During this full week, lots of workshops are animating the Congress and entertaining all the participants. They show the diversity of all the actors involved in the environment protection, a commitment that has been honoured by the visit of HRH the Princess Lalla Hasnaa. By visiting the “Exhibition and Animation space” organised beside the WEEC, HRH the Princess Lalla Hasnaa wanted to pay homage to all those that are active in a field, where the Princess herself is involved together with the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, a foundation that she has been chairing since its establishment in 2001.

The Foundation wanted to show to the participants attending the plenary sessions in the Marrakech Congress Palace (Palais des Congrès de Marrakech) and that are coming from all over the World, but also to the Marrakesh inhabitants, the actions that it supports, it promotes and it organises and develops.

This is the case, for example, of “Eco-Ecoles” (Environmental Schools), an international programme of the Federation for the Environmental Education (Fédération pour l’Education à l’Environment – FEE), that the Foundation introduced in Morocco in 2006, and that allowed the integration of the environmental education in primary schools. Thanks to its success, crowning it 7 years of life, this projects has been widespread to the entire country, through à convention signed by the Ministry of the National Education, which was a partner of this WEEC’s edition since the beginning.

During the last school year, 675 schools in 16 regions and 81 delegations were enrolled in the programme, divided into 271 rural (40%) and 404 urban (60%).

These schools are interested in getting the “Green Flag” (Pavillon Vert), an international distinction liked to the Eco-Ecoles programme, awarding the schools developping environmental programmes within their buildings.

There are many schools, coming from several Moroccan cities, wanting to expose their projects during the WEEC 2013 and finding an actual recognition of their efforts.

“Les Jeunes Reporters de l’Environnement” (The Young Reporters of the Environment), another Foundation’s programme, could tell beautiful stories! After 10 years, they are more than 17000 and they realised as much reports about the environment, as active witnesses of their time. These Young Reporters write the WEEC 2013 daily newspaper too, learning among the adults, and can even make direct questions to the UNESCO General Director, to the FEE President, shaping their environmental conscience.

HRH the Princess Lalla Hasnaa is convinced that the fight for the Environment can be won with awareness campaigns and Education and this Congress represents a big contribution to this and for this reason the Foundation was honoured to host it.

Thus, behind the “Eco-écoles” or the “Jeunes Reporters pour l’Environment”, several projects are developed by many actors, united by the same passion and the same belief, who came to talk about their works and activities: recycling workshops or plants’ distillation, composting, public spaces’ greening, recycling art, Animals Protection Society (Spain), etc.

For a whole week, in Marrakech, the environment is, for once, the priority. With the ambition of making it a permanent priority, in the future.