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Earth Today | Students get first-hand look at wetlands

Published:Thursday | February 27, 2020 | 12:20 AM
Students and teachers of Greenwich All-Age and Haile Selassie High schools take a photo moment while on tour of the Portland Bight Disocovery  Centre.
Students and teachers of Greenwich All-Age and Haile Selassie High schools take a photo moment while on tour of the Portland Bight Disocovery Centre.

STUDENTS AND teachers from Greenwich All-Age and Haile Selassie High schools recently got a first-hand look at wetlands and the chance to explore their value, courtesy of Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL).

KFTL partnered with the Caribbean Coastal Area Management (C-CAM) Foundation to take the 38 students and four teachers on an education tour of the Portland Bight Discovery Centre located in Salt River, Clarendon, in celebration of World Wetlands Day this year, which focused on ‘Wetlands and Biodiversity’.

The students and teachers were treated to a presentation on ‘Wetland biodiversity and why it matters’, which, among other things, exposed them to information on the different types of mangroves and associated wildlife, as well as the importance of wetlands and how they help to protect the environment.

This was followed by a guided tour of the wetlands and grounds of the Portland Bight Discovery Centre. The day’s activities also included a session in which the students shared what they had learnt by performing creative pieces for a chance to win prizes; as well as a guided swamp trail by boat.

It was the third educational tour sponsored by KFTL in three years, as the company seeks to raise awareness, especially among youths, about wetlands and their impact on the environment. In 2018 and 2019, KFTL sponsored educational tours to the Refuge Cay mangroves, an area in which the terminal operator has invested heavily, by sponsoring a restoration and rehabilitation project, which featured the clean-up and replanting of mangroves in the Port Royal-based wetlands.