The Project  “PARKS (Parks to Adopt, Relate, Know, Save) in Europe”, started during the contact workshop Comenius 1 which took place in Malta, in June 2003, on the occasion of the first Transnational Conference of the Network Comenius 3.1 TEPEE (Towards a European Portfolio for Environmental Education).

The principal aims of the project are:
- to stimulate the awareness about the importance of natural parks;
- to analyse and evaluate the biodiversity of the natural resources as well as of the cultural heritage of the park areas in the different European countries and compare them;
- to strengthen the sense of cultural identity and the knowledge of the environment of the territory, developing at the same time the ability of comparing different cultures and realities;
- to test the evaluation and certification of competences tools in environmental education provided by TEPEE network (portfolio).

The project, through activities of search and experiences on the ground carried out in net from 4 schools of 4 Countries (Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain), will realize a census of some “treasures” present in the various natural parks near the schools involved, that will be collected in a web-site and published, at the end of the work, in the “Atlas of the European Parks Treasures”.

Project activities of the school year 2004/05 (1^st year)

- Selection of the group of teachers and of the classes involved in the project
- Choice of the urban or natural park to be studied 
- Choice of the treasure (historical, artistic, naturalistic, gastronomic, etc.,) to adopt in this scholastic year
-  Planning of two International Project Meeting (1^st  in Italy in November 2004 – 2 ^nd  in Romania in May 2005)

Particularly:
- in Romania started the collaboration with the Town Hall of Iasi (which has to take care of the urban parks “Exhibition Park” , “Copou Garden”, “Ciric Park”) and with the Botanical Garden “Anastasie Fătu”, the biggest and most complex botanical garden of the country, to make the analysis of the natural (flora and fauna), historical and cultural resources of the parks which are being studied this school year;
- in Italy the classes involved have chosen the Matese Regional Park’s “treasures” to study (the Hell Valley and the royal eagle, the Matese Lake, the Prata Sannita Castle, the black pig “casertana”) and started the activities in cooperation with the associated partners (Matese Regional Park Authority, municipalities of area; conservation groups).
- in Portugal, with this Comenius Project, continued the collaboration with the “Natural Park of Guadiana Valley” to study and adopt some “treasures” like exemplars of fauna and flora (olm-oak trees, different species of olive trees, the black pork); local communities traditions (stories, legends, etc); traditional arts and crafts (traditional construction building, bee-keeping);
- In Spain the students and teachers involved in the project have: visited to a Natural Park "s'Albufera" and “Sa Dragonera” (treasure discovered: the small lizard of Balearics); sudied of the solar energy in “Cabrera National Park”; visited to a proposed natural Park in Valldemossa to study the importance of the senses in Art and Philosophy.

Within the end of the school year a final didactic show will be developed in each school in order to describe the results of the work done and to involve the partners and the local community to know, to promote and to safeguard the "treasures" of the studied parks. 

     Project activities of the school year 2005/06 (2^nd year)

The planning of the activities of the 2nd year was realized in the 3rd transnational meeting, that was held in Serpa (Portugal) in October 2005. During the team work, the partners exchanged their experiences and didactic materials and planned these activities: to find new parks and/or treasures to be studied and adopted in this school year; to find some common treasures to involve in the search students of each country; to improve the web site opening the section "Forum", to help the communication between students and teachers; to involve in the project new associated partners or to strengthen the relationship with the old ones; to choose the same competencies to evaluate the environmental education activities and continue the experimentation of the Portfolio EPEE, promoted by the Comenius 3.1 Project TEPEE.
During the meeting the students took part in a didactic contest, called "Pictures from European parks", and chose 3 photos for each country to make a calendar, using graphical software, which could be sent to the partners.
Up to now, the following activities have been developed in all the schools of the partnership:
- In Romania the pupils have gathered information and essays on the description of the Ceahlau Reservation and of the identified treasures; there have been seminaries to speak about the obtained information and it has also been drawn a map of the Ceahlau Reservation where it has been pointed the establishment of the discovered treasures.
- In Italy the classes involved have continued the discovering of the "treasures" of the Matese Regional Park. Moreover the students have taken part in a contest connected to the Comenius Project ("Sport, Mountain and environmental safeguard"); the new treasures which have been chosen are: S.Maria Occorrevole's Monastery and the Monk's Track; the track from Monte Orso to Pianellone; the Apennine wolf; traditional species of apples.
- In Portugal the school has found other protected areas (Special Protection Zones of Natura 2000 European network - Birds habitats Mourão/Moura/Barrancos) and new treasures to study: Noudar Castle, Black stork, Litlle bustard, Bustard
- In Spain there has been a big involvement in this project and a lot of classes started to visit and study these treasures and subjects: constructions of dry stone, fauna, the stone, olive tree (Mondrago Nature Park); farm vocabulary, herbs, water (S'Albufera and S'Albufereta); herbs, peculiar trees, frog, strawberry tree, holm-oak, pine tree, silence (Serra de Tramuntana); geography of the Park, prehistory, Ancient History, Medieval History, Modern History, Contemporary History and the lizard (Cabrera)

     Project activities planned in the school year 2006/07  (3^rd year) 

The structure of the project foresees for all three years a common structuring of the activities and also an extension of the experience areas of teachers and students and a wider involvement of the local community.
For the school year 2006/07 the planned specific project results are:
 - to complete the census of the main treasures in the parks adopted;
 - to activate, where possible, local school nets committed in the safeguard and promotion of the protected areas;
 - to extend the website structure and contents and improve its working;
 - to publish, at the end of the project, the "Atlas of European Parks" in a Cd-Rom ;
 - to verify the possibility to continue the cooperation among the schools in the partnership, also after the end of this project, with different kinds of Comenius Projects
Two more international project meetings are planned, on the 5th November 2006 in Romania and on the 6th May 2007, the last one, in Italy, where the coordinating Institution is.
To spread the results, the experiences and the final products of the project, it is our intention to make a didactic show on the "Treasures of the Park" a fixed annual appointment, so that to involve, at the end of every scholastic year, the local community and the associated partners in a public moment that guarantees the Comenius project visibility in the territory, on the newspapers and local TV.
As in the past years, the results of the research work on the "treasures" of the adopted parks will be spread and shared among the schools taking part in the project, through meetings, e-mails and the web site which will put together the cards produced by each school. The final product ("Atlas of European Parks") will be distributed among the schools of the territory, public authorities, cultural and environmental associations.