From 24th February 2024 to 2nd March 2024 Silja Klepp visited the Cabo Verdean city of Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente. She led a three-day course on Environmental Justice (EJ) as part of the Master’s program Climate Change and Marine Sciences. The course, organized in collaboration with WASCAL, focused on improving the understanding of the social dimensions of environmental conflicts and the relationship between humans and the environment.

Various teaching methods were used to promote interdisciplinary communication and collaboration. These included an intensive input day on EJ and social science research methods as well as two days where participants conducted small-scale EJ research and presented their findings.

A total of 13 Master’s students from 12 West African countries as well as one Bachelor’s student of law from Mindelo took part. The topics of their work ranged from desalination in Cabo Verde, environmental justice in the context of oil spills and oil-bearing waste to the EJ problems of mangrove exploitation in Benin and Guinea.

Further Information:
WASCAL https://wascal.org
WASCAL Cabo Verdean Graduate School https://www.ecopdecade.org/
UNESCO Chair on Integrated Marine Sciences  https://www.unesco.de/unesco-chairs-germany