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Revolution not evolution as WCS plots new path

A new plan for environmental education is being spread through the Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles after the leaders of the youth focused non-governmental organisation met to draft a new five year vision for the clubs.

30 Wildlife Club leaders convened at the Environment and Education Centre of partner ngo Nature Seychelles for the two day “Visioning for the future environment” meeting, focused on developing a revolutionary new environmental message for the clubs’ 600 young members.
And after combining the experiences of clubs on Mahé, Praslin, La Digue and Silhouette the Wildlife Clubs now have a raft of new policies, plans and ideas to integrate the clubs’ student members into national and international environmental action.
Launching the workshop Wildlife Clubs Chair Nirmal Shah said that revolution, not evolution is needed to advance the cause of environmental conservation.
“The world is changing and what our children deal with today and tomorrow is different to the challenges our parents faced. We need a revolutionary new plan to address this ‘brave new world’ which they will face,” he said.
He called for fresh ideas to be put forward.
“Be open and put everything together on the table, examine it, see what works, what is new that we could bring,” said Mr Shah.
The new plan comes into force straight away, but with objectives and actions tabled to be carried out over the coming five years.
Throughout the workshop the participants focused on developing new solutions to current environmental issues for the clubs to implement.
The workshop was facilitated by Michelle Martin, a lecturer at the National Institute of Education – currently studying for her PhD – who broke the meeting into a series of group based activities and workshop-wide discussions, to ensure all views were heard and concrete action-plans developed.
Recent activities run by the Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles include bird watching, mountain hikes, island visits and the highly successful Heritage Gardens initiative, which has seen gardens of traditional food crops, medicinal plants and herbs planted in schools and used to teach students about agricultural processes, Seychelles’ history, economics and other valuable lessons.