At its heart, environmentalism, or going green, is really all about learning to think in new ways. It’s about thinking outside of the box and then sharing that knowledge with the public — because knowledge always predicates positive action.
That kind of thinking is what this post is all about.
I have to thank my friend from Algerian Television, Reporter Nor El Houda, for the information contained in this post. She presented some of it publically at the conference and more of it privately in greater detail.
Nor, a reporter for a Monday morning television program on Algerian TV, researches and reports on Algerian environmentalism — and this is the best part — she does it through postage stamps.
Seriously, and it’s fantastic.
I’ll provide a little history to put this in context. The country is located in the North of Africa and therefore is largely a desert. Geographically, it is the largest country in Africa.
Algeria won independence from France on July 5, 1962. At that time it was largely undeveloped and its population was very spread out — water and fertile soil were scarce and valuable resources.
Right after the war the country’s fledgling government realized it was going to have to create a campaign to address the serious environmental issues it faced, most notably, desertification. Without tackling these issues head-on, the country could not remain sovereign. Algeria needed to educate its people on ways they could help the country conserve what precious resources it had.
So, the question we’re all wondering: Why did they do it through postage stamps?
The answer is a practical one. Every year millions of letters are sent all across Algeria — even to the most remote regions. Millions of letters, millions of eyes and millions of minds. Both the sender and the receiver of a letter see the stamp it’s sent with. Images are a powerful medium and visual literacy succeeds where traditional literacy cannot.
With these factors taken into consideration it’s obvious why postage stamps became a dominant way to educate citizens on the environment.
Over the years the massages have ranged from tackling desertification and conserving water, to disaster relief for the devastating Algiers earthquake of 2003. There are also stamps on the national parks, endangered species, Arbor Day and the dangers of pollution, to name just a few.
Algeria is still a country that lacks development in many regions, and so postage stamps are still used as a dominate means to spread environmental messages. And information
Nor said she’s been collecting these stamps for years. The last time she counted was in 1997 — at that time she had over 500,000.
That number includes some of these duplicates she was kind enough to give to me:
This stamp from 1976 was designed to educate the public about ho they could help to fight desertification. The men shown are soldiers demonstrating how to plant trees strategically to create a “green dam” or an area of desert boxed in by trees. Eventually, the land within the green dam would transform from barren wasteland to fertile soil, and could then be reclaimed.
This stamp from 2003 is designed to show how water has historically been conserved in the region — from early civilizations through today. The idea here, according to Nor, is to pass on knowledge about how the region has dealt with the issue through time, so that current citizens can learn from successful strategies of the past.
This stamp from 2001 commemorates the National Parks of Algeria in order to reinforce the value of protecting wild areas and natural resources. These parks are areas of exceptional biological diversity in terms of the country’s flora and fauna.
This stamp is another call to action about desertification. Ne désertez pas les zones arides! Roughly translated: Don’t desert arid regions! — Pun intended 
This call continues to be a major theme of Algerian environmentalism.
This allegory stamp from 1985 is intended to spread the idea that environmental conservation includes not only the land, but the ocean and marine life as well.
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Be sure to check back next week for more information from: Going Green Beyond Borders — Tunisia, Algeria and the U.S.
Until then,
Laura
