Environmental Education Program

The Fundación Brethren y Unida promotes an environmental education program directed at children and teenagers, to actively involve them in environmental issues and the management of natural resources.

Our proposal, intended as a complementary action to the education received within school, is directed to offer children and teenagers learning opportunities, that link the cognitive experience with rural living, through practical work in the countryside, relations with farming communities, excursions, and reflective workshops about the management of natural resources. In this way, they obtain greater knowledge and improved skills that offer a practical sense to their desire and commitment for the protection and defense of the environment.

We promote to the children and teenagers, values of respect for cultural diversity, for the environment and for rural work, in a manner that favours a more intimate and solid relationship between the two worlds, urban and country.

Working with schools and colleges

We work with those schools and colleges that wish to participate in environmental subjects, whether during various week-ends, as an intensive program over 11 consecutive days, or in micro-programs of one to three days, all based at our hacienda Picalquí.

Additionally schools/colleges can choose to participate in various excursions and camping outings, bound for the paramos surrounding Lagunas de Mojanda, that are complemented with technical talks from qualified instructors.

We maintain a formal agreement with the Ministry of Education and Culture, for which the teenagers in their penultimate grade of school (16-17 years of age) have the obligation to choose one of the official programs in the area of "Student Participation". They can opt for our intensive 11 day program, that is complemented with five additional technical presentations within the school or college, in subjects such as biodiversity, water, the paramo, local development and pollution. It is an experimental pilot program, that has been operating since 2002, and has already given very satisfactory results, illustrated by the annual increase of educational bodies wishing to participate in our "Environmental and Reforestation Program"

Our work

Reforestation: of the micro-valleyes within the slopes of Mojanda, in the areas around the hacienda Picalquí, on community land and in sites neighbouring participating educational institutions.

Forestal tree nurseries: at our hacienda, in nurseries pertaining to schools and colleges, and in a network of community tree nurseries in Pedro Moncayo.

Vegetable gardens: from an agro-ecological vision, in school and college vegetable gardens, both rural and urban, in the farming communities and in our own space at the hacienda Picalquí.

In the conservation of the protected forests of Mojanda: interpretation of land, conservation of the paramo and forests, and other activities linked to the actions directed by the local governments of Pedro Moncayo and Otavalo.

The daily program schedule at hacienda Picalquí

During each day prior to reforestation activities, the students carry out practicals in the tree nursery about reproduction (management of seeds and cuttings), transplanting and planting of native forestal species. After the forestation students participate in workshops covering subjects such as: the importance of conserving biodiversity for Ecuador, environmental pollution, the paramos and water, and the principals of local management of natural resources.

The reforestation days require that each student plants a minimum of a twelve trees on each outing, whether it is on the slopes of Mojanda or in a local farming community. We travel by truck, provided by the council, and we work with tools provided by the foundation. In addition agricultural practices are carried out at the hacienda during those days when reforestation is not planned.

Work agreements

We are accredited by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education and Culture, through the "Direccion Nacional de Educación Ambiental", as well as by the Provincial Head of Environmental Education in Pichincha, who certify the seriousness of our proposal.

We maintain an agreement with the council of Pedro Moncayo to work in the Protected Forest of Mojanda; we have longstanding relationships with various farming communities of the zone where they practice agro-forestry techniques.

Professional experience

We rely on qualified instructors who possess the appropriate skills working with groups of children and teenagers in the proposed subjects. They also command wide knowledge of the management of natural resources, ecological agriculture and the management of local development.

The team driving this proposal consists of technicians and community leaders that apply appropriate methodologies to achieve active participation of the local youth.

To develop the training activities, the FBU uses its own tree nursery for the production of native plants and has various hectares of land assigned to the cultivation of vegetables, cereals and fruits, all managed organically. For the forestation exercises plants and tools are provided by the foundation, as well as transport to the designated zones.

Our achievements

We have observed that children and teenagers participating in our programs have:

· illustrated a wider knowledge about the environmental situation within Ecuador.

· realized that their work effort, will, in time, contribute to forests that will help maintain the balance of local ecosystems.

· valued their contribution to the development of the rural communities.

· a greater understanding of cultural diversity.

· demonstrated a strengthening of the principles of belonging, solidarity and companionship.