Planting Seeds of Hope

On the 3rd of December 2016, 200 trees were planted by school children in Al Areen Wildlife Park and Nature Reserve located in the Arabian island of Bahrain. In a country where like many others, environment is on the low spectrum of the agenda, where no official environmental curricula exists in the country under the Ministry of Education and where children grow up disconnected from nature – ENO Bahrain is a project that comes in as a fresh breeze. The question might arise as to what exactly is ENO.

In 1992, the UN conference on Environment and Development (also known as the Rio Earth Summit) brought together over 178 States, 108 world leaders, and over 2400 non-governmental organisations and went down as one of the largest ever intergovernmental gathering in history dedicated to the protection of the environment and to sustainable development for the benefit of all people and for future generations, sparking action worldwide. Twenty years later, at the Rio+20 conference the Environment Online (ENO) Programme (a global virtual school and network for sustainable development) was officially recognized. In the spirit of ambitious action toward environmental protection, the ENO Programme committed to plant 100 million trees by 2017.

Currently, over 7000 ENO Programme schools in 147 countries have successfully planted 20 million trees worldwide and empowered students as environmental ambassadors for their respective communities. Bahrain’s 2030 vision highlighted the role sustainable development as a pathway for Bahrain’s future, of which the environment forms an integral part, however, Bahrain has yet to contribute towards honouring the global commitment made in Rio+20, nor has it documented any of its local environmental education programmes in schools under such platforms.

In light of this and under the generous patronage of the National Initiative for Agricultural Development (NIAD), ENO Bahrain Coordinator (Ms. Rasha Al Najjar – an outstanding educator and science coordinator at Al Hekma International School) and bnature (Bahrain’s first online environmental platform) have partnered together to implement the ENO Programme and nurture environmental education in the field.

This exciting project aims to plant and log at least 400 trees and instill environmental citizenship through engaging public and private schools and the community and growing the connection between people and planet. The programme provides a “hands-on” experience in planting and caring for a tree. What makes this project extra special for children is that each child who planted a tree had their name tag attached to the tree so that he/she can continue coming back to monitor the growth of their tree – as they grow in life. This will serve as a reminder of what it means to plant hope, dreams and the need to conserve nature. For without nature conservation, there is no life in the future.

The ENO Bahrain Project is divided into two events, one dedicated to school children, which took place at Al Areen Wildlife Park and Reserve on the 3rd of December 2016 and one dedicated to the public which is scheduled to take place early in 2017.

For more information on these events, please visit the bnature.info website or visit their facebook page to keep an eye on the latest development on the project. Inspiring Change served as a co-cordinator for the project under the bnature platform.