Sierra Espuña Nature Classroom reaches nearly 200,000 visitors

For more than three decades, the Las Alquerías Nature Classroom in the Sierra Espuña, a mountain range in Murcia, has been bringing environmental education to thousands with an average of more than 6,000 users per year. Recently, the classroom has reached an incredible milestone, with nearly 200,000 participants since its opening in 1993.

Three decades of hands-on environmental learning

This new milestone has established the Las Alquerías Nature Classroom as one of the main spaces dedicated to environmental education and awareness in the Region of Murcia, having welcomed schoolchildren, teachers, families, and other groups interested in learning about natural heritage and understanding the importance of its conservation.

A landscape built on historical restoration

Between 2021 and 2025, more than 31,000 people participated in the programmes offered at the classroom, and roughly two out of every three participants were connected to the educational community. Using direct contact with the natural environment as an educational tool, the classroom used school excursions, biodiversity-related workshops, summer camps, interpretive routes and coexistence programmes as a method of educating visitors.

The location of the classroom is also rooted in environmental history. More than a century ago, the Sierra Espuña mountain range was a site of important hydrological and forestry restoration projects that were aimed at recovering a degraded mountain range.

Expanding into a regional centre for environmental education

Now, the project is entering a completely new phase: an evolution into the Regional Centre for Environmental Education. This change will broaden the scope of the activities and programmes, and ensure that environmental education continues to reach the public in Cartagena, Murcia, and beyond. The new approach will especially be aimed at administrations, companies, associations and citizens, focusing on issues including biodiversity, climate change, the circular economy, energy efficiency and sustainable water management.

New initiatives for future climate action

The new project will add activities into the programme including camps, itineraries, educational programmes, specialised training, technical workshops, citizen participation projects and other initiatives related to the future Regional Strategy for Environmental Education for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Action.