Coastal enviro booklet launch

THE Namibia Coast Conservation and Management (Nacoma) Project will celebrate World Environment Day this coming Friday with the launch of a resource booklet aimed at upper-primary school students and teachers.

This year the theme of UN World Environment Day is ‘Your Planet Needs You – Unite to Combat Climate Change’. Climate change is just one of the issues addressed in the booklet, ‘Coastodians – Caring for our coast, Caring for our future’. This coastal awareness booklet celebrates the wonders and importance of Namibia’s coast and, the industry and the life it supports, plus fascinating facts and a variety of activities to challenge students at school. ‘From helping learners understand their physical place in the environment to understanding how we are all connected to the land, the animals and each other through biodiversity, the topics in this book range from biology to conservation, from English to the arts,’ said Gys Reitz, Nacoma’s spokesperson.Nacoma will introduce the booklet to public schools in Henties Bay, Lüderitz, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. It is hoped that the teachers will take over the project to insure its long-term sustainability and that it will have the capacity to reach others, including adults.Conservation and understanding go hand in hand, and given Nacoma’s goal of strengthening, conserving and promoting the sustainable use of the coastal and marine eco-systems in Namibia, it is important that Nacoma reaches out to the next generation of conservationists, starting with today’s learners, the Reitz said. ‘If this generation of learners can be inspired to protect the environment, every day will indeed be World Environment Day,’ said Reitz.The Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the United Nations Global Environment Fund funded the booklet project.