The Mangrove Action Project’s science-based environmental education program, Marvellous Mangroves, has just been introduced to Mexico for the first time with partner RestauracionConservacion Ambiental (RECAMB) providing mangove education for small and vulnerable communities on the country’s west coast. This makes Mexico the sixteenth country to adopt the program since it was started in 2001 in the Cayman Islands.
“We are working to open eyes, hearts and minds of children and teens to a second look at mangroves near the local community and witness the Topolobampo port industrialisation,” explains RECAMB’s excutive director Maraiana Lazcano-Ferrat.
Working in conjunction with MAP’s education director, Martin Keeley, RECAMB adapted the Spanish version of Marvellous Mangroves for use in the program, which was funded by Bonanatti, a specialty port construction company.
Taking part in the week long the environmental education workshop were a total of 108 teens and children aged from 6 to 19 years old who live in Topolobampo Port. The port is located within the Ramsar site Sistema Lagunar Bahia Santa Maria-Topolobampo-Ohuira, reports Ms. Lazcano-Ferrat.
“This beautiful area is the ninth of 28 of Mexico’s most productive wetlands,” says Ms. Lazcano-Ferrat. The area includes 22,500 hectares of the mangrove ecosystem and, together with its coastal surroundings, is a target area for heavy industrialisation to provide the Mexican state of Sinaloa with fossil fuel produced energy, primary agricultural fertilisation products and shipping cargo services, she reports.
Ms. Lazcano-Ferrat explains that the Topolobampo community comprises mainly fishing families with complex social dynamics. “Incredible as it seems, the Ramsar site has no management plan yet published by the Mexican Ministry of Natural Resources (SEMARNAT),” she says. “So working with children and young adults to open their eyes, minds and hearts to the ecological importance of the environment will ensure that they recognise the true value of their surroundings.
“It is vital that they are able to recognise their future options on how the community must be managed,” she adds, “and question potential industialisation in the near future, setting limits to the development of the huge industry they will now have as neighbours.”
MAP’s education director, Martin Keeley, says he’s delighted that the community has been exposed to Marvellous Mangroves through its hands-on science-based activities and field explorations, especially in this time of Covid. “The constant threats to mangroves worldwide from indusrialisation of this kind, as well as commercial and tourist-based development, needs to be seriously addressed to stop the destruction of these essential ecosystems. It’s great that Ms. Lazcano-Ferrat has been able to introduce Marvellous Mangroves to the Topolobampo community, even with their very limited resources,” he adds.
Mr. Keeley stresses the need for additional funding to ensure that the project is continued well into the future and expands regionally.
“The new generation needs to have science-based education programs like Marvellous Mangroves which expose them to the value of the local ecosystems that they rely on for their health and well-being,” Ms. Lazcano-Ferrat says. “Teenagers are eager to work for the industry that is arriving at the port and see the development of the coast with their eyes on a a better future with many opportunities. RECAMB wants to invite them to open their minds and hearts to instantly recognise their natural environment and its ecological value. This way they can participate in its conservation in the face of near unstoppable industrialisation which is coming to the port.”