We like to congratulate José Gómez Penate from our partner organisation CEM in Côte d’Ivoire for having been selected by UNESCO as Green Citizen! Just at end of last year, the Government of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) announced its first Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Grand-Béréby. CEM (Conservation des Espèces Marines or Conservation of Marine Species), an African-European NGO founded in 2015, played an important role in this achievement, which meanwhile is also profiled as an LT&C-Example. The primary objective of CEM always was to protect marine turtles at this 40km long coast of Côte d´Ivoire: The olive ridley, Lepidochelys olivacea, the leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea, and the green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas, successfully reproduce at Grand Béréby. 

UNESCO values citizens projects and brings together the energies of local and international actors of change worldwide to give wings to innovative, impactful and duplicable projects for the planet.