..:: Mauritius Science Portal

World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated on 5 th June as the worldwide flagship environmental event. The theme and slogan for the year 2008 is: “CO 2 – Kick the habit! Towards a low carbon economy”. This slogan focuses on the fact that our fast developing world is far too dependent on carbon-based energy. As you aware, human activities are largely responsible to the continuous built up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, thereby exacerbating the problem of climate change.

For the year 2008, celebration of World Environment Day was marked by a ‘Cyclo-Rally’ organised in collaboration with Ministry of Youth. The rally departed from the Auguste Volaire stadium, Flacq and ended at Belle-Mare Public Beach where a cultural programme was organise. The rally laid emphasis on the fact that motorised vehicles are the prime producers of greenhouse gases. Also, the Ministry of environment launched the Green School project in 10 pilot schools – 5 primary and 5 secondary schools.

The Green-school project is an environmental educational programme that promotes and acknowledges long-term whole school action for environmental protection. The Project was launched on the occasion of the World Environment Day 5th 2008 at the Bon Accueil SSS.

This project has been designed to promote environmental responsibility and sustainable lifestyle in the school community. The objective of this project is to bring together the school community: students, teachers, administrative and support staff and Parent-Teachers Association.

Some activities that can be undertaken in this project include: Composting, Paper recycling, Collection of used PET Bottles, Mural painting, Quiz, Elocution contest, Essay competition, Environmental Clubs, Nature Corner, Endemic Garden, amongst others.

The Ministry of Education is now the lead institution and the Ministry of Environment and the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council are the main stakeholders. After the first pilot phase, the project is now being extended to all schools, including both primary and secondary institutions throughout the island.

CLEAN UP THE WORLD is a community based environmental campaign that inspires and empowers communities from every corner of the globe to clean up, fix up and conserve their local environment. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with CLEAN UP THE WORLD, brings businesses, community groups, schools and governments together in a range of activities and programs that positively improve local environments.

For the year 2008, clean up the world campaign was marked by various activities around the island with the participation and collaboration of Local Authorities, Beach Authority, NGOs and volunteers. This year’s activities was marked by two main national events, namely the cleaning of Mon-Choisy public beach on the 20 th September and the cleaning and distribution of waste bins at Bois Cheri on the 21 st September 2008.

World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated every year on the 5 th June and marks the worldwide flagship environmental event. In the context of WED 2009, an “Activity Book’ targeted for pre-primary and lower primary students was launched.

The Activity Book focuses on Sustainable Consumption and lifestyle. It aims to inculcate good attitudes and behaviours in the young child in order to mainstream the concept of sustainable development in his daily life.

The Activity Book is based on 2 characters, namely Bul-Bul and Pic-Pic who take the children through various scenarios regarding the way they treat natural resources, water, energy, waste and the fauna and flora. A teacher’s guide accompanies the Activity Book to assist the teachers to dessiminate information contained in the Activity Book.

The Ministry of Environment & NDU in collaboration with the Environment Care Association and the UNDP GEF-SGP will shortly launch the Waste Segregation Project in schools. The idea behind the project is to inculcate the concept of sorting of waste into its various components for eventual recycling or composting by school children, who would be more apt to learn this new technique. In essence, bins for waste paper and plastic bottles will be provided to the schools and sensitization will be done in all schools. The project will be implemented in all primary schools in the first instance and will be extended to secondary schools.

SCP aims at fundamentally changing the way societies produce and consume, so as to promote social and economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems by improving efficiency and sustainability in the use of resources and production processes, and reducing resource degradation, pollution and waste. Basically, SCP works by delinking economic growth and environmental degradation.

The Ministry of Environment & NDU, in collaboration with UNEP, has developed a National Programme for SCP for the period 2008-2013. This Programme targets resource use efficiency, and promotes education and outreach. The Programme comprises some 44 projects to be implemented by various ministries at a cost of around Rs 35 million. Cabinet has approved the programme in August 2008 and implementation has started. The Ministry of Environment and NDU would be coordinating the implementation of the National Programme and would be initiating projects under its responsibility such as on Education and Communication for Sustainable Lifestyles.

The Youthxchange Training programme was undertaken in the context of “Education and Communication for Sustainable lifestyle” for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), which is a key component of the National Programme on SCP.

In this context, Ministry of Environment & NDU organised a training of trainers’ workshop for youth leaders from different spheres of society and was based on the YouthxChange (YXC) toolkit developed by UNEP/UNESCO in 2002. Six (6) half-day workshops were held from 7 - 8 th April 2009 and 14 - 16 th April 2009. The objectives of the workshops were to raise awareness of the youth on SCP and secure their participation for more responsible consumption and lifestyles.

As a first step towards the vulgarisation of the YouthxChange Programme, youth leaders were requested to sensitise and train youths within their organisation on SCP and in using the YouthxChange website.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

The CDM is one of the flexible mechanisms put in place under the Kyoto Protocol (KP) to enable industrialised countries to meet their GHG emission reduction targets by funding projects in developing countries with the aim of achieving sustainable development.

Under the CDM, emission reduction projects are undertaken in developing countries, with very often lower greenhouse gas abatement costs than if they were carried out in industrialised countries.

For each ton of carbon dioxide equivalent that is reduced as a result of a CDM project, a certified emission reduction unit (CER) is issued and can be used or purchased by industrialised countries for the fulfillment of their commitments under the KP.

All countries wishing to participate in the CDM have to set up a Designated National Authority (DNA) for the CDM, with developing countries DNAs having as main task to evaluate proposed CDM projects and to issue letters of approval confirming that the project activity is implemented voluntarily and contributes to sustainable development in the host country.

In Mauritius, the local DNA is hosted at the Ministry of Environment & NDU following a Cabinet decision in 2003. A National Committee comprising stakeholder Ministries and authorities has also been set up to support the work of the local DNA or CDM Office at the Ministry of Environment & NDU.

The Ministry of Environment & NDU is the enforcing agency for air and Mauritian Air quality standards have been proclaimed since 1998 under the promulgation of the Environment Protection Act in 1991. The Mauritian Ambient Air quality standards provides maximum limits concentration of air contaminants (such as Particulate Matter, Sulphur Dioxide, Nitrogen Dioxide and Ozone) that should not be exceeded in a given time period since those mentioned contaminants have an impact on human health.

Monitoring of Particulate Matter (PM 10, PM 2.5 and Total Suspended Particulates) is carried out at the Ministry of Environment & NDU by the National Environmental Laboratory (a division within the Department of Environment) using an automated continuous Particulate TEOM (Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance) with U.S EPA certification for continuous particulate monitoring. Another mobile station comprising of internationally recognized gaseous analyzers (sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and Nitrogen dioxide) has also been acquired by NEL to assess the ambient air quality nearby industrial sites.

Figure 1: Mobile ambient air monitoring station (PM analyzer & Gaseous analyzers)

The two mobile ambient air monitoring station is used to carry out survey throughout the island in regions where poor quality of air is suspected. The data obtained from the two monitoring stations would be used to develop a baseline data for Particulate Matter contaminants. The baseline data including data from gaseous contaminants would be necessary to develop an Air Quality Index (AQI) for Mauritius. The purpose of an AQI is to disseminate to the general population information with regards to the ambient air quality prevailing in their regions.