Rodrigues Island climate‑action trip for Mauritian Deba Klima winners

Three Mauritian students—Timothée Babajane, Gauthier Charlot and Samuel Dhookit—won the fourth edition of the Deba Klima competition organized by the Collège de la Confiance. As a prize, they spent four days on Rodrigues Island starting 21 July, accompanied by their teacher Michat Legrand‑Raout and representatives of Mauritius Commercial Bank.

During the visit they toured the François Leguat Reserve, seeing reintroduced giant tortoises and the island’s limestone caves, learned about long‑term biodiversity restoration, and observed the Central Electricity Board’s seawater desalination plant that supplies fresh water to the community. The group also visited Miel Victoria, a local apiary managing about 75 beehives, to see how pollination supports agriculture and ecosystem resilience.

The trip was designed to connect classroom learning on climate change with real‑world examples of water management, sustainable agriculture, and conservation, demonstrating practical solutions that small island communities employ to build resilience.