Mangrove Education and Restoration Blog
Finally, we have arrived in Jamaica! Unfortunately, we had to postpone the J.A.M.I.N. program for a few weeks due to Hurricane Matthew’s approach; however, I’m happy to say that Jamaica was not affected by the storm that devastated so many other Caribbean countries. Our thoughts go out to everyone who was affected during Hurricane Matthew.
JAMIN 2016-2017 Program Additions
Even though we are getting a late start, there are so many new and exciting additions to the program this year. First, we are filming the J.A.M.I.N. program to create a promotional video about our Mangrove Education and Restoration Programs.
Videographer Art Binkowski filming mangroves.
Second, we are piloting a new year 2 program at William Knibb High School with the same students that were in the program last school year. Now in eleventh grade Biology, these students will return to the same mangrove site that they restored the previous year to monitor and manage their mangroves.
J.A.M.I.N. Year 2 students from William Knibb High School.
Third, we are very excited to announce that we are going to be working with a new school: Marcus Garvey Technical High School in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. We will initially be implementing the J.A.M.I.N. program in grade 10 Biology.
Marcus Garvey Technical School: Biology grade 10 student from Marcus Garvey Technical School draws the mangrove leaves in her mangrove journal.
As part of the program, we want students to be able to visit and feel ownership over their local mangrove ecosystem. Marcus Garvey is almost an hour away from William Knibb High School, where for the past three years, we have worked with schools in Falmouth, Jamaica and restored local mangroves forest there. Instead of taking students to the Falmouth mangrove site, we want them to explore their local mangrove forest.
Mangroves at Seville Heritage Site
We are happy to announce that students at Marcus Garvey will study and restore mangroves at a new J.A.M.I.N. mangrove restoration site at Seville Heritage Park in St. Ann’s Bay. The Seville Heritage Park, a cultural heritage site in Jamaica. It is also listed as “tentative,” on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, which means it could potentially be listed as a World Heritage Site. Cultural heritage sites in Jamaica are overseen by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. The Jamaica National Heritage Trust at Seville Heritage Park has joined us and our partners at the University of the West Indies Discovery Bay Marine Lab to bring mangrove education and the J.A.M.I.N. program to St. Ann’s Bay.
Stay tuned for more updates!
