The Mediterranean Action Plan of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP/MAP) has released the “Young Person’s Guide to the Mediterranean Action Plan and the Barcelona Convention” aimed at ocean literacy practitioners, educators and young readers aged 11-17.
The Guide offers a simplified introduction to the legal framework that UNEP/MAP and the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention have established and gradually upgraded, covering a wide range of themes pertaining to the Mediterranean marine and coastal environment as well as sustainable development.
“Today’s youth are tomorrow’s citizens and leaders. An early assimilation and uptake of the UNEP/MAP – Barcelona Convention system are key to ensuring a sustainable and resilient future in the Mediterranean region. It is our hope that this product will spark interest in young, inquisitive minds,” said the UNEP/MAP Coordinator who supervised the Guide’s production by the UNEP/MAP Coordinating Unit’s communication team, with support from the MAP Components.
The Guide offers a gradual immersion into the UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention system, thus catering to a variety of learning expectations and cognitive levels. From an inaugural storytelling section that sets the scene and frames the issues, the level of complexity gradually increases as the reader ventures into the legal framework and approaches a range of themes that would otherwise be daunting, if not outright impenetrable, to those who are not familiar with formal language.
For the younger readers, the assistance of educators or tutors may be advisable to overcome the inherent complexity of some of the issues that the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols address. Readers situated in the upper part of the target audience’s age range, who will typically be senior school students, should be able to navigate the publication relying on their own research abilities.
UNEP/MAP offers the Guide as a free resource that educators working with youth around the Mediterranean basin can use as a basis for extra-curricular activities. Students engaging in debate activities and Model United Nations (MUN) simulations will find the Guide helpful as it will equip them with essential understanding of the Mediterranean region’s principal Multilateral Environmental Agreement.
The product may also be used as an induction to more advanced material, including the course on the Barcelona Convention offered by InforMEA, which will further enrich the young learners’ knowledge.
“The full implementation of the Barcelona Convention, its Protocols and associated strategies and action plans continues to be the shortest path to living in harmony with nature in the Mediterranean region, which faces a triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity decline and pollution,” Ms. Hema wrote in a message to educators appearing in the publication.
Educators, partners and civil society organizations at large are invited to promote the Young Person’s Guide to the Mediterranean Action Plan and the Barcelona Convention on their own digital platforms, and to disseminate it within their networks in line with the copyright notice (page 2). The web version of the Guide can be downloaded and/or disseminated through this permanent web address: https://bit.ly/YPG-MAP-BC
For more information, contact Jihed Ghannem, Public Information Officer, UNEP/MAP
