Contributions from
the Column
InWEnt News

ch@t between worlds – online to the Amazon

Negotiations

Can statistics take the measure of human rights?

HIV/AIDS: a burning issue for African journalists

Information and training on AIDS control at the workplace



02/2003
  

Oil production in Latin America

ch@t between worlds – online to the Amazon

by Hinrich Mercker

Youngsters in North Rhine-Westphalia are learning through the Internet about the problems connected with oil production in Latin America. The pilot project ch@t der Welten aims to put around a thousand high school students in NRW in touch with actors in an InWEnt project in the Amazon Basin. The people on the chatlines will include representatives of COICA, the Coordinating Body for the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, as well as ministry officials and project team members.


Ch@t between worlds builds a bridge between development-related work in Germany and project work overseas. It is based on an Internet learning and communication platform for youngsters in grades 9 to 12, i.e. boys and girls aged around 15 to 19. The pilot project starts in February 2003 and will run for six months at 20 schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. The issue 'Oil in the Rainforest' provides an introduction to environmental problems worldwide and their social and cultural implications. Cooperation partners in the project are InWEnt's Environmental Policy and Environmental Management division in Berlin and Regional Center North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the Climate Alliance and the Landesinstitut für Schule NRW, the central state institute for curriculum development and teacher training in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The topic of oil production was chosen because it is a highly explosive issue in many Latin American countries. On the one hand currency receipts from the sale of oil pave the way for state investment, on the other the industry leaves a trail of environmental destruction and irreversible interventions in the territory inhabited by indigenous communities. The students in Germany will learn about such problems from an InWEnt project in the Amazon rainforest. For more than two years, an extensive dialogue has been in place between the energy ministers of Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and COICA. InWEnt supports this initiative with national and regional training and dialogue programmes. Together with the Climate Alliance of European Cities with Indigenous Rainforest Peoples and Harvard University, InWEnt also treats the issues of monitoring and supervising oil exploration in further training programmes for COICA and develops models for the involvement of indigenous groups. COICA stresses that it is interested in dialogue - but only in dialogue which does not conceal existing conflicts of interest and presupposes a capacity for dialogue on the part of all those involved.

Through factual information, depiction of the dialogue in place and opportunities for extended research on the Internet, the students will be able to get an idea of the situation and look for possible solutions themselves. What will be really interesting for them, though, is the opportunity to communicate over the Internet with the actors in Latin America. It means they will be able to "speak" directly to representatives of the indigenous population as well as to contacts in the oil industry and government ministries. Staff of Harvard University, non-governmental organisations and the World Bank will also be available for an online chat. To meet the special didactic and organisational challenges this project presents, a variety of discussion forums on key topics are planned. These will be chaired by teachers given special training at the Landesinstitut für Schule (LfS), which will also evaluate the project. The teachers will be supported in that role by specially trained environment and development tele-tutors.

Ch@t between worlds is a ground-breaking project, supported in its attempt to forge a link between development work in Germany and project work overseas by a powerful network: InWEnt's Environmental Policy and Environmental Management division in Berlin contributes experience and contact with the Amazon project, its Regional Center in Düsseldorf offers years of experience in development-policy education and PR work and acts as coordinator for the project in NRW. The teachers involved are trained at the Landesinstitut für Schule NRW, which is also in charge of embedding the project topic in the curriculum. The network gets advice from the Climate Alliance, which also contributes materials and contacts of its own. Ch@at der Welten is sponsored by Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBA) - one of the largest foundations in Europe, set up to support model, innovative pro-environment projects - and the North Rhine-Westphalian Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung, or Foundation for Environment and Development.

After nearly two years of preparations, the following conclusions can be drawn:
  1. Development studies should figure more prominently in schools and should not just be treated as a source of project week topics. Interdisciplinary approaches which build on what students see and experience in their own lives can be geared for greater impact through use of the Internet.
  2. The creation of an Internet-based learning and communication platform is costly and should be flanked by extensive teacher training and the use of tele-tutors.
  3. The more development cooperation becomes international cooperation, the more outdated the division of development-related work at home and project work overseas appears. Without a practical link to projects in the field, educational work remains abstract and without a link to educational work in donor countries, projects remain isolated acts of charity with limited effect.

Hinrich Mercker heads the Environmental Policy and Environmental Management division of InWEnt's Environment, Natural Resources and Food department in Berlin.