"A place to care for in Bolivia" - WWF Bolivia
Sustainable development for the Bolivian Pantanal supported by environmental education
© WWF / Gustavo YBARRA
On the Bolivian side of the wetland, WWF is strongly engaging in environmental education activities, mainly with teachers and local education authorities. It is also involved with the regional and national government, having achieved the implementation of contextualized environmental education on the school curriculum.
Since 2007, schools in the three municipalities of the Bolivian Pantanal (San Matías, Puerto Quijarro and Puerto Suárez) have officially adopted the approved environmental curricula, which means children in the region now learn - for example - how to calculate a perimeter based on the size of a local lagoon. This is a first time national experience, product of nine years of education work in the region, approved by the Education Ministry and the regional Prefectural Government, and implemented by our partner NGOs Noel Kempff Mercado Museum's Friends Foundation (Fuamu) and Process Educational Services.
Educational curriculum: a commitment with the future based on dedication and inspiration
WWF has been working in the Bolivian Pantanal since 1997 when it first supported the Prefecture of Santa Cruz in consolidating the process for the creation of two protected areas in the ecoregion: San Matías Integrated National Management Area and the Otuquis National Park and Integrated National Management Area.
Environmental training
Education has been a cornerstone of WWF’s Pantanal Program since the very beginning. First efforts were geared towards a participatory process to train 54 environmental promoters from approximately 20 communities in the provinces of Ángel Sandóval and Germán Busch. Some of these promoters are today park guards for the Otuquis and San Matías protected areas, while others are authorities in their communities. The result of this effort, implemented by our partner NGO Process Educational Services, was the publication of a “Teachers Guide” with supporting text containing information on conservation, protected areas, wetlands and the environment in general, for children from grades one through six, establishing a foundation from which to prioritize, orient and efficiently direct educational efforts.
Audubon Schoolyard Ecology Initiative
In 2003, our other current partner NGO, the Noel Kempff Museum’s Friends Foundation (Fuamu), joined the educational efforts promoted by WWF, contributing important technical assistance and introducing the Audubon Schoolyard Ecology Initiative in the Germán Busch Province, which served to instill in the teachers and students questions related to their immediate environment and which they could later apply in diverse situations. This coincides with the inauguration of information centers for Otuquis (located in Puerto Suárez) and San Matías (located in Candelaria), both of which were closely coordinated with the schools in the areas, as well as the National Service for Protected Areas (Sernap), including support from directors, teachers and protected area staff.
A result of this process was the spontaneous creation, at the initiative of children and teenagers in the region, of the Pantanal Otuquis Club. This club met regularly to organize and present different educational activities (puppets, fairs, among others) to local audiences. One of their main projects was the radio program known as Magical Pantanal which, after a training process, was produced and aired as a live program presented by the Club members themselves.
The wetland curriculum
The experience accumulated in education served as a foundation to develop the curriculum for the schools in the Pantanal ecoregion. The wetland curriculum aims to introduce students to basic concepts regarding the environment and conservation in line with the Educational Reform which “identifies the need for natural sciences to be a transversal element in the formal education”.
The challenges faced in developing this curriculum were encountered in the way in which it was carried forward:
- In a participatory manner
- Collecting and expressing the needs identified by the teachers
- Demonstrating technical solvency in order for subsequent approval on behalf of the Ministry of Education and thus ensuring its implementation as a guiding text by the teachers.
Under this scenario, WWF signed agreements with the Departmental Educational Service under the Prefecture of Santa Cruz and the Municipal Educational Districts aiming to:
- Compile, systematize and organize the efforts carried out in the field of environmental education as of 1998
- Share systematized information with teachers in the three educational districts: Puerto Suárez, Puerto Quijarro and San Matías, obtaining impressions, feedback on needs and expectations related to the construction of a curriculum for the Pantanal
- Develop a draft of the curriculum based on technical guidelines form the Educational Reform.
This draft was implemented during the 2005 school year and after an evaluation on behalf of the educational authorities, the Ministry officially approved the the curriculum, which was designed exclusively for the Pantanal yet taking into consideration the environmental transversal and in total accordance with the Educational Reform.
Currently Fuamu, Process and WWF have published and distributed a final version of the curriculum for official implementation for the 2007 school year.
This important achievement in the area of education has been possible thanks to the commitment of two partner organizations: Process and Fuamu, especially from their technical staff: Maité Hernando, Ana María Zenteno and Marcel Caballero.
