Ambiental Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the fourth most vulnerable country in the world to the effects of climate change, including an increase in extreme meterological events. The 2014 drought was the worst in 44 years, increasing threats to the agricultural production, food supply,increasing
vector-bourne disease, and triggering species loss, deforestation, coastal degradation, and watershed erosion.

Our goal is to Increase capacity of Nicaragua's environmental organizations local, schools & community partners to collaborate on project-based learning, ecological restoration, water quality, food security and climate change resilience. We will do this
sharing experiences and knowledge, strengthening their programs, utilizing methods adapted from the Earth Partnership program and the methods developed by the participants to create a truly Nicaraguan Earth Partnership. (Colaboracion Ambiental.)

In 2014 5 school teams in Granada, Nicaragua were trained in the UW-Madison Earth Partnership (Colaboracion Ambiental) program based on restoration of nature on school grounds and on a greater consciousness of the watershed around them.  The partners in
2014 included the Ministry of Education, Municipal Botanic Garden of Granada, Rubi Nicaragua (Nicaragua Summer Exchange),  5 urban schools in Granada. Each school team included the
school principal, a teacher, a parent and a student. The teams learned to involve students with plant species, insects, biological diversity and water stewardship. They learned about Plant Families, and playing
Insect Charades to learn about Insect Orders...

They followed the rain drop from the schoolyard to Lake Nicaragua, tracing the pathway of storm water through the streets, drainage ditches and streams to the place where these waterways enter the lake. The school teams were appalled.  One School director
observed that the contamination of the lake is a mortal sin. 

They continued their investigation by observing macro-invertebrates, bio-indicators of water quality on the lake shore. They learned that native plantings on the schoolyard, not only provide beautification, but also can improve water quality by filtering
stormwater before it flows into the arroyo and eventually into the lake.  School gardens can also provide food and skills for self-sufficiency, water stewardship and conservation in the face of climate change.

In barrio Pio XII, at the Castillo-Lopez Farm in Pio XII, in the town of
Nandasmo, village leaders responded to the challenge and agreed to become environmental educators for their children.  For four days, elders and young adults worked together with elementary children and high school students to become educational leaders
for their peers.

Now these school teams are planning projects to bring alive ecological restoration and water stewardship practices on their schoolyards and in their communities. 

The Next Step toward climate change resilience...

In 2015, 11 UW-Madison students, together with 3 faculty will travel to Nicaragua to help the projects that began in 2014. A "training of trainers" for a Colaboración Ambiental Nicaragüense (Nicaraguan Earth Partnership).  Teams will be invited from the
environmental organizations for a week-long workshop.  We will experiment with learning activities involving ecological restoration and water stewardship developed by the UW-Madison Arboretum AND the Nicaraguan environmental organizations.

The organizations include: Arboretum Nacional of Managua, Botanic Garden of León, Reserva Natura, FUNDENIC-SOS
Fundación Nicaraguense Para El Desarrollo Sostenible (Nicaraguan Foundation for Sustainable Development), Natural Resources Management unit of the Ministry of Family Economy, Environmental Unit of the Tisma mayor's office, Committee of Community Leaders
--Pio XII neighborhood in Nandasmo, Wisconsin-Nicaragua Partners and others. The organizations, as their matching part, will host visits to their sites and will support the follow-up of the workshops during the next years.

During the second week, the UW students and Nicaraguan teams will unite with the school teams in Granada and Pio XII, Nandasmo that were trained in 2014.  Together with the schools and community partners, the 2015 participants will work on environmental
service-learning projects.

Project and Place-based learning is underway in Nicaragua... to increase environmental literacy and action regarding climate change, water quality, food security and ecological restoration.  Teams of educators, students and community partners
are poised to engage their peers in project that will demonstrate tangible solutions like rain barrels and rain gardens, vegetable gardens, riparian plantings and river clean-ups. The initail impact will be small, but the downstream impacts could provide the
public awareness and public will to address these ever-increasing issues. Nicaragua will need educated citizens, practical solutions and their abundance of native resilience and creativity to address the environmental challenges of the present and the future.