1. Project background

1.1 NEED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN CAMEROON

In the context of Africa, and indeed of the world, Cameroon is an important country in the global fight for a sustainable future. Cameroon has rich natural resources, including plentiful tropical forest and water reserves, the third highest hydro-electricity potential in Africa, very fertile volcanic soil, significant oil, aluminium and other mineral resources, and a wealth of beautiful eco-tourism potential. It is ranked fifth in Africa for greatest diversity of species, including a national park with the highest biodiversity in Africa, and has 178 species of flora and fauna that are endemic only to Cameroon. It also has significant populations of 18 endangered species, including several of human’s closest cousins, and 5 critically endangered species. (UNEP)

Cameroon’s economy is growing quickly and there is growth in international investment and development projects. But history has shown that development that is not properly managed is often unsustainable and does not provide for a long term, stable protection a country’s social, economic and environmental interests. Already there are some projects being initiated in Cameroon that may be devastating for people’s livelihoods and destructive of very important biodiversity hubs, without even having a fair economic benefit for the country. We believe this comes largely from ignorance on the true value of natural resources or short-term thinking.

1.2 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Green Cameroon’s focus lies in environmental protection, conservation and community development. This is achieved through sensitization, education and capacity building projects. At Green Cameroon, we strongly believe that citizens possessing the right information and the right tools can be important actors of change. That is why an important part of our projects are education and sensitization campaigns and programs. Today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders, and we want them to be able to live in a healthy and stable environment- it is their right and it is critical to ensuring a sustainable future for Cameroon. One of the focus activities of Green Cameroon in that field area is the environmental clubs, and we aim to make the club sessions fun and stimulating.

1.3 ENVIRONMENTAL CLUBS

Green Cameroon has a strong environmental and educational background and is currently running environmental clubs in several different schools in Buea. Starting an environmental club is a great way to get youth energized to take care of the Earth and help their communities, while learning about some of the most important issues facing the world in the 21st century.

• An environmental club is formed by a group of children gathering to learn more about the environment in general, environmental issues and local environmental challenges.

• Environmental clubs are part of the official extra curriculum activities for primary and secondary schools recognized by the Cameroonian ministry of education.

• They should meet on a regular basis, preferably weekly, to keep children engaged and active. They are lead by a school teacher or any other adult representative of the school with an educational or professional background, preferably in environment, sciences, geography or biology.

1.4 HUMAN RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT

Looking at environment from a human right perspective, we can say that there are two basic conceptions of environmental human rights in the current human rights system:

1. The right to a healthy or adequate environment is itself a human right; as seen in both Article 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and Article 11 of the San Salvador Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights.

2. The idea that maintenance of a healthy environment is critical to provide for other human rights, such as the right to life, the right to health, the right to private family life and the right to property (among many others).

1.5 CHALLENGES FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF EFFECTIVE ENVIRONMENTAL CLUBS

Although environmental clubs already exist in many schools, Green Cameroon has noted that there are some challenges in establishing new environmental clubs and running the existing ones. One such challenge is the fact that here in Cameroon, the schools extra-curricular/club activities are scheduled on a Wednesday afternoon at the majority of schools. This limits the possibilities to allocate an external environmental education specialist, or a Green Cameroon volunteer, to coordinate club sessions.

Thus, as mentioned above, a dedicated coordinator in the school itself is critical. However, not all schools have a suitably qualified and knowledgeable teacher available to guide environmental club sessions. Apart from this, the material on environmental issues spans many traditional fields of learning from biology to physics and engineering, to climatology, such that few people master all of these subject matters without needing to do a lot of research and preparation. A final issue is that it is has been proven that people learn and remember material much better when it is taught interactively, or experienced in an activity. Thus, as it is, it requires quite a lot of time and creativity for an environmental club coordinator to come up with interesting weekly sessions and provide the students with a broad education on environmental issues.

Hence, even those environmental clubs running successfully tend to limit the theory taught and concentrate on activities such as gardening, composting or coming up with creative presentations. While this is very worthwhile, we believe the program could be optimized if coordinators were able to educate and involve the students on a broader range of environmental topics.

2. Description and objectives

The success of the environmental clubs is at the heart of Green Cameroon and its objectives to educate the future leaders of Cameroon to appreciate the value of Cameroon’s rich natural resources, and the need to protect them. For this reason, Green Cameroon has devised the Green Schools Curriculum Development project to address the abovementioned challenges and allow consolidation and expansion of the existing Green School portfolio.

2.1 PROJECT DESCRIPTION

With this project, Green Cameroon wishes to make starting and running an environmental club as accessible as possible, while providing coordinators the information and ideas to make the club dynamic and appealing. We envision doing this through provision of a complete curriculum guide, covering at least a year of topics and activities to fill environmental club sessions. There will be guidelines and training offered in how best to use the guide. The guide will cover general environmental topics such as climate change and environmental rights, as well as relevant topics under the topics forest management, water management, waste management and agriculture. It is envisioned that all the necessary materials, including workbooks for students and materials for the activities, will be provided with the guide. And the coordinators will be linked with each other, as well as with key NGOs and government/business partners who can provide specialist presentations, assist with field trips, or generally exchange knowledge.

The guides will be designed to maximize student participation and learning potential, while imparting knowledge and passion on environmental issues that will hopefully make the students the agents of change.

2.2 MISSION AND OBJECTIVES

As stated before, the Green Schools Curriculum Development project is an advancement of a long-running project for Green Cameroon – the Environmental Clubs project. It is thus entirely in line with the long term vision and mission of the organization, and supports the existing goals and objectives. IN addition this projects has the following specific objectives:

• Bring added value and stimulus to existing environmental clubs by providing a broader input to their club curriculum and by linking these clubs and their coordinators to other school clubs;

• Provide coordinators with the knowledge, training and confidence to lead the environmental clubs in a dynamic and enthusiastic way, thereby increasing appeal and commitment of students;

• Support new schools in a more concrete way, through provision of all the materials they need to successfully run their clubs;

• Encourage innovation, interest and debate on environmental issues in a local and global context, and the belief in the students that they can make a change or a difference;

• Offer the students the opportunity to experience the beauty and value of nature in regular activities that bring them outside and stimulate their senses and imagination.