Marvellous Mangroves Students from the Escola Varzea Do Una from San Jose Da Coroa Grande, Pernambuco Provice, Brasil, and their marvellous mangroves poster. Mural and photo by Prof. Flaviane Paes.
TEN YEARS IN BRAZIL It has been over ten years since work started to translate and adapt Marvellous Mangroves for use in Brazilian schools by MAP’s partners, Instituto BiomaBrasil (IBB). In April, 2006, the process began when IBB’s Clemente Coelho Jnr. and Renato Almeida observed and participated in a MM workshop held in Tilapa on the Northwest coast of Guatemala. Organised in conjunction with the local NGO Amigos Del Bosque and CORALINA - based in San Andres, Colombia, Tilapa was the launch for teachers of the Guatemala (Spanish) version of MM. It was only six months later that MAP Education Director Martin Keeley and Elaine Corets (then South American co-ordinator for MAP) rejoined Clemente and Renato together with several teachers and scientists in Cariacica, southeast Brazil, and started work on adapting and translating MM into Portuguese for use in Brazilian schools. Two years later in summer 2008 the first training in the use of the MM took place and involved 55 teachers from the city of Cariacica, in the Espirito Santo State school system. The workshop was a part of a planned activity between the Projeto Povos e Mangues (Peoples and Mangroves Project) of the Municipal Secretary of Education (SEME) and the Secretary of Environment (SEMMAM). It was run by staff from the Instituto BiomaBrasil – Management and Conservation of Coastal Tropical Wetlands (IBB).
May 2017
This workshop was shortly followed by a multi-state national workshop in Brasilia. Since that time the numbers of schools, teachers and students who have been exposed to MM in Brazil is impressive. Clemente reports that well over 100 schools, 400 plus teachers and more than 12,000 students in five states have learned the wonders of mangroves through the MM program. Clemente stresses that MM provides the resources needed to take an in-depth look at mangrove ecosystems. “Both students and teachers are amazed by the ecosystem’s beauty and the importance,” he says. “The increasing respect and passion that they develop towards mangroves is noticeable.” MM, he adds, has proven to be an invaluable tool for supporting teaching methods as a whole, especially in the context of deficient teacher training (25% of all Brazilian teachers have no access to further education). Clemente adds that both the experiments and field activities found in MM are extremely powerful and open the minds of both students and teachers. “The program does, without doubt, change students’ atitudes towards mangrove ecosystems,” he says. The MM training has led to individuals and communities making concentrated efforts to protect and preserve mangroves where they live and Clemente cites some specific examples: