The islands of the Indian Ocean share an exceptional reef heritage built by coral reef builders. Coral reefs, a hotspot of marine biodiversity, are deteriorating under human pressures and climate change, leading to a loss of biodiversity and associated services such as fishing, coastal protection and tourism.
Scientists are constantly warning about this degradation and are increasingly mobilizing in major international forums (COP climate and biodiversity, ocean decades, …). However, people are still poorly informed about scientific advances and ocean issues. It is therefore crucial to promote knowledge sharing in order to understand the importance of biodiversity and the issues related to its protection.
The AMEO project (Indian Ocean Educational Marine Area) is an environmental education program aimed at raising awareness among primary school children in six islands of the Indian Ocean (Reunion, Mauritius, Seychelles, Mohéli in Comoros, Rodrigues, Madagascar) to the protection of coral ecosystems.
The regional scale is favored because these island states have coral reefs and marine biodiversity.
comparable, are subject to the same climatic and anthropogenic pressures. It allows students to broaden their horizons and draw inspiration from locally developed initiatives, which can be replicated or adapted to better understand these ecosystems.
The project is based on the concept of Marine Educational Areas (MEA), marine and coastal areas managed in a participatory way by students, supervised by their teacher and an accompanying structure.
Its ambition is to make students actors in the conservation of their natural and cultural heritage, by combining discovery, conservation actions and regional cooperation.