Namibian Environmental Educational Network (NEEN) Conference 2014
The Namibian Environmental Educational Network (NEEN) Conference was held in the coastal town of
Swakopmund this year on the 24th -27th April 2014 and the theme for this year’s conference was
“Legacies and Futures” the conference was attended by 200 participants from all over the country by
mostly teachers, Environmental Educators as well as learners and students from all over the country
making it the largest attended NEEN conference since its inception in 1994, this conference is normally
sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism together with the NEEN.
The conference was opened with a welcoming dinner evening at the Swakopmund hotel on the 24 of
April, followed by a Presentation on Coastal Biodiversity & Coastal Environment Issues Film on the
Namib Desert Coast, the next day it was officially opened and the director of this ceremony was none
other than Martin Namutenya who is the current NEEN Chairperson with a warm motivational speech
from this year’s guest speaker Honorable Ben Amathila which had everybody in the conference room
speechless and short of words for the man who was raised in the coastal town of Walvis bay the speech
which was on past childhood experiences in the coast and how the coastal town has changed with most
of the wild animals that they use to see have slowly but surely disappeared also went into the bible and
reminded the environmental educators about Noah’s Arc and how it relates to environmental
conservation and motivated the teachers to take time and educate the youths, leaners, and students
about our biodiversity and the importance to conserve what we have for tomorrows generation. The
NEEN Conference is growing every year and for the first time a representative from the Ministry of
Education was invited to do the official opening Director of Education, Erongo Region Mr. John /Awaseb
was also invited at this year’s conference and made a speech aging his teachers to take the opportunity
of the network to learn and to teach environmental education by setting up environmental clubs at their
respective schools after this the floor was then opened for project and individual presentations.
Presentations are part of the conference and each yaer the call for papers always ask for projects and
idivuals that wish to exhibid and present the project activities and this year the list of presenters was
long and there where so many interesting presentations the first project to present was Mr Robert
Logan from Gobabeb topic was “Learning in the Desert” Lessons from the Youth Environmental Summit.
The youth Environmental summit is a summit organized by Gobabeb every year for learners from
different schools that come together and learn about live in the desert and then present and make
posters on what they have been leaning over the days this year the YES summit as it is called will be held
in Sesvlui from the 4 – 8 of May.
One of the presenters was Richard Horaseb from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources his
topic was on “Marine Environmental Education” he explained more about what his ministry is doing to
educate the learners environment by taking them into the sea for four days and educating them about
the sea and the different species that live in the sea he also took the opportunity to explain about the
National aquarium of Namibia and all the activities and challenges they have been experiencing.
The highlight of this 2014 conference was made by Dr. A. Kanyimba who Made the Announcements
about the EEASA 2014 Conference which will be held in Namibia this year and it will be again another
platform after last year’s successful Corp 11 to put Namibia on the world map all the SADC
environmental educators will be in Namibia and University of Namibia (Unam) will be hosting this very
big event together with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
Story Matheus Naule
DEA
Dr. A. Kanyimba
Honarable Ben Amathila
Mr John /Awaseb – Director of Education, Erongo Region
NEEN 2014 Participants