Newsletter

Marvellous Mangroves – 10 years in Brazil

Share this post:

May
2017

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.

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).

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.

(Left
photo) The first MM Brazil workshop held in Cariacica in 2006.
MAP’s education director Martin Keeley top far right. (Right photo)
Students at Atividade a Rede da Vida with the Birds and Beaks
activity.

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:

*
Cariacica:
Following the teachers’ initial 2-year program, the municipality
supported the production of an animated movie involving the schools
which had the Marvellous Mangroves experience.

*Maragojipe
(BA):
Dozens of schools have held demonstrations to draw public attention
to the conservation of mangrove ecosystems.

*Cananéia
(SP):
The experience with MM has led schools to produce and edit a poetry
book on the theme of mangroves.

*Tamandaré
(PE):
Following classroom activities, the Costa dos Corais protected area
has been used as an outdoor laboratory with data collected provided
to São Paulo University.

*Porto
de Pedras (AL):
Following classroom activities, additional field trips were also
taken to take part in sea-cow releases in conjunction with the
Centro de Mamíferos Aquáticos, Instituto Chico Mendes (CMA/ICMBio)
– the federal agency for the protection of biodiversity.

*São
Miguel (AL):
Classroom activities focussed on mangrove ecosystems plus littering.
The teachers used social media to promote their work, calling the
community’s attention to this issue. The same teachers organized
beach clean-ups in the municipality’s mangroves, as well as taking
part in sea-cow releases, accompanied by an IBB monitor.

*São
José da Coroa Grande (PE):
The MM was introduced by the municipal education authority to all
schools where it continues to be taught.

All
teachers who have participated in MM are part of a closed group on
Facebook – Os
Maravilhosos Manguezais do Brasil
– where they exchange experiences in different municipalities.

Marvellous
Mangroves
has enabled IBB to become recognised by the Ministry of Environment
as an institution dedicated to the conservation of mangroves and the
implementation of extensive educational initiatives involving marine
protected areas. Many university students actively support IBB
initiatives as a practical part of their studies.

MM
has made a long-lasting impact on regional and municipal authorties,
says Clemente. For example, the Mayor of Victoria, in his
re-election campaign, paid for MM workshops in every school.
The the municipalities of Cariacica and Fundão consistently provide
ongoing private and public support with teacher participation in the
managment of marine protected areas. In another municipality,
teachers participate on the management board of the Costa dos Corais
protected área in Pernambuco province, as well as organising
protection and awareness activities, community-based recycling
projects, and continually promoting debates in the social media.

All-in-all
MM is here to stay in Brazil’s schools.

(Left)
Teachers field
trip: Interview with the fishermen of the Várzea do Una community
gathering information about which type of fish is most hunted by
local fishermen. (Right) teachers from conducting the oil spill
activity from MM during a workshop in Vitoria, Espirito Santo
Province.

Year
5 from Edna Moyle Elementary school, Grand Cayman, pilot the new
Marvellous Mangroves interactive website. Bird spotting in the
Central Mangroves (left); Teacher Janice Brown monitors computer
access to the new site, while another student inputs to the site on
the smart board her field trip experiences.

Launch
of Marvellous Mangroves International Educational Website

Teachers
and students all over the mangrove world are connecting thanks to a
new interactive website launched by the Mangrove Action Project
(MAP). Marvellousmangroves.org
has been several years in the making, says MAP Education Director
Martin Keeley, “And we have just spent the last couple of weeks
working with Year 5 students at Edna Moyle Primary School,
Northside, Grand Cayman, to iron out the bugs and make sure the site
is up and running.”

The
site is an extension of the Marvellous
Mangroves
education program which was first introduced into Cayman’s schools
in 2001 and has, since then, been taught to every Year 5 at every
school class where it is part of the science/social studies
curriculum. It is currently being taught by Catherine Childs,
Education Director of the Cayman Islands National Trust, and is
sponsored by Caribbean Utilities. Since its introduction it has
been translated and adapted for use in 13 countries worldwide.

“The
primary purpose behind marvellousmangroves.org
is to allow teachers and students around the world to explore the
wonderful world of mangroves in their own country in their own
language,” Keeley, who is also UCCI Cayman Brac Campus Director
and founder of the Mangroves & Reefs Education Project,
explains. “The site was designed under the supervision of MAP’s
IT whiz, Leo Thom, and follows the same five section structure as
the Marvellous
Mangroves teachers
guide.”

“Teachers
and students will not only be able to explore mangrove ecology in
their own countries – where the site allows teachers to pose
questions and students to answer them and record their own findings
– it will enable them to find out what their counterparts in other
countries are doing and seeing.”

“This
Marvellous Mangroves Program is so worth while!” exclaims Ms.
Janice Brown, Year 5 teacher at Edna Moyle Primary, whose class
enabled the pilot to be undertaken. “It not only teaches students
about the values and vital need to protect the mangroves but
involves the students learning in an interactive way through the
website and through fascinating, outdoor field trips. Education at
its best!”

The
students were first introduced to the world on mangroves through
classroom activities by the Trust’s Catherine Childs

From
the field trip to the new website. Students taste testing salt on a
black mangrove leaf (left) and checking up on an upside down
jellyfish (right) while MAP education director Martin Keeley
supervises inputting data on the new MM website.

GO
ONLINE AND REGISTER NOW!! www.marvellousmangroves.org

Left:
Cayman Islands National Trust’s Education Director Catherine
Childs working with Year 5 Edna Moyle Primary School in Grand Cayman
with the mangrove species activity. Right: The “Explore” page on
the new MM website created by MAP’s IT specialist, Leo Thom.

who
also posed several skill testing questions on the new site.
Classroom activities were followed by a field trip to the Central

Mangroves
run by Sea Elements and a final classroom follow-up when students
wrote and drew their impressions and entered them on the classroom’s
smart board.

“Recording
on the website took a little getting used to,” says Ms. Brown,
“But once they did, the students were able to transfer their
findings from their notebooks to the site. The Marvellous Mangroves
programme – whether it’s the actual hands-on exploration or the
new website recording – facilitates the use of different learning
skills in a way that is very valuable,” she adds.

Using
the marvellousmangrove.org site is simple. Students and teachers
need to register on-line. Once they have done this and approved by
the site moderator, they can then input their observations and
findings – not to mention photographs and data of all kinds. These
must also be approved by the moderator – another environmental
educator, Ms. Marnie Laing, who will then post the information on
the site. Ms. Laing was a previous National Trust Education Director
who taught the program for several years before Ms. Childs took
over, so she is very familiar with the world of mangroves.

“We
live in a world where the internet and social media are dominating
factors,” says Mr. Keeley. “But what we tend to forget is that
many students and teachers in other mangrove countries don’t even
have science labs – often not even reliable electricity.
Marvellous
Mangroves
bridges that gap by providing hands-on science activities. We also
give many schools studying mangroves light source microscopes and
magnifying lenses to help them set up Mangrove Cubs. These, in turn,
provide the core for science labs to be established.

“The
mangrovellousmangroves.org website will also help to bridge that gap
so students can explore and report data using the schools’
computer labs (if they have one) and teachers’ cell phones.”