"Sir? Sir!" Two months after starting to work
with learners in Namibia, I still hadn't trained myself to respond to
that seemingly misplaced title. "Sir, seriously, I
really need
to come up with a name for this plant. It looks like it's been eaten.
Let's call it 'Scar'." Not an unfitting name, considering the spiky
nature of the plant. But even though this was one of the few plants that
I was absolutely sure I could identify at that time, I kept my mouth
shut as the learner diligently recorded that plant as Scar for the next
several hours.
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| Site near Gobabeb where copper prospecting has occurred recently. Perfect spot for a practice EIA! |
The exercise was part of the first full day of Gobabeb's first-ever
Youth Environmental Summit (YES!; how convenient), a six-day programme
for 30 grade 11 learners from the Erongo Region. The goal of the
programme was to investigate and understand the impacts of mining in the
Namib Desert, with an emphasis on research-oriented, data-driven
analyses of environmental issues. During that first day, an entourage of
Gobabeb staff led the learners through the theory and practice behind
an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), a crucial step in considering
how a mine might impact an area. I wasn't keeping the name of the plant
from the learner mentioned above to be cruel; rather, our purpose in
that first day was to guide the learners towards developing what they
thought to be important elements of an ecosystem. We nudged them in
certain directions if they strayed too far from reason, but above all we
wanted them to understand what ecologists face as they try to navigate
the daunting complexities of an ecosystem.
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| They probably would have appreciated it if I had helped them instead of taking pictures |
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When I say Gobabeb entourage, what I really mean is a majority of the
Gobabeb staff. To pull off a successful Summit, the training section
enlisted the help of at least one person from every area of Gobabeb. The
Summit learners benefitted from the almost undivided attention of the
station, a rare phenomenon at Gobabeb. It was an impressive display of
the diverse skills possessed by various Gobabebians; one of our master's
students even managed to make hypolithic cyanobacteria an exciting
topic for increasingly dehydrated secondary learners. I feel like I also
owe Laura, my predecessor, a HUGE thank you for planning and organizing
a large portion of the Summit.
Mining in the Namib Desert may seem like an uninteresting subject to
present to grade 11s, but it was chosen because of its conspicuous
pertinence to the present and future inhabitants of the region (and all
Namibians, really). For better or for worse, mining is fundamental to
the current economic vitality of Namibia. Uranium mining in particular
plays a vital role in the Erongo Region, and it's not uncommon to see
uranium company logos on schools, T-shirts, and even the rubbish bins at
a National Park campsite. It brings much-needed revenue to a
potentially fragile economy, but the trade-offs are equally as critical.
The process of uranium exploration and mining can be frightfully
destructive, and adolescent policies regarding mineral exploitation in
Namibia extremely worry environmental activists.
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Since mining is such a controversial topic in Namibia, we decided to
invite stakeholders from all sides of the issue to present their
perspectives to the learners. We tried in vain to create a panel-type
discussion consisting of both mining activists and representatives of
the mining companies, and were rather expectedly shot down. Instead, we
had guest lecturers present individually, on a variety of topics. Over
the course of the week we heard arguments from, mining activists,
spokespeople from the Uranium Institute (a coalition of mining
companies), a representative of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism,
an environmental lawyer, and ecologists with decades of combined
experience working with EIAs in Namibia.
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| Poor Arnold from MET wasn't expecting the endless questions... |
We couldn't have predicted how voraciously the learners critically
absorbed what they were being told. After they got over their initial
shyness, the learners questioned and debated every speaker, regardless
of their position on mining. They were even successful in slightly
rattling the lawyer. The discussions didn't stop after the lectures,
either. I'd often hear the learners, during dinner or in the free time,
continuing to challenge on another on what they had learned (albeit with
a slightly less...formal air).
Another unexpected result of the Summit was how the activities and
discussions throughout the week simultaneously enthused the Gobabeb
staff (myself definitely included). After the learners had gone to bed,
and the staff finally had a change to relax in Old House, the
conversations often drifted towards what we had observed and learned
during the course of the day. Seeing the learners take their place in
the debate surrounding mining in Namibia resonated with our work at
Gobabeb. It's not always easy to see the effects of what we do here,
both the research that we undertake and the training we offer. Watching
the learners progress through the week and leave with their critical
tools a little sharper, I think we all felt prematurely proud of the
difference, no matter the size, that these learners would make on their
communities.
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