopes to bring children to the center of the negotiations, with special attention to children in Brazil and the global south.

This is the second time that the organization participates in the UN conference. In 2021, the Alana Institute was at COP 26, in Glasgow, Scotland, participating in urban interventions, panels and round table discussions. The Child and Nature program took the Grey Bubble of the Free to Play Outside campaign to the city, which gives visibility to the problem of air pollution and invites families to engage in actions towards clean air for children around the world. It also participated in the roundtable discussion “Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future”, about the injustices that comprise the issue of climate change.

Lunetas, a journalism website dedicated to the world of childhoods, presented the impacts of the climate emergency on Brazilian childhoods in the panel “The voices of multiple childhoods on climate emergency: for a future in the present”, and the Alana Foundation was part of the panel “Stop burning the Pantanal and the Amazon”, which addressed the importance of keeping the forest standing, preserving biodiversity and drastically reducing burning and CO2 emissions.

This is because it is children who form one of the most vulnerable groups to the climate crisis. They are the ones who suffer its effects the most, as their development is affected and their rights are violated by consequences ranging from natural disasters to food and water shortages.

To put it in perspective, more than one in every four deaths of children under five years of age is directly or indirectly related to environmental risks. Furthermore, approximately one billion children and adolescents live in one of the 33 countries classified as posing extremely high risk, including Brazil. Hence, the importance of reinforced and specific measures.

Plan to ensure climate justice for children

Integrating children’s rights into climate negotiations is critical. To this end, it is important that COP 27 participants develop an appropriate plan of action to ensure climate justice for children. The Children Action Plan, inspired by the Gender Action Plan, is one of the initiatives that aims to promote knowledge and understanding of climate actions that are sensitive to children and their coherent integration into the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Another important point for the round of negotiations is to increase and accelerate investment in child and youth responsive adaptation in disaster risk reduction and mitigation measures. There is an urgent need to reach children at greatest risk and advocate for child-sensitive criteria in the integration of multilateral funds.

During COP 27, Alana Institute will seek to ensure that child protection is reflected in the results achieved by the planned workshops of the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh work programme, a two-year work program between Glasgow and Sharm el-Sheikh on the global goal that was signed at COP 26, as well as to establish guidelines for countries’ national plans with child-centered adaptation actions.

In addition, the Alana Institute, together with several international organizations, is at the forefront of a movement called the “Children First Climate Movement”, aimed to include children’s rights in the results of climate negotiations.

Empowering society with environmental education

The Paris Agreement, established at COP 21 in 2015, provided guidelines to empower society for climate action through education, training and other measures. At the 2021 conference, countries advanced the intention to promote this empowerment through the Glasgow Work Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment, which sets out measures for policy coherence, coordinated action, monitoring and evaluation.

The first sessions of the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) held in July this year in Bonn, Germany, were directed towards youth, with specific and one-off recommendations for children, such as, for example, education and communication training on climate. Now, at COP 27, the subject must be raised again with the objective of incorporating recommendations on child protection and promoting workshops that discuss intergenerational equity and education in contact with nature.

Children as a priority in climate finance mechanisms, loss and damages

No financial mechanism established at the COP to date has had resources directed to the protection of children, although in some of them there is mention of children’s needs and priorities for certain policies. This is why the Alana Institute suggests that COP 27 create a definition of “child-sensitive climate finance” in the Standing Committee on Finance, a permanent finance committee created with the objective of helping the COP to improve financial coordination of climate change actions.

The organization also advocates including the best interests of children in the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance, earmarking resources and child protection in favor of developing countries. One of the goals is to enable an yearly fund of at least US$100 billion by 2025, taking into account the needs of developing countries. In addition, another point is that any progress on a loss and damage agreement must have a child-sensitive perspective, since children are the ones most impacted by these changes.

Respect for gender equity, especially that of girls

In the programs defined in previous conferences (such as UNICEF’s Gender Action Plan), girls are mentioned only in items related to participation and superficial leadership in some events. We need to move forward to ensure that girls and young women from vulnerable communities are active in decision-making. Another important point is to demand that countries report on their effective measures for gender equity and develop a report in this regard.

Children as priority in ocean discussions

At COP 26, participating countries signed a pact to strengthen actions related to ocean protection and prepare an informal synthesis report for countries to present at COP 27. The dialogue included youth, but issues related to the guarantee of human rights did not have a solid presence in discussions. Countries must now be asked to prioritize actions for the oceans that also protect the rights of children.

In this sense, it is important to establish ocean-related adaptation guidelines to strengthen the resilience of coastal and fishing communities and, consequently, their children; to mitigate loss and damage, especially with regard to ocean acidification as a long-term impact on children; and to call for a specific report on childhood and climate in the context of oceans.

Children’s participation at COP 27 and its mechanisms

Children’s voices must be heard through their meaningful participation in the work of UNFCCC members. This is how the outcomes will reflect their concerns, perspectives and ideas. In addition, member countries should seek the collaboration and input of human and children’s rights bodies and experts.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has taken a significant step to hold governments accountable to ensure that children live in a clean, green, healthy and sustainable world by providing guidance on how children’s rights are impacted by the environmental crisis and what governments should do to uphold these rights.

This effort should be used as a tool to align the policies built by the UNFCCC, bringing the importance of General Comment 26 into the climate negotiations, which was prepared with the participation of the Alana Institute and addresses children’s rights and the environment, with special focus on climate change.

“In 30 years of the UNFCCC, we have never had a specific agreement on children’s right to climate justice. General Comment 26 can bring a solid base of recommendations for a commitment from nations to combat the climate crisis, putting children first”, stated JP Amaral, coordinator of the Child and Nature program of Alana Institute.

Faced with so many goals and the urgency of moving forward in combating the climate crisis, putting children and their rights at the center of all processes and negotiations will allow for a more cooperative process in all areas, such as mitigation, adaptation, financing, as well as loss and damage. A healthy climate for children is a healthy climate for all.

Abrir mapa do site

Alana

Instituto

Lab

Foundation

Outros