Mr. Mohammed Nasimul Islam, Environment Specialist of the Asian Development Bank, hailed the students and teachers of Central Taytay National High School (CTNHS) for their continuing advocacy to replenish mangroves in Taytay, Palawan. Islam visited the school during the project’s midterm review mission in the Philippines on 23 October 2015.
Members and teacher-advisers of the Heroes of the Environment club led by Mrs. Diana Mercado (Chair of the Science Department), Mrs. Gina Benitez (Adviser of the Youth for Environment in Schools’ Organization), and Mrs. Jolee Cortes (CTNHS Coordinator of CTI-SEA) met with Islam and the CTI-SEA team under the leadership of Mr. Guillermo L. Morales.
The teachers nurtured the students’ mangrove reforestation project in Sitio Quilala since it started during the CTI-SEA organized Youth Camp on Climate Change Adaptation and Coastal Resource Management in March 2014.
Two other clubs in CTNHS are working with the Heroes of the Environment group in mangrove reforestation. These are the Youth for Environment in Schools’ Organization and the Young Scientists at Environmentalists. The clubs are also collaborating on environmental projects such as Coastal-Clean Up and Adopt-A-Mountain project.
The Youth Camp is one of the activities in CTI-SEA’s Heroes of the Environment Communication Campaign in the Philippines. It aims to increase the knowledge and skills of the youth in the coastal communities on coastal resource management and climate change adaptation so they can be agents of change and partners in social transformation.
The activities of the campaign include the following:
- Youth Camp;
- Implementation of youth-led projects with support of the schools;
- “Our Seas” story writing contest for high school students in Palawan;
- Teachers’ In-Service Training;
- Monitoring and evaluation;
- Development of knowledge products for sharing.
CTNHS was one of the five national high schools in the municipality which was invited to join. Since then, they have planted 8,000 mangroves with above 80% survival rate in their two sites which measure a total of 1.5 hectares.
The midterm review mission noted the successful implementation of campaign’s activities from 2014 to 2015. The midterm review mission recommended the replication or adoption of this model in Indonesia and Malaysia.
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This article was based on the report published by Jirene Tabujara in “Ang Dulo”, the school paper of Central Taytay National High School (June – December 2015)
