The Paris Seminar 2009

"The Flagship UNESCO Sandwatch Project is an excellent example of what can be achieved...
Sandwatch provides a framework for school children and local communities to work together to critically evaluate the problems facing their beach environments and develop sustainable management solutions. Since its launch in the Caribbean in 2001 which I myself attended, while visiting several islands of the region,
Sandwatch has expanded to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and is now active in around forty nations worldwide, including about 20 SIDS (Small Island Developing States)"

- Excerpt from The Opening Address by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the International Seminar on Climate Change Education - UNESCO, 27 July 2009, Paris. (Right: Director General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura delivering the opening address)

Sandwatch Well Represented by Team Members at UNESCO's International Seminar on Climate Change Education, July 27-29th, 2009, Paris.

The View out of the 7th Floor Cafeteria at UNESCO HQ in Paris, has to be one of the best views in the city. (click to enlarge)

It was a real pleasure for Gillian and myself to attend the Paris Seminar on Climate Change Education, not only to represent Sandwatch at such an important event, but also to meet many Sandwatch Team members from around the world, several of whom we previously knew only from email correspondence.
It was great to finally meet Pascale Gabriel, the Sandwatch Coordinator for Mayotte (who also our new French Programme Facilitator), as well as Sandwatchers Gail Townsend and Jane Taurarii from The Cook Islands, Carol-Faye George from Antigua, Laura Lee McIntosh from The Bahamas, and Monica Regisford-Douglin from Trinidad & Tobago.

In addition the seminar also gave us the opportunity to present Sandwatch to an international audience of professional educators and scientists from a wide variety of disciplines. Two short videos of our 15 minute presentation are viewable on-line at www.youtube.com/user/SandwatchFoundation.

Our presentation was very well received and it gave us the opportunity to forge new friendships with many delegates who now want to start Sandwatch in their home countries or expand the existing project into more schools around their countries, these include South Africa, Seychelles, Fiji, Kiribati, the UK, The Maldives, Mauritius, New Zealand and Samoa to name just a few. Hopefully we will be hearing more from these new friends in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Paul Diamond
Director

Sandwatch Foundation

Click on the photos to enlarge

The Danish Ambassador, Mr. Kristensen, singled Sandwatch efforts out in his opening remarks and pledged support

Mr. Douglas Nakashima of SIDS also spoke of Sandwatch's success during his presentation

Mr. Hans Thulstrup (right) of The Frontlines of Climate Change Forum has been of great assistance to Sandwatch

Many other interesting projects, in addition to Sandwatch were of course presented at the seminar

Click on Seminar flyer to read full details of the seminars objectives and goals.