Working with Communities: The CCC Environmental Education and Training Programme
The techniques and approaches that CCC uses to generate both awareness and understanding, and impart skills to the different sectors of local communities.
CCC is widely recognised for its pioneering work in the assessment of tropical forest and coral reef ecosystems. In comparison, the environmental education and awareness programmes that run alongside biophysical data collection are less well documented.
CCC recognises the importance of including all resource users of a region within an environmental education and awareness programme. CCC targets a diverse range of audiences including local schoolchildren, village community leaders, resort guests, dive instructors and tourism guides. A combination of outreach visits and on site events is practiced. Counterpart training is also offered as part of the CCC Marine/Forest Scholarship Award Programme or through specialized workshops. Environmental education and awareness activities (EAA) are common to all CCC projects.
As well as the specific EEA activities targeting particular stakeholder audiences, the presence of a CCC project in a region also raises environmental awareness through a variety of approaches. A series of workshops and presentations held when CCC begins a new project initiates the process by explaining the reasoning behind the presence of the NGO. This means of transferring information is also used extensively in the latter stages of a project when the recommendations for the conservation of coral reef habitats and resources are presented to local stakeholders and project partners.
The Multi-Sectoral Approach: Examples from CCC Projects
- Negros Rainforest Conservation Project, Philippines
- Fiji Coral Reef Conservation Project
- Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project, Philippines
- Project Bay Islands, Honduras
Negros Rainforest Conservation Project, Philippines
Community Training and Information Exchange
The Negros Rainforest Conservation Project involves community members from surrounding villages in all aspects of the conservation work undertaken. This participatory approach encompasses formalised training of mountain guides, attendance of the CCC Skills Development Progamme, forest walks and assisting CCC staff with field surveys.
The Negros Rainforest Conservation Project has hosted a series of one day and weekend 'forest camps' for local students in order that they can 'experience' the Negros Forst Reserve first hand and contribute to the work of the Project under the guidance of the CCC staff and volunteers.
The Project in conjunction with Negros Forests and Ecological Foundation Inc. (NFEFI) regularly holds a programme of talks at local schools within the project watershed area, explaining the work of CCC, NFEFI and the Negros Rainforest Conservation Project.
Fiji Coral Reef Conservation Project
Environmental Awareness Workshops at local schools - Mamanucas, Fiji.
To promote environmental awareness in the Fiji Mamanucas island group, a series of workshops have been designed and carried out at local primary schools by senior CCC project staff. Working in collaboration with teachers, CCC has developed a ten-week EAA programme that has been incorporated into the Class 8 curriculum.
The course focuses on introducing reef ecology and biology concepts to highlight the fragile nature of the reef systems and the need for management. Concepts are promoted through worksheet exercises, word games, drama, art, group debates, and physical exercises such as litter surveys.
The aims and objectives of the school workshops are to:
- Increase the environmental awareness of the local school children
- Incorporate general science subjects from the National Curriculum into the environmental sessions
- Provide a range of teaching methods and opportunities for the children to express themselves through different media
- Monitor the increase in the children's knowledge levels to evaluate the success of the education scheme.
Full details of the programme can be found in the Fiji Coral Reef Conservation Project: 1st Annual Report (Comley et al. 2003).
Marine Ecology Workshop for the Professional Diver - Mamanucas, Fiji
Another part of the Fiji environmental awareness programme involves teaching, marine ecology workshops designed for diving professionals working in the Mamanucas island group. The workshops consists of four intensive half-day sessions. Sessions focus on coral reef topics such reef fish, hard corals or other invertebrates and are designed to incorporate the target organisms for Reef Check surveys. A full breakdown of the training provided can be found in Comley et al. (2003). The main objectives of the 'Marine Ecology Workshop for the Professional Diver' are to:
- Provide participants with a general background in the ecology of coral reefs;
- Emphasize conservation issues and ethics in a fun and practical manner;
- Give participants information in a format that can be easily passed on to their students and clients;
- Provide a forum for the exchange of information between CCC and the Fijian SCUBA diving community.
- Teach dive instructors and divemasters the Reef Check methodology for future coral reef monitoring.
The purpose of teaching the Reef Check technique on the final day of the workshop was to give local SCUBA divers the ability to monitor the health of their local reefs and assist with the global reef health monitoring effort.
Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project, Philippines
Marine Education Open Days for local schools
One of the aims of Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project is to help educate people on local environmental issues as well as create an awareness of the marine environment and its fragility. To start off this integral part of the project "Marine Education Open Days" were initiated in December 2002. These Open Days are aimed at school children between the ages of 10-12 and also cater for the accompanying teachers.
A typical day involves a group of 60 children and their teachers arriving at 8 am. The day starts with an introductory lecture about CCC and the work undertaken in the region. The students are then divided into three groups of 20 and each group carries out a different activity for one hour. At the end of each activity, groups are rotated so that students have an opportunity to partake in all activities on offer. Activities include:
- Learning to snorkel and identify marine organisms underwater.
- Beach walk whilst identifying coral skeletons, macroalgae and other animal remains washed onto the shore.
- Touring the interactive displays with a guide. Displays included Coral Biology and Reef Ecology, Macroalgae and Marine Plants, Marine Pollution and SCUBA.
- Trying out breathing from a regulator in a dunk tank on the shore.
- Watching a video documentary on "Reefs at Risk", based in the Philippines.
- Drawing their favorite marine organism and creating a collage depicting an underwater seascape, which they can then take back to their school for display.
- A marine life quiz in which the children have to find the correct answers (which are hidden) to a number of marine and environment related questions.
- A CCC-produced marine life puppet show entitled "The Adventures of Fred the Fish" which reiterates the messages introduced during the day of environmental respect and awareness.
Throughout the day the teachers are encouraged to join each group in order to supervise as well as participate in the activities, including snorkelling. At the end of the day there are a series of lectures from the CCC staff about coral reef conservation and a lecture by a guest speaker, such as a local marine warden who can speak about his role in conservation of marine resources. Finally, before departure, the group was presented with their completed "Underwater Seascape" collage to take back to school.
Project Bay Islands, Honduras
Reef Education Days at Local Schools
In order to promote environmental awareness, especially about coral reefs, school days are organised, in which lectures about corals, their needs and threats are explained to local children. Lectures range in complexity, depending on the age of the class. In Santa Elena, classes aged 7- 8, and 12-15 years of age are primarily targeted. The lectures explain what the problems affecting reefs are and offer possible solutions. The concepts of reef ecology and conservation are addressed and children are then introduced to the reef by snorkelling and being shown hard and soft corals, and what healthy versus unhealthy or dead coral looks like. The children then explain what they had seen and what they have learnt. With smaller children, games are played e.g. 'the coral reef race for survival' which show how hard it is for new larvae to settle and form colonies.
Aims:
- To stimulate interest for coral reefs
- To show children what corals are and where and how they live
- To raise awareness of threats affecting coral reefs
- To provide educational materials (posters) about coral reefs
- To emphasize the need for conservation and protection of reefs
Dive Training with local fishermen
The work carried out with the fishing community is two-fold: primarily, safe-diving practises are discussed and advice is offered on how to dive to certain standards that make diving safer.
Aims:
- To reduce risk of local divers suffering from DCS
- To explain basic physiological effects of diving
- To emphasise the importance of depths and time spent underwater
- To provide knowledge of gasses behaviour under pressure and their effects
- To discuss what the 'bends' (DCS) is, and how a recompression chamber works
- To encourage safer diving using CCC profiles as an example
And secondly, Conservation work to educate the local divers about various aspects of reef conservation. This involves a sequence of lectures over a four-day period.
Lecture #1 deals with coastal and marine habitats, the idea of a community and how the mangroves, sea-grass beds and reef have to be in balance and all play important roles in the eco-system.
Lecture#2 deals with coral biology, what corals are, what requirements they have and why their distribution is restricted.
Lecture #3 is entitled "threats to the Reef" and includes natural and anthropogenic impacts affecting the worlds' reefs.
The final lecture is about fisheries management, the economics behind management and sustainability, the importance of MPA's and eco-tourism in the future.
Upon completion of the lectures, each fisherman is provided with a certificate of achievement; outlining the nature of the workshop they take part in and are encouraged to talk and think about these issues within the community.
Aims:
- To stimulate discussion and provide possible solutions for the future
- To provide additional knowledge and training on coral reefs
- To stimulate pride and awareness for the reef within the community
- To provide the building block for future involvement in conservation work
- To encourage support of CCCs work and explain benefits to community
Teacher Training Workshops
Two teacher training workshops were carried out during July 2004. These involved CCC and PMAIB representatives travelling to all of the Bay Islands, to present a series of lectures and practical work to schoolteachers so that 'reef education' could be included in the curriculum of the Bay Islands schools.
Aims:
- To provide concise information about various aspects affecting coral reefs
- To emphasize the need for conservation and the importance of future generations efforts
- To teach practical aspects of coral biology and ecology by snorkelling in small groups to explain concepts more thoroughly
- To stimulate discussion and pride about coral reef conservation
