Arai Chan Canul Arlenn Crespo Maldonado Concepción Pech Xool Griselda Gambrielson Chi Juan José Noh Ventura

During the 2 th CWWF We participated in Mexico with our project “Labyrinth of water culture” There, we explained how we are teaching other children to save water, was amazing to transform children into water drops, with imagination!

Imagine that we are little water drops … use your imagination

My little drops friends, we are traveling… Like clouds in the sky….

NOW we are rain…stand up and walk like rain… follow me…like rain

How important are water drops Children can find us in deserts … Inside of plants… Inside of humans… We are really important because we…

Results of the labyrinth We taught more than 53,000 persons during Many of these children now are participating in our environmental workshops

We are volunteers in HUNAB since 4-6 years ago; some of us now are directors of our own HUNAB’s environmental workshops in our towns

Our project is about: Aquaculture Is a technique that reproduce aquatic living beings Hydroponics Is to have crops but there are no soil, only sand. Water has all nutrients.

About Yucatán wetlands The coastal of Yucatan is one of the ten more important wetlands of México, unfortunately these areas are polluted and some native biodiversity are endangered.

The development of our towns depends of the natural resources, especially of water.

We are 29 friends (3-17 years old) from Mérida, San Crisanto, Sinanché, Yobaín and Puerto Progreso, all in Yucatán. And have pools producing and using water in efficient way and there are 50 friends more that want to have their own pools at home.

The phases of the project were: 1)We learned about aquaculture ( )

2) We rescued native biodiversity from wetlands ( ) Some places were polluted therefore we had activities to clean it, others wetlands were being dried and we collected fish and snails, some brackish fish were acclimate to fresh water and other fish are endemic

The animals that were saved, were like a loan, wetlands gave us the opportunity to reproduce them. Part of production were return to wetlands The other part were use to produce more

3) We are reproducing fish, snails and plants.

I want to talk about Mayan apple snail: When it born, has a measure of 2 millimeters 2 mm eye

Little eggs of Mayan apple snail

Mayan Apple snail 4 months after

Teeth of Mayan Apple Snail

4)We learned how to sale the plants, snails and fish When people ask us about where are these animals from, they were astonished when knew that are local species.

5)We are learning hydroponics and are including this technique in our pools.

We are reproducing by pool…

500 plants

1000 fish

5000 snails

And some money….

Using only…

900 liters of water… by year… by pool

= That produce Food Pets Handcrafts During one year by pool Take a shower same

How we did it? We optimize water management because our technique is by means of artificial wetlands; it makes cheap the production process and helps us to recycle water.

Everybody in our pools have a relationship. We feed fish Snails eats fish’s food wastes Plants absorbs wastes of fish and snails Plants give oxygen to water, snails and fish Roots of plants are the “Kinder Garden”

Return to healthy wetlands More production … For Sale… To water

Long term commitment This year the mayor of Mérida (city of our state) donated to HUNAB a land to build an environmental theme park. This park will be a place dedicates to train children and people about environmental issues, especially water culture because of the importance of water to guarantee the development of coastal towns. In this park, HUNAB will include the labyrinth of water culture and the aquaculture-hydroponics program.

In conclusion We are saving biodiversity from wetlands We spread the importance of wetlands We learned and reproduce local biodiversity with aquaculture techniques We are including hydroponics techniques We are engaged government, local authorities, local media, our families and friends. This project can be develop in other states of Mexico and in other countries, using local biodiversity.

Our hands may be small but our hearts are immense to take care of our grand mom Earth