The Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, chaired by Princess Lalla Hasnaa, launched the 23rd edition of “Clean Beaches”.
With this launch, decided on Wednesday during a preparation workshop for its summer action in favor of the coast and the oceans, the Foundation intends to take advantage of the influx of many citizens on the coast to carry out important awareness and education to protect the oceans, which the United Nations has made Sustainable Development Goal 14.
Now engaged in global work for the oceans within its Seas and Oceans division, it is a stakeholder in the United Nations Decade for Ocean Sciences launched by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, and for which Lalla Hasnaa contributed her leadership by becoming the godmother.
In the field, the Foundation will conduct for the third consecutive summer, from June 15 to September 15, its #bharblaplastic operation, chosen as the best best practice in 2020 by the International Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE).
This operation to combat plastic waste proposes new action and awareness-raising objectives each year. In 2021, the reprocessing of plastic waste was introduced to demonstrate the virtues of the circular economy and will be renewed and amplified.
This year, the #bharblaplastic operation will broaden its concerns to the climate, of which the oceans are one of the fundamental elements of regulation, and to biodiversity, so rich in the waters of the planet, but so fragile.
If the Foundation showed the way by launching the #bharblaplastic operation in 2019, it wanted to build the 2022 edition with its partners: 66 local authorities and their supervision the General Directorate of Local Authorities, 27 economic partners who support them and more than a hundred local associations, so that they appropriate the operation.
The #bharblaplastic operation will be based on its three pillars: young people as a priority target, the elimination of plastic pollution and digital to raise awareness. Pillars that break down into four objectives:
1. Challenge 1: “10 tonnes less plastic waste per beach”,
2. Challenge 2: “10,000 environmental awareness actions”
3. Challenge 3: “educate 1 million young people”
4. Challenge 4: “Recycling and recovery of plastic waste avoided on beaches
In 2021, the results of these challenges were as follows:
Challenge 1: 521.46 tonnes less plastic on 66 beaches, i.e. 8 tonnes of plastic avoided per beach. The quantity avoided increased by 35.06 tonnes compared to the results of the #b7arblaplastic 2019 operation (+ 7.2%).
Challenge 2: 61,593 actions to raise awareness of plastic pollution, cleaning, fun activities (workshop, animation, etc.) were carried out. The number of shares committed compared to the #b7arblaplastic 2019 operation was up by more than 24.35%, with 12,062 additional shares;
Challenge 3: 1,804,260 young people were mobilized (+29% compared to the #b7arblaplastic operation
2019).
Challenge 4: recycling and recovery of 38% of waste avoided.
The Foundation, for #bharblaplastic as for its other actions, favors digital tools to better reach the youth that it strives to mobilize in its educational programs such as Eco-Schools and Young Reporters for the Environment, or in the networks of young people it promotes, the African Youth Climate Hub and the African Green University Youth Environmental Network.
This meeting is designed by the Hassan II International Center for Environmental Training, the academic arm of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, which will support the partners in their awareness and education actions. The Center works to develop a common scientific culture of the oceans. It draws on UNESCO tools, such as the Ocean Literacy Education Kit for All, and promotes ideas, activity plans, ocean literacy games, and strives to ensure that these resources are accessible to as many people as possible by putting them online on the Internet.
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