Children's Environmental Education
Program: Kuna Yala, Panama, Phase II

 September 4 2003 

Marina Goreau
Director, Children to Children Program, Global Coral Reef Alliance

Thomas J. Goreau, Ph.D.
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance

Roque Solis
Technical Expert Advisor, Congresso General Kuna 

SUMMARY 

On July 27 2003 the first group of Kuna Indian children used masks, snorkels, and fins donated to the Ukupseni village school, Kuna Yala, Panama, by the Global Coral Reef Alliance Children to Children Environmental Education Program. They looked at coral reef restoration programs carried out in their village and learned about the need to restore the coral reefs and fisheries in order to protect the future of their people. The program, which has the strong support of the children, the school, the village leaders, and the Kuna General Congress, will be greatly expanded as quickly as funding can be found. 

BACKGROUND

Ukupseni Village (Playon Chico), Kuna Yala (San Blas), Panama

The Kuna people of Panama are a sea people who are unique among Native Americans in having preserved their cultural and political independence because they have no roads into their land (Kuna Yala) and do not allow outsiders to own anything in it. They are also exceptional in combining strong devotion to tradition with a deep love of education and eagerness to adapt the best aspects of modern scientific knowledge to solving their sustainable development problems. Kuna Yala extends from the coral reefs to the top of the mountain range separating the Atlantic form the Pacific, and since there is no deforestation for cattle, their reefs are the best in Panama. The economy of Kuna Yala is based on lobster fisheries and women's handicrafts, especially their unique art form, Molas. About 70% of Panama's marine food exports by value are lobster and crabs from Kuna Yala. Because the mangroves along the shoreline are intact, there is excellent habitat for juvenile lobsters. However over-fishing of lobster and deterioration of coral reefs is causing plummeting catches, threatening the economic future of the Kuna people. Deterioration of coral reefs, rising sea levels, and an ancient tradition of mining coral to expand their islands, are causing increasing erosion of the 50 low lying islands that the Kuna live on.

Iskardup Island, Kuna Yala, location of the projects in this report.

The Global Coral Reef Alliance has been working closely with Kuna communities and organizations on coral reef restoration, shore protection, fisheries restoration, development of new approaches to lobster growing, and children's educational projects since 1994. In 1996, Marina Goreau, then 6 years old, came up with the idea of setting up a program to provide Kuna children with masks and snorkels so that they could learn about the importance of protecting and restoring their coral reefs and fisheries to secure their own future. Kuna children are marvelous swimmers from a very young age, but because they cannot afford their own swimming gear, they have little opportunity to see and learn about underwater life. This idea grew into the GCRA Children to Children Program. In 2001, when the Chiefs of Ukupseni village heard about Marina's idea they immediately asked her to visit the school and talk to the children. For three days the GCRA team talked to the children in the classrooms and showed them films about coral reef management. Results of Phase I of the program, with photographs, are presented on the GCRA web site at:  

        http://www.globalcoral.org/Children's%20Program.pdf 

RESULTS

Kuna houses in Ukupseni village.

By July 2003, kind donations for the program, including from children who saved up their pocket money to protect coral reefs, were used to buy 30 sets of masks, snorkels, and some fins. These masks, snorkels, and fins were brought to Kuna Yala and donated to the Ukupseni School to start Phase II of the program, bringing environmental education of the children out of the classroom and under the water. The diving gear will be used for educational programs organized by the school, the Parents and Teachers Association, and the Ukupseni Environmental Commission.

Because school vacations were underway at the time, these groups arranged a special group of children, aged 7 to 11 years old, to be the first to use the underwater gear. Following a brief talk about the importance of protecting their reefs and fisheries to ensure that they could continue to live in the ancient traditions of their ancestors, the children eagerly tried on the swimming gear. They then swam out to look at the solar-powered dome-shaped underwater coral nursery which had been built and installed at Sapibenega, the Kuna Eco-Lodge on Iskardup Island two years before by the Global Coral Reef Alliance, the Asociacion Oceanica de Panama, students from the school, and volunteers from the village. The children had a wonderful time diving to look at the corals and fish around the coral nursery, as can be seen from their delighted smiles in the pictures below.

The children and their instructors. 

Masks ready to try on, in front of solar panels powering the coral nursery.

Ready to swim to the coral nursery 

Swimming to the coral nursery. 

Maninigdidili and Clarina explore life in the shallows. 

Maninigdidili and Clarina after their swim.

Happy children on their way home. They are used to paddling in dugout canoes, so a ride in an outboard powered inflatable boat was a special treat. 

FUTURE WORK

The masks, snorkels, and fins will be kept at the Ukupseni School for use in educational programs involving all the village children. There is an important need to work with the school to develop a field program that trains the students in understanding the basic function of the coral reef, mangrove, and seagrass ecosystems, the effects of human activities on them, and how to manage them wisely. The next stage of the Program should also seek to provide more educational materials for use in the classroom (both in the Dule language, and in their second language, Spanish, which is used for instruction in the higher grades as students prepare for Panamanian national exams to qualify for university entrance).

Ukupseni is one of 50 Kuna villages, all of which have similar needs. Similar programs should also be started in the other villages as quickly as funding can be found. Funding should be sought to provide snorkeling gear to all the schools, as well as educational materials for classroom use and the development of field restoration projects to be studied in comparison with natural and disturbed marine ecosystems. These environmental education projects should be closely linked to the development of long-term projects in coral reef restoration, fisheries restoration, mariculture, and shore protection throughout Kuna Yala. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We give special thanks to all of those who participated or helped make this program a reality. 

To the Kuna children who were the first group to use the masks and snorkels: 

        Alfredo Lopez
        Jeramel Perez
        Wikaliler Morgan
        Pailibe Grimaldo
        Remigio Morgan Jr.
        Maninigdidili Grimaldo
        Erik Ortega
        Eliecer Davis
        Isidro Ortega
        Henry Benarias
        Kevin Gonzalez
        Clarina Arosomena 

To the instructors who assisted Marina Goreau, Roque Solis, and Tom Goreau: 

Lucio Arosomena
Ultiminio Avila
Griselio Grimaldo
Kenji Wright 

To the people of Ukupseni who made this possible, especially to the the members of the Comision Medio Ambiente de Ukupseni, Edgardo Hernandez, President of the Asociacion de Madres y Padres de Familia de Playon Chico Escuela, Bennet Preston, Headmaster of Ukupseni School, Remigio Morgan Sr,. Preident of the Ukupseni Diver's Association, Paliwitur Sapibe and the entire staff of Sapibenega, the Kuna Eco-Lodge, especially Don Tacho. We also thank Gabriel Despaigne and Xiomara Moran of Asociacion Oceanica de Panama for their help in Phase I of the project. Victor Miller kindly lent the inflatable boat for a special treat for the children. We especially thank the Sailas of Ukupseni and the Congresso General Kuna for their constant support through the years. 

We are also especially grateful to those friends of reefs whose kind donations made this project possible. Support from Roland Pesch and Kathleen Rosskopf has made GCRA's reef restoration projects in Kuna Yala possible. Donations from Richard Ruschman and from Jonathan, Danny, and Alex Kopnick  (who are the same ages as the Kuna children) were used to buy the masks, fins, and snorkels for the program. A donation by Ben Spector (5 years old) came too late for this phase of the project, but will be used in the next phase.  

All photographs were taken by Marina Goreau or Tom Goreau.

The authors (from left to right: Tom Goreau, Marina Goreau, Roque Solis, and Marina's friend Jocelyn Avila.

PROPOSAL 

        We propose to greatly expand the coral reef education and restoration program in Kuna Yala through the following steps: 

        1.     Provide masks and snorkels for educational programs in the schools of all 50 villages in Kuna Yala 

        2.     Prepare educational films for the program in Dule, Spanish, and English for children in Kuna Yala, Panama and Latin America, and the rest of the world respectively. 

        3.     Hold an educational and training workshop in the design, construction, monitoring, and maintenance of Biorock coral and fisheries restoration projects and Biorock shore protection reefs in Kuna Yala.  

4.     Expand the reef restoration programs to all villages seeking them and use them as underwater classrooms for the school children.