Djibouti workshop, a photo immersion 1/4

The TRSC starts today a series of photo reports illustrating different aspects of the education and outreach workshop organised from 17 to 25 April in Djibouti in partnership with the University of Djibouti (UD) and in close collaboration with the local authorities.

Over six days, some 120 second-year Bachelor students from the Faculty of Science were introduced to the biology of coral reefs, the local and global threats to these fragile ecosystems and the challenges and methods to preserve them. They also discovered various professional opportunities related to environmental protection, outside the classical academic career.

For the vast majority of them, these young men and women not even in their early twenties finally had the opportunity to discover the coral reef environment during an excursion to Moucha Island, located off the coast of Djibouti in the Gulf of Tadjoura. For the first time in their lives, equipped with fins, masks and snorkels, they were able to get into the water and discover with their own eyes parts of the incredible ecosystem that borders the coast of their country, and that was unknown to them until then. Even though Djibouti is a maritime country, the sea remains a world apart for the majority of the population, far from its resolutely land-based culture. No doubt that vocations will be born from these encounters, exchanges and memorable experiences.

This workshop follows the scientific mission that the TRSC carried out in the Gulf of Tadjoura in September 2022, with the participation of the UD and the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche de Djibouti (CERD). It is part of the partnership established with the UD in the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions. In a long term perpective, it aims to help the University setting up an academic programme in marine sciences, scheduled to begin next September.

Episode 1: In the beginning were the corals. The first day of the workshop consisted of an introduction to the biology of coral reefs in the form of lectures given by members of the TRSC and UD teachers, as well as presentations by the students themselves, active participants in the workshop.