The College and Pan African Conservation Education (PACE), are partners in the Tusk Trust Network.  PACE is an educational programme initiated by Tusk Trust in partnership with Siren Conservation Education. The principle behind PACE is to show that everything in the environment is linked and that in looking after the environment, humans, wildlife, and people residing on all ends of the planet will benefit.

In the culmination of explorative conversations between PACE and the SAWC, as well as preliminary needs analysis with local schools, the SAWC hosted PACE from 21 to 26 August. This timely meeting comes as the SAWC develops its competencies related to various approaches to Education for Sustainable Development. The sessions looked at 

  • the provision of support to Eco-Clubs and teacher training in our local schools
  • the development of a SAWC educational Hub
  • the establishment of project demonstration sites; and 
  • the potential of collaborating to reach communities in Transfrontier conservation areas. 

A key component of these sessions included a two-day workshop with school educators from Primary and High schools associated with the SAWC, in order to introduce PACE and its various applications.

The representatives had a chance to interact with the PACE educational content covering the themes: Living with Wildlife, Water, Soil, Forests, Energy, Living by the Ocean, and Urban Living. The teachers also interacted with some of the short films on inspiring grassroots projects as well as action sheets that offer experiments and activities to investigate the techniques and topics covered.

We would like to thank Tusk Trust and Penny Fraser for the supply of learning materials and teaching resources provided to our local schools and the SAWC.