Caribbean Reef Restoration Project wins Comprometidos Challenge for Youth

The Engaged Initiative (´Comprometidos´), a collaboration led by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, with Socialab, Ashoka, and National Geographic called for youth across Latin America and the Caribbean to participate in the Comprometidos - Engaged for the Oceans and the Environment Challenge to combat the effects of climate change on the oceans. Project Renaissance is a group of young marine science students from Trinidad and Tobago who are among the three youth-led organizations that won US$2,000 to develop their innovative solutions for reef restoration.

You have won the Engaged for the Oceans and the Environment Challenge with “Project Renaissance”. How is your project contributing to the challenge for healthier oceans?  

Project Renaissance is an educational project based in Trinidad and Tobago. Our work focuses on empowering youth, particularly through environmental and ocean science education in low-income communities around our coastal environment. We aim at educating around reef degradation, enhancing public knowledge of reef functions and sustainable practices, especially in the fields of tourism and fisheries. Unfortunately, many people on our islands do not recognize the importance of reef functions to our environment. Also, there is a lack of education for sustainable development in the school curricula of our country, where we see an urgent need for updating, especially in light of the climate crisis. They are often unaware of how the economy and their own actions affect the environment and our reefs, and how they themselves could help protect the reef. Youth who grew up in low-income communities, often do not have access to resources, especially to quality education.

This is why we have made it the mission of Project Renaissance to develop educational material for these communities about the importance of reefs. Our goal is to empower other young people to use this knowledge in their actions with and for the protection of the reef. We want to teach them in a fun way.

What was your motivation for joining the Comprometidos – Engaged with the Oceans and the Environment Challenge and what did you learn by participating?

We are all students of marine science and passionate about the ocean, conservation and protection, and we want to share our knowledge with others. The support we received from the Comprometidos team, the good communication and the way the challenge was organized motivated us to keep moving and we are proud to have made it to the top three out of more than 200 projects from across Latin America and the Caribbean. During the process, we gained a lot of communication skills, and we learned about budgeting and project management and planning in general - so many things that were new for us in regard to planning a project, but we received steady support and we are grateful for this opportunity.

What role can young people play in climate change prevention and adaptation in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States?

To protect coral reefs, it is crucial to know that climate change affects everything including ocean temperatures or the sea level.

Whether we are talking about climate change or any other social or environmental challenge, youth-led action is crucial.  We young people are the next generation, the future leaders, we are the ones who observe, take notes, learn from the mistakes of the current leaders. We are growing up in a world with new insights into sciences, discoveries and technological innovation. We also realize the importance of preserving the natural environment in its relationship to people's standard of living and quality of life. We are learning the importance of activism and the scale it can reach, especially through social media alongside other technologies. Climate activism, for example, can start in one local community and social media multiplies its reach like wildfire.

The fact that we are young does not mean that our experience is not enough to analyze the situation and present practical solutions. We have seen what did not work from the generation before us and we are presenting solutions that can work. The importance of youth-led activism and presenting solutions is how you eventually bring about change.

We youth are creative, we are energetic, we are courageous, we are innovative, and we are definitely motivated. We are hopeful about the future and this really spurs us to want to make a difference.

How can young people participate in policy-making or decisions that are linked to environmental protection?

Government action is often not what we young people need. It is what they thought we needed, but without involving us or asking us or conducting focus groups.  We can no longer use these methods that have not worked in the past. This is where youth participation is key! Its importance for us and future generations needs to be recognized.

Youth involvement in environmental protection has a huge impact, and especially these days we have younger and younger activists and scientists making changes so significant that the older generation is forced to realize that we have new ideas. We see that these people who are only 15-16 years old are already making global changes that have far more impact than a politician. From this example, we can see how important it is to involve, listen to or engage young people in policy-making.

Can you share practical ideas or recommendations that young people in the Caribbean can follow to better protect the oceans, especially in the Caribbean?

Here in Trinidad and Tobago, many youth-led activities have developed in recent years, such as beach clean-ups organized by youth with youth to clean up the beaches or the countryside, taking garbage bags and picking up the trash they find.

What needs to be done to create more environmental awareness among youth?

We do not learn in school that we are a Small Island Developing State and what the consequences of climate change are for us. Our education systems need to be reoriented to respond to the important challenges of today, for example, by including environmental science or education for sustainable development in the curricula. We do not learn in school that we are a Small Island Developing States and what the consequences of climate change are for us.

That is something we want to change with the Project Renaissance. If you teach environmental awareness to a group of young people, they will tell their friends, and they, in turn, will tell their friends, and that's how it will spread like wildfire, that's how you can build and grow.

The media and communication also have a great impact on us. Conversations on street corners, for example, are part of our local culture. There we discuss what we have seen in traditional media and social media, which amplifies the reach of the information. When there is a severe natural hazard, the media reports such situations because they attract attention, but most other things go unreported. It is necessary to emphasize the urgency of the climate crisis. That is why it is important to initiate the discussion.

 

The ideas and opinions expressed in this interview are not necessarily those of UNESCO; the article is based on an interview with members of the Project Renaissance team:  Marie-Elise Maingot, Aqilah Ali, Maya Ribeiro, Alexander Barkley, Anilinda Anamalay.

About the Engaged Initiative

The Engaged Initiative (‘Comprometidos’) is organized by Ashoka, Socialab and UNESCO since 2015. It convenes young changemakers from Latin America and the Caribbean who lead innovative initiatives that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. Over 10,000 youth have participated with over 3,800 proposals throughout its six editions. 2021 was the seventh consecutive year that Engaged was carried out. It was the first year that the initiative was extended to countries from Caribbean Small Island Developing States.

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