Indian Ocean islands to embark on Eco-School programme |05 February 2015

Using the experience of Seychelles where the Eco-School programme has been launched and is still ongoing since the 1990s, other countries of the region are now embarking on the education for sustainable development programme.

The Eco-Schools Indian Ocean which was launched this week will be different from the one which has been in existence here and has formed part of the Ministry of Education’s schools programme for many years.

It will operate via a website where all schools can register their activities and share their experiences.
Schools without internet will be able to join in using mobile phone technology and an Eco-Schools Indian Ocean handbook will be produced in several languages.

The Eco-Schools Indian Ocean programme employs a holistic approach through a simple seven-step process which is : establishing the Eco-Schools Committee; carrying out an environmental review; action plan; monitoring and evaluation; making a link with schools’curriculum; informing  and involving the wider community and the creation of an eco-code.

The programme forms part of the ISLANDS project of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and is funded by the European Union in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund of Madagascar (WWF), the Western Indian Ocean Project Office, the government of Seychelles, and the United States embassy to Mauritius and Seychelles.

During a three-day workshop which opened here on Tuesday, schools representatives from Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Zanzibar  learned more about the Eco-Schools Indian Ocean programme, review the manual and other material to be used, were apprised of  Seychelles’ experience in running a similar programme and visited  several local schools to see eco-school projects.

The principal secretary for Climate Change and Energy in the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change  & Energy, Wills Agricole, launched the workshop on Tuesday and this was in the presence of the US ambassador to Seychelles Shari Villarosa, Malcolm Powell from the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE International) and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change & Energy.

With the launch of this programme in their schools, Indian Ocean countries are now represented among sixty-one other nations running the international Eco-Schools programme of the FEE International and its Green Flag Standard of Excellence for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

FEE, which is an international non-governmental organisation based in Copenhagen, Denmark, is mainly active through its five environmental education programmes: Eco-Schools, Blue Flag, Young Reporters for the Environment, Learning about Forests and Green Key. There are currently 81 member organisations running FEE programmes in 68 countries worldwide.

Commenting on the Eco-Schools Indian Ocean programme  initiative, Ambassador Villarosa said : “We believe that the challenges island nations are facing should be addressed collectively.  Eco-Schools Indian Ocean is the type of innovative partnership between civil society, government and international and national groups that is needed to engage future generations in mitigating global climate change.  We are proud to partner with ISLANDS in support of the Eco-Schools Indian Ocean project.”

Small island developing states (Sids) of the Western Indian Ocean are among the most vulnerable in the world.  Children in schools across the region are already facing the damaging day to day effects of climate change in the form of sea-level rise, soil erosion, flooding, water shortages, high frequency of natural disasters and the related social and economic impacts.