The AMEs Are Doing Well

Action PA5 : Conduct educational interventions in schools

Born in 2012 in the Marquesas archipelago from an idea by elementary school students, the “Educational Marine Area” (AME) initiative has flourished throughout French territory. In Saint Martin, the Nature Reserve embraced this concept in 2018, allowing three classes to take charge of their own marine area. This program, supported by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), promotes an ecological approach and encourages students to get involved in the management and preservation of the marine environment. Thus, students take responsibility for a part of their natural heritage by actively engaging in its protection and management. For example, a CM1 class from Clair Saint-Maximin school studies marine turtles and their nesting sites in the Embouchure bay. The CE1 students from Happy School focus on marine turtles and the threats posed by human activities on the Grand Case beach. The CM2 students from the same school direct their scientific research towards the biodiversity of the coral reefs surrounding Creole Rock. Additionally, a sixth-grade class from the Roche Gravée de Moho college is involved in replanting mangroves near the nursery, on Spring Road.