Students of William Knibb High School in Falmouth, Trelawny, will this week begin working with scientists at North Carolina State University in the US who are researching diseases affecting mangrove trees.

Under the Jamaican Awareness of Mangroves in Nature (J.A.M.I.N.) programme, spearheaded by the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation in partnership with the University of West Indies Discovery Bay Marine Lab, the students will search local mangroves for signs of a fungus that has been killing mangrove trees in The Bahamas and send samples to North Carolina.It marks the start of a new international citizen science programme between the parties, the foundation said.“I’m proud that my students from William Knibb High School can participate in solving environmental problems in the mangrove forest that are of regional and global concern,” said Fulvia Nugent, a teacher at William Knibb.J.A.M.I.N is a science education programme which teaches students the value of mangrove forests to Jamaica. It has been on offer at William Knibb High for the past three years, allowing students to venture into mangrove forests to learn about the plants and animals that live there, collect mangrove seedlings which they grow under test conditions throughout the school year, and then replant the young trees in selected restoration sites.This year the students established a long-term monitoring site in the mangrove forest, the foundation reported.“By monitoring the mangrove forest, students gained a deeper understanding of the scientific process and how to preserve mangroves,” said Amy Heemsoth, director of education for the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. “[They] have grown in their understanding of mangroves and their enthusiasm to conserve them.”Heemsoth also reported that students from Marcus Garvey Technical High School in St Ann’s Bay are now part of J.A.M.I.N.“They will replant their seedlings this week. They will establish a new mangrove restoration site at Seville Heritage Park, a cultural heritage site run by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation hopes to keep expanding the programme to additional schools,” she said.Kajana James, a student at William Knibb, said, “I have gained a lot of knowledge about mangroves and their importance from the J.A.M.I.N programme. Mangroves are vital to the environment for many reasons; however, they are also under threat.”Mangrove forests protect coastal communities from storms, prevent erosion, and provide critical habitat for commercially important fish species. The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, meanwhile, is a US-based non profit organisation that protects and restores ocean health through scientific research, education, and outreach.