Environmental education to mitigate marine and coastal plastic pollution
Environmental education to mitigate marine and coastal plastic pollution
Samenvatting
This final research is conducted as a bachelor thesis of the programme Delta Management at the HZ University of Applied Sciences in Vlissingen, Netherlands and is executed at the Coastal Conservation Institute (ICC) in the coastal municipality of São Sebastião in Brazil. The municipality is located on the southeast coast of Sao Paulo extending more than 100km along the coast including 33 smaller neighbourhoods and several small islands. 80% of the area is covered by the Atlantic forest with an extensive mangrove area. The area is vulnerable to landslides, flooding’s, waste and oil spills which is threatening the more than 1,362 species in the area. Especially plastic trash has negative impacts on the area such as limiting mangrove growth needed for coastal safety as well as increasing health impacts like drinking water contamination or an increase in mosquito breeding. Most of the littered trash in coastal areas ends up in the ocean, affecting the marine environment and in return affecting the life of local people, their income depends on fishing and other products obtained from ecosystems. For this reason the objective in this research is to investigate solution that can help to raise the awareness of the local community on plastic litter and how their change in behaviour can increase community resilience while finding solution on how to recycle plastic to generate extra benefits for the local community. In order to start up the research, desk research was used to determine on how to develop educational programs which resulted in a 8 step approach. This 8 steps where then used to develop an educational program in Sao Sebastião. A focus location has been established through area analysis and important stakeholders have been identified in order to start up the program. Afterwards questionnaires have been carried out to get an insight in to the perceived perception of the local people on plastic trash and the need to tackle this issue. The questionnaires also revealed that the local people are interested in learning about organic gardening and ideas on how to recycle plastic items to increase their income. Out of the questionnaires and by doing observation a 12 activity educational program was developed which had the big overall goal to build up a greenhouse made out of 1000 used PET bottles which can be used as a community hub and for growing organic vegetables. The program was developed around the topic of reuse, reduce, recycle and composting (organic gardening) and all of the materials used were either found in the natural environment or collected in the area with beach and mangrove area clean ups. After developing the program it was executed as a small scale pilot project in the neighbourhood of Baleia/sahy at the institute verdescola with 30 students from the local community. After 12 weeks the program was successfully finished with an greenhouse built up in the community of Baleia/sahy, which attracts a lot of attention from the local community about plastic waste and the need for reduction. The proposed solution furthermore provides social and local empowerment once the program is finished by providing food for the community and bringing the community together. Lastly the program was visualized in an implementation which can also be translated to other coastal and delta areas. The last part of the research shows extra recycling ideas which local people could sell in order to increase their income for them and their families.
Organisatie | HZ University of Applied Sciences |
Opleiding | Watermanagement/ Deltamanagement |
Afdeling | Domein Technology, Water & Environment |
Partner | Coastal Conservation Institute (ICC), Barra do Sahy, Sao Paulo, Brazilië |
Datum | 2018-07-03 |
Type | Bachelor |
Taal | Engels |