New Observatories at Two ACoM Schools

Photo: Students and staff at Bsp Norman Palmer School with their certificates after successfully completing the observatory training course

The ACoM Environment Observatory is a community-based environmental monitoring initiative bringing together local knowledge, faith, and science to empower island communities in Solomon Islands to address environmental change. The initiative empowers local people to measure and document changes in temperature, rainfall, shoreline positions and extreme events, allowing them to keep their own environmental records, which can be used for decision-making on natural resource management and climate change adaptation.

Until recently, there were ten observatory sites, spread across three Solomon Islands Provinces. This month the ACoM Environment Observatory was extended to two Anglican schools in Honiara, Bishop Norman Palmer High School and St Nicholas College, bringing the overall number of observatories to twelve.

Students and staff at the schools are very excited about this new opportunity. In particular, staff members highlighted the benefits of outdoor learning for the students arising from the new observatory. Students will have the opportunity to transfer their theoretical knowledge of climate indicators to the collection, documentation and analysis of local climate data, providing them with a greater understanding of their local environment, climate change, and climate-related impacts in their community.