Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Gaël Rangain
Published on 2024-03-09 04:00:40
In the context of a concerted effort between the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, and the Mauritius Institute Education (MIE), a crucial step was taken last week regarding environmental education in Mauritius. Indeed, the first national training of trainers on the Sandwatch Environmental Education tool, led by the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) as part of its ambitious project “Resilience of populations and coastal ecosystems in the southwest Indian Ocean” (RECOS), with the support of the French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM), took place.
This training brought together a group of 32 trainers, consisting of 14 teachers from various schools – Adolphe de Plevitz, Simadree Virahsawmy, Flic en Flac, Hamilton College, Loreto College Mahebourg, Regis Chaperon – 11 members of NGOs committed to environmental preservation, four representatives of the MIE, and four officials from the Ministry of Education. Its objective: to strengthen the skills needed for the effective implementation of the Sandwatch program, a recognized educational approach dedicated to monitoring, evaluating, and protecting coastal areas.
The Sandwatch program, launched by UNESCO in 2001, is a concrete example of international collaboration for the preservation of coastal ecosystems. It is an educational process in which students, teachers, and local communities work together to monitor coastal environments, identify and assess the threats, problems, and conflicts they face, and develop sustainable approaches to address them. They acquire scientific observation methods, apply these methods to beach environments, monitor and analyze threats to their beach; they share their information with other members of their community, and then work to solve the problems.
They work together to improve their beach environment and develop resilience to climate change. Since its inception in 2001, the Sandwatch network has expanded and now includes more than 50 member countries, including hundreds of schools and community groups actively monitoring environmental changes on their beaches.
The RECOS project, implemented by the IOC in Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles until 2026, aims to strengthen the resilience of coastal populations to the effects of climate change by restoring services provided by coastal ecosystems. It mainly focuses on four main themes: management of marine protected areas, conservation and restoration of essential ecosystems (mangroves and seagrasses), coastal management and observation, and environmental education. In addition to Sandwatch, RECOS promotes and disseminates other environmental education initiatives deployed in the region. This initiative is funded by €10 million from AFD and FFEM.
The Sandwatch tool aims to raise awareness and equip participants for better management of coastal natural resources. At the end of this intensive training, participants were given “Sandwatch kits,” including the necessary equipment to independently monitor the island’s beaches.
Anfani Msoili, Mission Officer in charge of Ecological and Energy Transition, Tourism, and Migration at the COI General Secretariat, emphasized the importance of this initiative in the regional context. “For a year now, the IOC has committed, during the first regional workshop dedicated to environmental education in coastal areas in Flic-en-Flac organized by our RECOS project, to revitalize the UNESCO Sandwatch educational program dedicated to observing, monitoring, and protecting coastlines that has proven itself. Since then, national action plans have been developed in Comoros, Madagascar, Seychelles, and, of course, in Mauritius,” he recalled. This training thus represents another step towards the realization of these plans.
Indeed, three initiatives to implement the Sandwatch program had been developed in Mauritius between 2016 and 2010, under the impetus of the NGO Sustainable Development Aid (ADD). However, due to the Covid-19 crisis, the process of this experimentation had to be temporarily halted. The recent training is part of a desire to strengthen environmental education in Mauritius.
Shalini Mahadowa-Reechaye, Acting Director at the Ministry of Education, emphasized the importance of the Sandwatch approach in developing students’ skills. “By monitoring coastal environments, identifying and evaluating existing threats, and proposing solutions, learners have the opportunity to develop teamwork skills, but also to put into practice the theories they learn in class, certainly contributing to making sciences more attractive to students,” she explained.
Professor Ravhee Bholah, national referent for environmental education for the RECOS project and coordinator of Education for Sustainable Development at MIE, also mentioned the importance of the Sandwatch program in the Mauritian context, describing it as a “commendable effort to promote education on climate change for sustainable development.” This training is part of an overall strategy of awareness and preparation for environmental challenges by aligning with (1) the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and (2) Agenda 2063 for Africa and (3) the government’s initiative to combat climate change.
Through this initiative praised by participants, Mauritius strengthens its commitment to protecting its coastline and raising awareness among future generations about the crucial importance of environmental conservation.
Read the original article(French) on Le Mauricien
