The Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection carried the voice of the South and Africa at the World Environmental Education Congress.

The Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection attended the 11th edition of the World Environmental Education Congress in Prague, Czech Republic, from March 14-18, 2022.  The Congress is a premier bi-annual gathering of environmental education experts. 

During the Congress opening ceremony, the Foundation again spoke on behalf of the South, in keeping with the appeal made by Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa at the close of WEEC 2013 in Marrakesh, urging developed countries to bolster support for environmental education in the South, as an essential pillar in the fight against climate change. 

The urgency of climate issues and environmental education was echoed by the presence of Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil and Czech Minister of the Environment Anna Hubáčková at the opening ceremony.  A number of prominent academics from all over the world gathered to support and build-up international momentum for developing Environmental Education.  The topic of the event was “building bridges”.  

Now, nearly ten years later, that call should be expanded and amplified to meet the challenges at hand, according to the Foundation.  That is why the Foundation, together with partners, held the African Youth Climate Hub in 2019 to rally African youth around climate issues, empower them and help them take the initiative and become genuine stakeholders in this challenge.  

It is thus a Foundation strengthened by the legitimacy of commitment that attended WEEC 2022, where it played a substantial part in facilitating four different presentations on environmental education programs, as follows:

-March 14 on the global institutional approach around schools highlighting Morocco’s “Eco-schools” model and best practices of the “Young Reporters for the Environment” program, a solution-oriented environmental journalism contest, 

-March 15 on UNESCO’s Global Schools experience incorporating environmental issues and the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals into school curricula worldwide, a program in which Morocco is a pilot country.  

-On that same day, the Foundation also presented the African Green Universities and Youth Education Network, sponsored by the UN Environment, which has similar environmental integration objectives for higher education, a program launched by the Foundation in 2021. 

-March 16 on oceans, highlighting Operation b7ablapastic, awareness-raising and capacity-building activities and educational resources created to contribute to the emergence of an informed, committed and responsible citizenry for our oceans’ future. 

The Foundation, ever committed to youth, with the support of the Ministry of Education, arranged for three laureates of the Young Reporters for the Environment Contest, aged 16 to 18, to make the trip to Prague to attend the YEEC, the youth congress organized alongside the official WEEC.  The young reporters kept an online WEEC diary, in which they reported on the conference from their own perspective as young people, interviewed environmental education experts, and contributed to drafting a message to adults on the needs of young people and environmental education, which they presented during the WEEC closing session.