An Overview Of Our Solution
The Junior Coastal Monitoring Project (MMC) is run in the municipality of Garopaba, southern coast of Santa Catarina State in Brazil, since 2012. The MMC is a pioneer Social-environmental education project that has as objective the transformation of children into Guardians of the Ocean. Its mission is to contribute to the formation of responsible, ciritical, proactive and more aware citizens, turning them into community agents of transformation. The pilot project was initially implemented in Garopaba, and after 6 years MMC has started to expand to other municipalities along the brazilian coast. The aim is to develop a Junior Guardian of the Ocean network, disseminating knowledge about the coastal-marine environment and promoting awareness about the necessity of changes of habit that today contribute to the main impact that threaten our environment.
- Population Impacted: 4.000 people
- Continent: South America
Last name
Organization type
Context Analysis
The natural and cultural richness of the brazilian coast is the country’s main touristic attraction, contributing to this highly populated region’s socio-economic development. The effects of global warming contribute to a significant loss of this richness. This consequently impacts tourism and fisheries sectors, as well as the local population and its cultural heritage. Despite Brazil’s 8,500km of coastline, education about the marine environment is virtually non-existent in the school curriculum.
The MMC brings children closer the climate transformation scenario, and brings them therefore, closer to the coastal/marine environment. The main objective is to transform the children in Guardians of the Oceans, offering significant learning experiences that connect them to the environment they live in. It contributes to their formation as responsible, proactive and aware citizens, and seeks to recuperate sensory play, motivation and reflection in the learning process.
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
The natural and cultural richness of the brazilian coast is the country’s main touristic attraction, contributing to this highly populated region’s socio-economic development. The effects of global warming contribute to a significant loss of this richness. This consequently impacts tourism and fisheries sectors, as well as the local population and its cultural heritage. Despite Brazil’s 8,500km of coastline, education about the marine environment is virtually non-existent in the school curriculum.
The MMC brings children closer the climate transformation scenario, and brings them therefore, closer to the coastal/marine environment. The main objective is to transform the children in Guardians of the Oceans, offering significant learning experiences that connect them to the environment they live in. It contributes to their formation as responsible, proactive and aware citizens, and seeks to recuperate sensory play, motivation and reflection in the learning process.
Type of intervention
Describe your behavioral intervention
The children’s instrumentalization with research tools provokes their sense of curiosity, exploration and stimulates their knowledge. In the research workshops the children collect, identify and classify solid waste found on the beach. They learn about the sources and origin of waste, its distribution in the ocean, prolonged durability and severe impact to the marine biodiversity. This exercise promotes reflection about their consumption habits, especially related to use of plastics and single use items, as well as how this waste is disposed of.
The use of methods such the use of poles to mark sea level variation, observation of meteorological conditions (sea and air temperature, direction of winds), grain size, identification of anthropic action and analysis of sea and lagoon water quality, motivate and learning and promote involvement. Emotions suchs as the ones triggered in these exercises increase the potential for action of an individual to transform their reality. Changing habits and developing new way of relating to their environment.
The project hence, involves the children with current socio-environmental problems related to the oceans, fomenting practical learning experiences in the coastal environment. Children become researchers and junior coastal monitors where they live, learning about the characteristics of this environment, about the local culture and the socioeconomic activities of their community. They become agents of community transformation.
As needed, please explain the type of intervention in more detail
Our methodology foments learning through participation in action research (THIOLLENT, 2000), through experimentation/learning-doing within the local socioenvironmental context. The MMC methodology is pedagogically based on the praxis principles (Experiential learning – PIAGET, 1950; KOLB, 1984), in the man-environment relationship frame (Ecoformation –MORIN; 2011), in dialogue and critical reflection (Transformative learning – MEZIROW; 1978; TAYLOR, 2008; FREIRE, 2011), in the exchange of experiences and information (Social learning – REED et al, 2010), as well as the promotion of proactive action in children, according to the co-constructed perceptions throughout the project activities.
Describe your implementation
The project works with the municipal public school network of Garopaba (SC), which consists of 12 schools. We run 7 educational workshops throughout the school year, involving approximately 370 children form the 4th and 5th grade, ages 9 to 11. The workshops include research fieldtrips at the beaches and activities at the schools. Each school monitors and cares for their local beach. During the activities, we works on themes such as the importance of the oceans, occupation of costal zones, marine pollution, overfishing and global warming. At the beaches besides collecting and analyzing waste, we promote the observation and critical reflection of the government’s beach management systems. We analyze along with the children, the presence of structures that contribute to the adequate use of the beaches, with the intention of mitigating the impacts of tourism and coastal occupation, such as waste bins, public toilets, parking, appropriate beach accesses, dune fencing, etc.
Since its implementation in 2012, the project has been accepted and incorporated by the schools in their yearly curriculum. The results registered in the field spread sheets are worked by the school teachers, with the children, in the different disciplines, such as geography, sciences, maths, language and arts.
The project was certified as Social Technology by the Bank of Brasil in 2017 and recognized as an example of Innovation and Creativity in Primary Education by the Ministry of Education in 2016. Our teaching methodology is pioneer in the world and is engaged promoting quality in the education process adding transdisciplinary activities that complement the content of the school curriculum with innovating practices that promote citizenship and awareness in the children. On top of that we are a Voluntary Committee instituted at the UN Oceans Conference in 2017 and we disseminate the Sustainable development goals related to ocean protection and inclusive education (ODS 14 and 4) in our work.
External connections
Throughout these 6 years of work we have constructed a network of regional collaborators that include the University of Itajaí Valley (UNIVALI), University of the South of Santa Catarina (UNISUL), the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina (IFSC) and well as NGOs such as the Gaia Foundation, Friends of the Environment Community Association (AMA), Ecosurf Institute, We are from the Ocean Project, Live Ferrugem, Historic Centre of Garopaba Association, Catarina Coast Territorial Development Association, Evoluos Foundation, Thrid Island Scouts, Citizen Year Global Exchange, Rural Research and Extension Company of Santa Catarina (EPAGRI), Municipal Government of Garopaba, as well we 20 local companies that financially sponsor the project. Besides these partnerships the project articulates itself nationally via the Brazilian Network of Marine Waste Prevetion, The Environmental Coastal-Marine Education Network and Sea Ombudsman. As well as at the international level as a member of the volunteer committee instituted in the UN Oceans Conference in 2017, serving as an example of a child educational option for the resolution of marine pollution problematic.
Who adopted the desired behaviors and to what degree?
All the children that participate in the project feel that they become researchers and beach monitors of their region. The behavior is evidenced not only by their motivation and active participation, but by the testimony of the teachers and parents of the students. Reinforcing that their children arrive home after the activities explaining what they learned, and telling their parents about the state of the oceans. Many children reinforce and request that their parents change household habits in relation to use of plastic, waste management, and recycling. Many schools become locations for recyclable waste collection and separation for their communities becoming a single point of collection for the recycling companies.
The project also managed to involve the schools in International Coastal Cleanup days that have happened every September since 2012, organized by the MMC in every 7 beaches of Garopaba. This event includes the families of the students and the local community.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
The MMC project works with the development of the children’s awareness so that they may develop a perception of how their decisions and consumption habits directly and indirectly affect the environment. The awakening to conscientious consumption is visible in the behavior of the students that pass through the project, as well as in the implementation of good practices in the participating schools, such as: separation and recycling of waste; use of recycled goods in the fabrication of educational material; composting; school garden; rain water collection; growing of native plant seedlings; amongst others. All of these actions are disseminated to the community at the end of each year at the José Lutzemberger event that has happened for the last 15 years in Garopaba, showcasing and raising awareness to the residents and tourists of the area.
What were some of the resulting co-benefits?
One thousand and five hundred junior monitors have graduated from the MMC project, and over 300 school staff have been involved as well. We ran 114 field trips to monitor the beaches, 197 theoretical-participatory classes, as well as the installation of 22 informative boards at the main beach accesses at the 7 beaches monitored. Through these boards many tourists come to know our project and visit our physical space, located in the historic city center. Our space is currently maintained as a reference educational space and Mini Sea Museum, with innumerous specimens of our local biodiversity.
Besides the schools and government, the community recognizes and values the work done by the MMC in favor of the conservation and care of the environment. Due to the success of our results obtained, the project is continuously invited to advertise its initiatives in tourism, education and environmental events in the region as an example of practical transformative education.
Sustainability
The project has various funding sources sustaining its educational activities, which are offered free to the children. The funding sources are:
- Sponsorship from a network of 20 regional company that support us through monthly financial and/or service contributions (graphic design, printing, office supplies, fuel and food)
- Resources from the Judiciary power: Penal Transactions fund from Garopaba Municipiality.
- Public and Private tenders
- Sale of MMC merchandise at our physical space (T-shirts, hats, mugs, note blocks and art)
- Donation from private parties.
Return on investment
The annual costs of the activities of the MMC are approximately R$90,000.00 per annum. The MMC is a Not-for-profit organization and all the resources obtained are reverted directly into educational initiatives. The return of the investment applied in social-environmental projects is immeasurable, and cannot be quantified. The empirical experience with nature transforms the vision and attitude of these children in relation to the environment they live in. These children go on to seed good practices in the community and develop a new consumption awareness.
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
Our objective is to develop a NETWORK OF JUNIOR GUARDIANS OF THE OCEAN, promoting joint conservation actions that will consequently promote the betterment of environmental policies in the future. Our social technology is being replicated at the Municipality of Imbituba (SC) in 2018 and Ubatuba (SP) in 2019. The objective is to take the project to all coastal states of Brazil.
In order to do so we need to capacitate 15 new education teams (one per state) so that they can replicate the social technology in their communities. An initial cost per participant school is in average R$7.500. The materials can slowly be developed based on the local environment, with the initial material produced at a very low cost. An initial funding source will need to be found to kickstart the project in each location, but after its initial implementation regional enterprises become the main source of sponsorship, as it is now in Garopaba.