The project of an environmental magazine, "L'Olivier", led by a high school in Taourirt in the Oriental region with the support of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment (FMPE), has won the prestigious "Green Apple Award Trophy".

After a first prize awarded in 2011 for "Exotic gardens, a space for educational discovery at the service of environmental education", the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment was rewarded a second time, notes a statement from the FMPE on Tuesday.

The project, which consisted of the creation of an environmental school newspaper, "L'Olivier", entirely produced by high school students, was considered "innovative and an example of good environmental practice".

It allowed for the development of knowledge, an environmental awareness among students, the use of information technologies, as well as the creation of links with the school curriculum, a network, and exchanges, the statement underlines.

The project also had an impact on the local environment, with the involvement of partners, associations, and the local press, specifies the same source, which adds that articles from "L'Olivier" were picked up in the local press.

And to note that field trips were provided by the municipal council of the city and the rural commune of Ain Lahjar.

According to the Foundation, companies financed the printing of the two editions, and even parents supported the students' receptions.

Available for download on the Internet, the newspaper serves as a medium to convey the ideas of high schools in terms of education for sustainable development.

"L'Olivier" was led under the guidance of Maimoun Maimouni, a teacher at the Zaitoun High School in Taourirt, in the Oriental region, who regularly supervises young reporters for the environment at his high school, whose work has been rewarded from 2012 to 2014.

"In five years, I have learned with my students what I missed during my life. If I had one thing to regret, it would be not having launched this experience years earlier", confides Mr. Maimouni with humility. And to add that "this experience has so marked the young high school students participating in the Young Reporters for the Environment (JRE) programme that many of them declare they want to pursue higher education related to the environment".