Schools: Sentinels of the Fight Against Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss

This volume systematically analyzes the theoretical foundations, practical applications, and institutionalperspectives of school citizen science as a tool for environmental monitoring and sustainability education.Starting from a critical review of the international literature, the paper examines the strategic role of schools incombating climate change and biodiversity loss, illustrating how schools—due to their widespread distribution,temporal continuity, and rootedness in local communities—can constitute nodes of widespread, scientificallyrelevant environmental observation networks. The volume is organized into eight chapters. The first three lay the methodological foundations: theepistemological definition of citizen science and its historical evolution, school citizen science project modelsand criteria for curricular integration, and accessible environmental monitoring technologies in educationalsettings. The central chapters explore key thematic areas: climate monitoring (temperatures, extreme events,urban heat islands), biodiversity monitoring and early detection of invasive species, institutional partnershipsbetween schools, research institutions, and public administrations and their impact on environmental policies.The concluding chapters outline future development trajectories and place school citizen science within thecontext of global environmental governance, with reference to international regulatory frameworks (Agenda2030, Kunming-Montreal Framework, Paris Agreement) and the potential coordinating role of UN agencies. The work adopts a deliberately interdisciplinary approach, grounded in empirical evidence and attentive toexplicitly acknowledging the limitations and uncertainties of the literature. It is aimed at teachers, researchers,policymakers, and administrators who intend to design, evaluate, or improve school citizen science programs,offering a critical and operationally oriented framework.