Overview

Education helps local residents appreciate, value, and conserve the extraordinary natural resources that surround them. We have provided six consecutive years of environmental education in the Chocó in a variety of formats. We reach hundreds of children each year through a highly successful program we run through the schools, and complement this with a parallel education program geared to adults in the evenings. We also regularly host student and adult groups on our study site and provide regular environmental workshops, as described below.

Adult education, community presentations & Hands-on Encounters

We have developed a series of programs that provide environmental education to adults. In parallel to the children’s program but at night, we make presentations and workshops on themes including water quality, family planning, and horticultural techniques. We have also made hundreds of powerpoint presentations on the importance of conserving the Chocó both locally and regionally. Importantly, these presentations are made by local residents working on our project rather than outsiders. We regularly host local children and adults at our study site on the Bilsa Reserve, where we provide local residents with hands-on research experiences, including mist-netting and radio tracking of birds.

Education through the schools

We have developed a highly successful model for education in which teachers from local communities meet for one weekend each month to receive training and aids for environmental themes. Since 2004, this project has reached 15 communities and over 500 children each year with themes including basic conservation and ecology, the flora and fauna of the Chocó, and watershed protection. Each month, we hold weekend-long workshops in which teachers are prepared to teach environmental and social lesson plans to their classrooms and return to their respective communities equipped with syllabi, laminated hand-outs, games, coloring books and other didactic aids related to that month’s theme. They receive a framed Environmental Teaching Certificate at the end of the school year. 

This aspect of our project is designed and implemented by Ms. Monica Gonzalez, an Ecuadorian educator with over a decade of experience working in the Chocó. In addition to the workshops, Ms. Gonzalez visits the communities to assist with classroom education and implement hands-on experiments related to that month’s theme. In many ways, this is the most successful aspect of our project. In addition to the critical education it has provided, it has ensured good will toward our project from local residents, which has in turn paved the way for our other social and economic initiatives.