Marco Carvalho
The University of Saint Joseph (USJ) was invited by the Municipal Affairs Bureau to co-organize Macau Green Week for the second year in a row. Last year, the activities of the 41st edition of Macau’s largest annual environmental initiative ended up being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Institute of Science and Environment was once again summoned by local authorities to co-organize the event.
Speaking to O Clarim, professor Karen Tagulao said that USJ will be represented at the 2023 edition of the Green Week Carnival – a two-day event that will take place at Taipa – by two exhibitors.
“The Macau Green Week is a week-long event that the Municipal Affairs Bureau organizes every year. We are just co-organizing one of the activities. There will be a series of promotional and educational activities related to the importance of protecting nature and greening the environment, on the 18th and 19th. The University of Saint Joseph is co-organizing, with two booths, the two-day ‘carnival’, where it will display posters, leaflets and videos,” Tagulao explains.
“Last year was the first time that we were invited to co-organize a part of the series of activities of the Green Week. Unfortunately, those initiatives were cancelled last year due to COVID-19. This year, we were once again invited to set up these booths at the same event,” says the biologist and researcher of the Institute of Science and Environment.
The participation in the 42nd edition of the Macau Green Week is a golden opportunity for the University of Saint Joseph to publicize and promote the work it has been developing in areas such as the protection of the mangrove ecosystem, water management and the superintendence of aquatic resources or the defence of a more sustainable use of the oceans.
Green Speak
- USJ will be represented by two exhibitors at the Green Week Carnival in Taipa.
- The university will showcase its work in protecting the mangrove ecosystem, water management, sustainable use of oceans, and superintendence of aquatic resources.
- USJ teachers and students will also take part in a mangrove planting initiative in Taipa’s coastal area.
“Co-organizing a specific part of the event – the booths setup- entails preparation of content and materials relevant to the theme of the Green Week or environment in general. We are preparing banners and display boards, videos derived from our own scientific research, as well as other relevant scientific sources,” professor Tagulao illustrates.
“It is our responsibility to provide the public, through the materials and activities in our booths, with accurate and updated information about the environment and green related topics. We aim to translate the science that we are doing into something that the general public will easily understand,” the University of Saint Joseph researcher adds.
The two booths that the the University of Saint Joseph will set up at the Taipa-Houses Museum on March 18 and 19 will focus, for the most part, on the dissemination of scientific information related with many of the research topics that have occupied the institute’s investigators over the last few years. The fundamental purpose, Tagulao claims, is to remind the population of Macau of the need to protect the environment.
“The two booths will provide information about the wetlands and the mangroves, algae, and aquatic ecosystems. We will be bringing some interesting educational setups that are simplified versions of what we actually do in our lab and in the field. We are also preparing some interactive, hands-on educational activities for the youth and the public in general,” the biologist and researcher concludes.
The participation of the University of Saint Joseph in the 42nd edition of the Macau Green Week is not limited to co-organizing the Green Week Festival. Teachers and students from Macau’s Catholic university will also take part, in the late morning of March 18, in a mangrove planting initiative in Taipa’s coastal area, next to the Ocean Garden residential complex.
(Photo courtesy: University of Saint Joseph)
Follow
