YOUTH EDUCATION
YOUTH EDUCATION
Overview
Marine Conservation Philippines (MCP) recognizes the pivotal role that youth play in shaping the future of environmental stewardship. We believe that engaging young minds in marine conservation not only fosters a deeper understanding of ecological systems but also help cultivate a generation committed to sustainable practices. To this end, MCP has developed and continues to enhance a suite of youth education initiatives tailored to inspire and educate local youth.
Sea Camp
Building on the success of our ongoing programs, MCP introduced SeaCamp in 2019. It was, and is, an immersive three-day experience designed to deepen youths’ connection to marine environments. Launched after meticulous planning, the inaugural camps welcomed local youths eager to expand their knowledge of marine conservation. Participants engaged in a blend of educational sessions and practical activities, fostering both awareness and actionable skills. The success of these initial camps has paved the way for future iterations, with plans to expand and diversify the program to reach a broader audience. The SeaCamps are typically run in the school holidays, and each camp has had a fairly narrow age bracket of participants.
Mangrove Education
During the COVID19 lock-down period all community engagement, including that of our very succesful youth education program was suspended. Our advocacy in ocean literacy for local youth hibernated until late 2022 where we decided to hire a full time teacher to revive efforts and deliver engaging lessons in environmental education in local schools through a partnership with our partner NGO Pro Ocean.
The lessons we taught initially had with a strong emphasis on mangrove ecology, but is now more broad and involves other critical environmental topics. (Some of our lesson plan for teachers can be freely downloaded on our resources page.) By partnering with the Department of Education, and integrating these lessons into the curriculum, our program empowers young learners with a deeper understanding of their surrounding ecosystems and the importance of sustainable practices in preserving them.
By equipping young minds with the tools to understand and address ecological issues, we aim to build a generation of informed and proactive individuals dedicated to safeguarding the natural resources that sustain livelihoods in our coastal communities.
Origins and past efforts
The youth education programme at MCP has its roots in what we called ” Environmental Club,” whic h was an activity day once a month for students from the Science High School of Zamboanguita. The program ran for two consecutive years. Each month a different topic was chosen by the students and our volunteers helped plan and organize field trips, deliver presentations and created fun educational workshops about the chosen topic. These ranged from coastal ecosystems, (coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass) to environmental threats like plastic pollution and climate change. We looked into the deep oceans and explored tidal pools, we cleaned up beaches, educate about better waste management and how we could all reuse, recycle and reuse in our daily routines.
The aim of this club was to create passion and awareness for our aquatic environment for the students, to help understand the importance of why we need to protect such fragile ecosystems and to give them an opportunity to actually jump in and experience first hand, how we can all help make a difference.
Due to a policy shift within the Department of Education, field trips away from school became increasingly difficult, and eventually impossible to arrange. This was a great loss, and the combination of this paired with a careful analysis of the time spent by volunteers on the program, resulted in the organisation concluding we could reach many more students by hiring a full time local teacher, as well as focus the efforts of our volunteers in scientific conservation diving.