Princess Lalla Hasnaa from Fez/ We are continuously committed to African youth through the ‘African Youth Climate Centre’ initiative

On Tuesday in Fez, Lalla Hasnaa, President of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, chaired the Foundation’s Board of Directors in the presence of its members.

In her speech, the Princess highlighted the main achievements and flagship initiatives of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection for the year 2023.

In this context, Lalla Hasnaa recalled Her sustained commitment to African youth through the African Youth Climate Hub (AYCH) initiative during Her speech at the opening of the first annual high-level meeting of the ‘Partnership for Green Education’, organised by UNESCO and the Ministry of Education of the United Arab Emirates, on the sidelines of COP28.

In his speech, His Royal Highness emphasised the importance of sharing data fairly with countries in the South, while calling for concrete action to reduce the digital divide on the African continent.

Reaffirming her role as Patron of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development, an initiative overseen by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO), Her Royal Highness announced in her speech several projects launched by Her Foundation, notably at the third Foundations Dialogue, held in Monaco in June 2023.

These projects, which complement programmes that have already been in place for many years, such as the ‘Clean Beaches’ programme, to which the ‘Lalla Hasnaa Sustainable Coastline Trophies’ and the ‘Bharblaplastic’ operation have been added, aim to support the community of African university students in promoting knowledge of the oceans.

In collaboration with the Centre International Hassan II de Formation à l’Environnement, these projects will result in the creation of training resources, mainly online, to be used as part of the Decade of the Ocean.

The Foundation’s commitment to decarbonising the national economy was also a key point in the speech by Her Royal Highness, who spoke of the training provided to partner companies in the use of the carbon footprint calculation tool to measure their emissions, and the training in climate finance aimed at local authorities.

The highlight of His Royal Highness’s speech was the announcement to Board members of the inauguration of the historic Lahboul Park in Meknes, a restoration project being carried out in collaboration with various Foundation partners.

His Royal Highness concluded his speech by warmly thanking all the partners for their ongoing support and unwavering commitment to the environmental initiatives supported by the Foundation, thus contributing to a more sustainable and balanced future.

The Board of Directors approved the financial statements, after receiving the opinion of the statutory auditor, who certified that the summary statements were regular and fair and gave, in all material respects, a true and fair view of the results of operations for the financial years 2022 and 2023.

The Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection was created in 2001 on the initiative of King Mohammed VI, in order to contribute to raising public awareness of crucial environmental issues.

The Foundation’s core mission is to educate and raise awareness of environmental protection among the general public. Its priority targets are young people, from the earliest age to students, and then citizens, civil society, businesses, the administration, local authorities, universities and research.

The Foundation has teams dedicated to its many programmes, as well as the Hassan II International Centre for Environmental Training, its academic arm, which is strategically positioned in line with the Foundation’s educational approach for, through and about the environment, thus placing Education for Sustainable Development at the heart of its concerns.

It runs selected environmental protection programmes for which it brings together numerous local and international partners.

The Foundation’s work is based around five key areas: ‘Education for sustainable development’, ‘Protecting the coastline and the ocean’, ‘Air quality, climate, and safeguarding and developing the Marrakech palm grove’, ‘Sustainable tourism’ and ‘Restoring historic parks and gardens’.

About محمد الفاسي