In December we sent PACE resources to Di Drummond, who supports the local school, Chiswene Primary, near her home in Zimbabwe’s low veld. It was only last month that Di’s team were able to access the school. They had to wait until the water level in a large river dropped low enough to permit crossing. "Two of our interns, and game scouts took the walk across to the school, and held the first club meeting with Grade 5 & 6 [...]
Amos Gwema, winner of the 2020 Tusk Ranger award, is doing superb work using community-based conservation education to solve wildlife protection crises on the ground. Amos, in Zimbabwe, started his education campaign when he realised the extent to which poachers were taking advantage of rural communities to further unlawful hunting activities. He uses PACE and other resources to educate communities, including about wildlife crime and problems that result from it, and what they can do to prevent it. As rural communities [...]
Climate Smart agriculture, also called Conservation farming is a no till approach. No plough is used to till the soil. The lack of tilling maintains soil particle size meaning that more water can infiltrate deeper. This, with the extra organic matter added to the soil makes farms more resistant to drought, and also to erosion. Soils contain carbon dioxide and extensive ploughing or hand-tilling releases all this carbon dioxide into the atmosphere increasing greenhouse gas emissions. In ‘Conservation Farming’ permanent [...]
Primary schools reopened four weeks ago. Teachers have had time to catch up, get a routine in place and, importantly, to re-launch the pupils extra-curricular Conservation education. Palloma Pachiti (in yellow) is manager of Sebakwe Conservation Education Centre in the Midlands of Zimbabwe. She's excited to be revisiting schools that received face masks and help setting up Tippy Taps in January. Inside Palloma's wider programme with the kids she's introducing them to the idea of using 'nudges' - ways to prompt, [...]
The battle against covid continues. In November SCEC (Sebakwe Conservation & Education Centre) in Zimbabwe's Midlands reached out to ten primary schools in their area, encouraging hand washing and the use of face masks among teachers and students. "One of our objectives was to increase hand washing points in the schools, especially at the entrance into the schools, at the toilet blocks, and near entrances into the classrooms. None of the schools had hand washing points at their toilets." Some [...]
We are thankful that finally, normal activities, covid-aware and covid-secure have started to resume. After months of school closures pupils in exam years are now back into their classrooms in Zimbabwe, with the rest of students scheduled to return in November. Responding to the reduced restrictions Palloma Pachiti from Sebakwe Conservation Education Centre in the Midlands has already arranged PACE training for key educators for next month. Lead teachers from Carbon Green Africa and SAVE Valley Conservancy sites are included in [...]
Late in November Charles Khumalo organised a PACE Quiz competition for children from schools in the Mola area, Kariba, in northern Zimbabwe. Charles is a head game scout, a local man, and passionate about helping his communities to develop, while living peacefully alongside the wildlife around them. He was introduced to PACE in 2017 and quickly appreciated the potential of it's problem-solving approach. He has started running interschool quizzes to encourage children and their teachers to learn about and find solutions [...]
We are excited to start working with new partners Wildlife Conservation Action (WCA) in Zimbabwe. Moreangels Mbizahand, Tapiwa Chimbadzwa and Tichaona Nyoni of WCA travelled across Zimbabwe from the Zambezi Valley Region to Sebakwe Conservation and Education Centre last week. An exceptionally dynamic Zimbabwean lady, Moreangels has a PhD in lion conservation from WildCRU at the University of Oxford, she is WCA Founder and Director. Tapiwa leads their recently established Environmental Education Programme. They spent time learning about PACE from our [...]
The Environmental Education Association Southern Africa (EEASA) Conference holds next week in South Africa. We are very proud that a presentation on the successful application of PACE with rural communities in Zimbabwe has been selected to share with EEASA delegates. The conference brings together a significant and influential section of formal and informal education stakeholders from the region. EEASA is hugely valuable as a meeting place for practitioners and policy makers ranging from field educators to government education and conservation ministry [...]
The new PACE Educators Guide shows teachers how conservation education can both make their job easier and enhance student learning. Conservation and environmental education can make the learning process, whether in early childhood, primary or secondary, in science, arts, social studies or project work more meaningful and improve outcomes. PACE (Pan African Conservation Education) thereby supports core teaching and learning while simultaneously building conservation values - win : win for schools, learners and conservation. Appreciating this, the Kariba District Schools Inspector, [...]
