the fifth unesco/japan seminar on environmental...
TRANSCRIPT
The Fifth UNESCO/Japan Seminar on
Environmental Education in Asian-Pacific Region
FINAL REPORT
UN
ESC
O/J
apan
Sem
inar
on
Env
iron
men
tal E
duca
tion
in A
sian
Pac
ific
Reg
ion
Contents
Outcome・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 1
Opening Remarks・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 7 Mr. Yuzuru Imazato(Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)
Mr. Yasumasa Okamoto(Tokyo Gakugei University)
Dr. Shuji Yamashita(Tokyo Gakugei University)
Keynote Speech・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 15
Ms. Lucille Gregorio (UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Bureau for Education)
Resource Persons' Presentations
Mr. Takahisa Kusano (JICA, Japan) ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 27
Mr. Kazuhiro Harada (JICA, Japan) ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 34
Mr. Heiko Crost (FEE, Germany) ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 48
Country Reports
Australia Ms. Debbie Heck ・・・・・ 57
China Ms. Zhang Xi ・・・・・ 62
Fiji Ms. Viniana Kunabuli ・・・・・ 67
India Dr. K. B. Gupta ・・・・・ 72
Indonesia Dr. Atam Dastam ・・・・・ 79
Japan Dr. Kiyoshi Ogawa and Dr. Nobuyasu Katayama ・・・・・ 82
Malaysia Ms. Sharifah Fatmah Alhabshi ・・・・・ 90
New Zealand Ms. Heidi Mardon ・・・・・ 98
Pakistan Mr. Aurangzeb Rehman ・・・・・ 104
Philippines Dr. Angelina Galang ・・・・・ 111
Republic of Korea Ms. Hyo-Hyun Sung ・・・・・ 121
Thailand Ms. Koontolrat Ratanasing ・・・・・ 127
Vietnam Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son ・・・・・ 130
Future Hopes ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 135
Closing Remarks・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 141
Dr. Takeei Koizumi (Tokyo Gakugei University)
Agend ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 145
List of Participants・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 149
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Outcome
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Based on those presentations and succeeding discussions, the aims, goals, hopes and future visions of
environmental education (EE) in Asia Pacific were identified as follows:
On Educational Materials & Resources
1. The need for extensive capability-building and continuous professional development of teachers,
curriculum developers, school administrators, community members, NGOs, and the private
sectors. The purpose is to enable these groups to:
− develop quality low cost materials,
− make use of available materials and resources,
− utilize Information & Communication Technology, and
− adapt and develop materials for local needs including translation into local languages.
2. All sectors encouraged to openly collaborate through partnerships with governments, NGOs and
communities, private sectors, schools, and so on for the development of quality EE resources
and materials.
3. Countries to take steps to encourage the local communities to make use of available materials
and resources for EE promotion.
4. Further research needs to be done in EE. Current and future research needs and results to be
widely disseminated to all stakeholder groups.
5. EE make use of the media to promote EE and lobby governments for increased funding support.
On Teacher Education
1. For Pre-Service Students: Encourage student ownership, decision-making, and responsibility
for EE, through student-generated EE projects.
2. For In-Service Teachers: Use gentle, persistent, and creative persuasion to involve other
teachers in EE, through role modelling.
3. For Teacher Educators: Use gentle, persistent, and creative persuasion to involve teacher
educators in EE, by inviting them for nature outings and showing links between EE and their
content areas.
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4. For NGOs: Assist NGOs to better understand schools' needs so as to create a better fit
between NGOs and classroom educators, by explaining the school syllabus and teaching
methods.
5. For School Administrators: Show administrators that teacher education on EE can lead to
mutual benefits to the school as well as for the environment, through the infusion of thinking
skills in EE.
6. For Curriculum Developers: Help teachers understand key elements to include in EE, and in
each country, attempt to achieve a standard sequence for these elements, utilizing teachers
guides, workshops, and training courses.
On Policy
1. Set up a Ministerial Office on EE in Asian-Pacific Region as a long-term goal
2. Project for EE Network, to evaluate projects to assess EE impacts on society, which could be
linked to sustainability indicators activities.
The following six recommendations were put forward and agreed upon:
1. UNESCO Bangkok to facilitate the inclusion of EE on the agenda of regional education
meetings/conferences and environment meetings, also in the “Rio+10” Conference in
Johannesburg.
2. Establish a Regional EE Network with founding members from each of the Asian- Pacific
participating countries. Mechanism would be to:
− Nominate 5 members of the Steering Committee (countries nominated: Australia (representing Pacific States); India (representing South Asian countries); Philippines
(representing Southeast Asian countries), and Japan (representing East Asian Countries).
UNESCO representative will sit as ex-officio member of the Committee),
− The steering Committee will formulate and plan actions for the Asian- Pacific countries and
− Member countries represented in the meeting will be consulted before the action plans are
finalized.
3. Members of this regional network will set-up/strengthen their national network.
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4. Activities of the regional/national network will be disseminated through existing websites or
through internet/newsletters.
− Establish and maintain an Asia-Pacific EE clearinghouse with each country in the region contributing materials.
− Establish broad EE evaluation criteria for materials submitted.
− Materials to be reviewed by a panel of experts from Asian-Pacific region. Database of
resources and evaluation available via the www.
5. Encourage and promote the mutual sharing of expertise and materials through the
clearinghouse process.
− Asia-Pacific Regional Network on Environmental Education manage this process.
6. Encourage all governments within the Asian-Pacific region to develop EE policy and to allocate
funds specifically for EE. These funds should be reflected in the annual budgets/plans for
Ministry o Education/Environment. These funds should be allocated with equity and access as
key criteria.
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Opening Remarks
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Opening Remarks
Mr. Yuzuru Imasato
Director, Office of Planning and Coordination, International Division, Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Executive Secretary, Japanese National Commission for UNESCO
Prof. Okamoto, President of Tokyo Gakugei University, Prof. Ueno, the Vice President, Prof. Koizumi, Director of the Field Studies Institute for Environmental Education of the
university,
Ms. Gregorio, Specialist in Science and Technology Education, Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau
of Education of UNESCO,
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
First of all, on behalf of the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO and MEXT, the
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, I would like to extend my
heartfelt welcome to all the participants mainly from Asia and the Pacific Region on the
occasion of the opening of this seminar.
At the very beginning, please allow me to remind you that this year marks the 50th
anniversary of Japan’s accession to UNESCO as an official member state. It is my great
honour to say that throughout this half a century, MEXT and our National Commission have
been actively involved in UNESCO activities in various areas. And as an important
activity in the field of education, the Associated Centre Seminars in Japan implemented under
the framework of the APEID, Asia-Pacific Educational Innovation for Development, must be
appreciated here.
I attended the 31st General Conference of UNESCO which was held in Paris and its main
themes of this General Conference were its mid-term strategy for 2002-2007 and the
programmes and the budget of the year 2002-2003. We discussed them lively, and as a result,
they were adopted. Referring to the environmental education, it is regarded as an essential
element for achieving sustainable development with a view to enhance the understanding of
the management of environment. Without doubt, the objective of this seminar responds to
this passage, and I believe that the outcomes from this seminar will be very beneficial.
In Japan, new school curriculum standards for the elementary and secondary schools will
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start from the school year 2002 and 2003. In this new curriculum standards, we will have a
new course, namely a “period of integrated study”. This course, free from traditional
subjects such as history, science etc., aims to enable each school to organize its school activity
in consideration of conditions in the local community and the school itself. And the themes
to be studied in this course are recommended to be cross-cutting ones which include
environmental education as well as international understanding, information communication,
health and welfare. We are expecting that children’s understanding of environment will be
further deepen by these classes.
In closing, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all the staff of the Tokyo
Gakugei University who have devoted themselves to the preparation of this seminar and I
hope that the seminar will be very successful and that you all will enjoy your stay.
Thank you very much.
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Opening Remarks
Mr. Yasumasa Okamoto
President Tokyo Gakugei University
Mr. Imasato Yuzuru, Director, Office of Planning and Coordination, International Division,
Minister's Secretariat, Monbukagakusho (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology) and Executive Secretary, Japanese National Commission for UNESCO,
Professor Koizumi Takeei, Director, Field Studies Institute for Environmental Education, Tokyo
Gakugei University,
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great honour and pleasure to have an opportunity of making a welcome speech at the
opening ceremony of the Fifth UNESCO/Japan Seminar on Environmental Education in
Asian-Pacific Region. I express our hearty welcome to you all the participants from overseas and
domestic on behalf of Tokyo Gakugei University, which cosponsors and coorganizes this seminar
with Monbukagakusho (the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). I am
grateful to all the people of the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO and the Field Studies
Institute for Environmental Education, Tokyo Gakugei University who have been preparing for this
seminar.
Now at the beginning of the new century, environmental issues are among the most urgent
global problems. We all know that the present global condition is very critical, but it is after four
years of great difficulty that the United Nation's Kyoto Protocol pact was agreed to. It was agreed
to on the 10th of this month in Marrakech, Morocco, and after all without the United States of
America. Ratification still remains a big hurdle to be crossed before the Kyoto Protocol takes effect.
In this situation environmental education is becoming more and more important. We are
responsible to the next generation and posterity for the preservation and improvement of the global
environment. We ourselves have to become, and we have to bring up, environmentally responsible
citizens.
The theme of the fifth UNESCO/Japan Seminar is, I understand, how to train teachers for
promoting environmental education. Tokyo Gakugei University is a leading teacher-training
university in Japan, and we have been putting a great deal of effort into environmental education,
especially since the foundation in 1987 of the forerunner of the present Field Studies Institute for
Environmental Education. We opened a new graduate course (a night course) of environmental
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education for in-service teachers in April in 1997 and also we opened a new undergraduate course of
environmental education in April 2000. Our university's Field Studies Institute for Environmental
Education have been co-organizing with Japanese National Commission for UNESCO this
UNESCO/Japan Seminar since its second meeting which was held in December 1998.
I am sure that this fifth seminar will be a fruitful opportunity for exchanging and creating a
good many ideas and insights for environmental education and for training teachers for it.
I hope this seminar will bring all the participants into a deeper understanding and friendship
with each other. I also hope that you will have a good stay in Japan. Thank you.
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Opening Remarks
Dr. Shuji Yamashita
Dean Doctor Course
The United Graduate School of Education Tokyo Gekugei University
Good evening, Ladies and gentleman. On behalf of Tokyo Gakugei University, I would like to
welcome all the participants from overseas and domestic to this seminar.
It is my great pleasure to stand here and have a chance to make a welcome speech. At
Japanese-style reception we never fail to have a kind of speech at the opening of the party, and
tonight I owe this duty. I think it may be best that this kind of speech should be short and the party
would be better going on for a long time. And also all of you must be tired and thirsty, and waiting
toast because of serious and continuous discussions from this morning. However please give me a
few minutes and permit me to do my duty.
This seminar is fifth time since 1998, and some recommendations have been already released.
Nowadays any people can not be against the environment even from any economic or any
nationalistic point of view. And there have been so many conferences, symposiums or meeting so far,
and so many proposals or recommendations have been presented. However their final conclusion is
dependent on environmental education in almost all cases. This means environmental issues can not
be solved only through science and technology, or only through legislation, and must need
necessarily environmental education is to nourish environmental ethics. The reason why we need
environmental ethics is to sustain the present earth. For that purpose we understand we need to
change life style, however this is very difficult to do though it is easy to talk about it.
About 900 years ago Vikings in Greenland had starved and extinguished due to the climatic
cooling because they had not changed their lifestyle of their own country. If they had adopted
Eskimo's lifestyle, it is said that they could have survived in the cold weather. This is the case which
history reaches us how to survive. Even in Asia and Pacific regions we have many useful examples
of environmental education which have been already introduced at this previous seminars. Maybe I
think it is time to extend these ideas and to make those practicable in other regions according to their
own characteristics.
This year we have seminar in November when it is very good time in Tokyo because weather
is good and leaves of trees become yellow and red. From the ancient time Japanese have been to
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have been to say that autumn is best. For me I prefer four seasons climate like Japan. Anyway this
time of the year in Japan is one of best season. Moreover TV weather caster named Hirai who was
my student at my university forecasts very good and autumnal weather through this week. So
overseas delegates can enjoy Japanese autumn during your staying in Tokyo. Of course I hope all
participants enjoy tonight party. Thank you very much for your kind attention.
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Keynote Speech
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Keynote Speech Ms. Lucille Gregorio
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Resource Persons’ Presentations
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Resource Persons’ Presentations (JICA) Mr. Takahisa Kusano
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A Trial of Environmental Education and the Strategy for Supporting Systems in the Protected Area in Indonesia
Mr. Kazuhiro Harada
Introduction This paper describes a trail of environmental education in a national park in Indonesia, the
importance of mutual understanding between relevant actors such as local people, government and
so forth and future strategy for successful integrated environmental education through the
international cooperation.
Tropical Forest Currently the world has approximately 3.4 billion ha of forested land, which is 27% of the
world’s land area. Tropical forests cover 1.7 billion ha. But now the forests, which are essential to
our survival are disappearing fast caused by various human activities such as non-traditional swidden
cultivation and commercial or illegal logging conversion of forest lands to cultivation lands.
To conquer the difficulties and achieve sustainable development and conservation, some
specific managements as followings have to be focused on (Harada 2000).
・ Managing some forests and logged areas as production forests.
・ Permanent protection for as yet unllogged forests.
・ Regeneration forests in deforested areas in order that the original ecosystems may recover.
The specific actions are as followings.
・ Clear and legal demarcation of areas according to land use by governments.
・ Establishment of protected areas including national parks
・ A variety of afforestation projects by Asian governments aid and provided by other governments
or NGOs.
All these actions are closely related with human activities and may be achieved with participation of
local people who are largely depend on forest resources for their livelihoods.
Protected Areas 1) Concept
Many areas have been established to protect and preserve gradually declining tropical forests.
Establishment of protected areas is one of the effective tactics to realize the integrated forest
ecological management including flora and fauna. Protected areas is defined as “an area of land
and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of
natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means”
(IUCN 1997). Now 12,754 terrestrial and marine protected areas exist, which cover 1.3 billion ha, or
10.2% of the Earth’s land area. In Asia, especially in Indonesia, China and India, the number of
protected areas has drastically increased since 1970s (Fig.1)
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IUCN (1997) divides protected areas into six categories.
Category Ia: Strict Nature Reserve (protected area managed mainly for science)
Category Ib: Wlderness Area (protected area managed mainly for wilderness protection)
Category II: National Park (protected area managed mainly for ecosystem protection and
recreation)
Category III: Natural Monument (protected area managed mainly for conservation of specific
natural features)
Category IV: Habitat / Species Management Area (protected area managed mainly for conservation
through management intervention)
Category V: Protected Landscape / Seascape (protected area managed mainly for landscape /
seascape conservation and recreation)
Category VI: Managed Resource Protected Area (protected area managed mainly for the
sustainable use of natural ecosystem)
2) Problems From a global point of view, biological benefits acquired by managing protected areas include
the conservation of “genetic biodiversity”, “species diversity”, and “ecological diversity” (WRI et al.
1993). Protected areas play a significant role in maintaining valuable biological resources for
posterity.
However, when discussing issues pertaining to tropical forests or protected areas, it is
necessary to focus on the activities of local people who inhabit areas adjacent to environmental
resources. The main problems found in protected areas are (Harada in print)
・ Farmland and forests that are owned or used by the community become subsumed into protected areas.
・ Protected areas are not properly managed owning to inadequacies in personnel, budgets, and requirements.
・ Legislation and enforcement of laws are inadequate. To conserve “human cultural diversity” (WRI et al. 1993) the property and environmental
resource use of local people must be considered. Biological and cultural benefits are not independent
concepts; rather, through closer interrelationships they can achieve multiplicative effects.
Environmental Education in Protected Areas The purpose and concept of environmental education are different between developed areas
and marginal areas. Environmental education in marginal lands is expected to contribute to develop
and protect gradually the fundamental lifestyles of local communities. For them, forests are still the
places where “nature is meant to be used,” having lived there for many years regardless of the law.
For poor people who live day to day depending on forests, “biodiversity” is nothing more than a
slogan without a realistic notion. Because they are in a disadavantageous position without the
power to propose a revision of the law, they are forced to live with this dilemma. In a contradictory
structure with the government’s position to “prioritize conservation” and the people’s position to
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“prioritize lifestyle,” “developing country-type environmental education” is expected to play an
important role for the conservation of biodiversity while taking both positions into account.
The followings are what are expected in environmental education.
・ To observe and learn local knowledge
・ To help local people to understand the necessity of conservation of surrounding circumstance for their own benefits.
・ To support local people for sustainable use of agricultural lands.
An Example of Environmental Education in Gunung Halimun National Park, Indonesia 1) General information Gunung Halimun National Park is situated in West Java, Indonesia. The acreage of the area
is 40,000ha, with abundant primary forests, which can rarely be found in other parts of Java Island.
The high biodiversity can be assumed from the many birds, plants as well as mammals including
rare species unique to Java such as Java gibbons and Java mountain hawk eagles. On the other hand,
Java is the most density populated island in Indonesia, and many people reside inside and around the
park making a living by the use of natural resources.
Biodiversity Conservation Project of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) started
from 1995 and will continue till 2003, divided into Phase I and Phase II The activity of
environmental education started from 1997. The purpose of environmental education is to increase
awareness of biological diversity of local people. Moreover, it is considered that cooperation and
collaboration with NGOs, which have many grassroots field experiences and knowledge, is one of
the most important tactics to achieve the purpose.
2) Problems In this area, serious problems can be found.
a) Legislation of the national park When the park was established in 1992, proper zoning including regulation on the possession
and use of resources did not delineated without agreement between governmental authorities and
local residents. As a result, local people are prohibited to cultivate food crops or trees, or pick
or hunt the useful plants and fueling materials that are indispensable for the daily consumption.
Such a dispute over resources makes the management of the national park difficult.
b) Insufficiency of education in schools
Even though the compulsory education is nine years including six in elementary school and three
in junior high school, many people in this area have not graduated from elementary school.
Teachers’ consciousness and teaching quality is low. This can be possible because of the poor
treatment of teachers such as low salary and so forth. In addition, the equipment necessities for
education such as textbooks or writing materials are insufficient. The condition of school
building is poor as well.
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c) Lack of trust between governmental authorities and local people Local people have not been given any explanations directly from the government and are not
entirely aware of the role or the meaning of a National Park. Rangers who are supposed to
directly control the on-site area visit the villagers only once or twice a year. When they
occasionally visit the villages, villagers see them as the inaccessible and intimidating “policemen
of the forest” who keep checking on the villagers and try to arrest them for illegal tree-felling.
The staff of the National Park office also rarely if ever visit the site.
3) Target Groups The targets of environmental education can be roughly classified into three groups, which are
tourists, urban groups and local residents (Fig.2).
Tourists expect to discover “new wisdom” by putting themselves in a space of different from
their daily lives even if a certain degree of monetary expenses is necessary. Tourists expect to be
provided information about the national park, experience traditional life style and observe nature
with interpreters.
Local people are those who live in forests. It is necessary for us to work on protecting
villagers’ lifestyles, what happens to their lifestyles, what meaning a national park has for them.
Urban people are not especially conscious of nature in their everyday lives or seldom show
interest in environmental problems happening around them even they are relatively close to nature.
It is important for them to develop materials and construct an environmental education center.
4) Two Approaches
Two different approaches may be adopted in environmental education in this area. The one is
“direct environmental education” which can facilitate elementary school children’s understanding of
nature around them to give them some idea of the significance of nature conservation in the future.
This approach includes several processes such as “lecture in village”, “making materials”,
“evaluation” and “management of environmental education”(Fig. 3). Needless to say, each step has
to be continued and improved effectively.
The other is “indirect environmental education” which may contribute to reduce, even if only
slightly, the threat posed to their national park through their participation in the sustainable
management of natural resources which they use, as a result, conserve biodiversity. This is an
approach to learn from their traditional lifestyles and cooperate with them in developing and
implementing appropriate programs so that they will be able to coexist with the national park. This
approach consists of several steps such as “field survey”, “workshop with local people”,
“development of community-based programs” and “implementation of projects.”
5) Training At the first step, training are needed for rangers. In the park, there are many rangers who
coordinate their own management district. It is often the case that rangers are not functioning in
their roles approximately and most of them do not have a clear view of their role or know what to do
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with their time. As a result, the rangers have not yet good relationship with people. The purpose
of ranger participation of environmental education in elementary schools is to give them an
opportunity to feel responsibility for their work and to promote interaction between rangers and local
residents.
At the subsequence step, training for teachers is necessary for future. Teachers are taking
interest in environmental education but do not understand enough about methods or purposes of
environmental education themselves. Environmental education will take root in the area only after
the teachers acquire the ability to teach.
Outputs of training can be concluded in two. The one is that twenty-four rangers in every
resort were trained as facilitators for environmental education. This means that about one-third of
rangers in this park has already learned about the method to teach environmental education.
Secondary, rangers had the opportunity to participate or engage actively in the management of the
park. Actually, their responsibility is to patrol and take action illegal activities such as illegal
cutting or expansion of the agricultural lands. However, it can be considered that rangers and staffs
of the park not only have a role as forest security but also they have to build friendly relationship
with local communities through grassroots activities.
6) Materials
Materials were prepared. These are as followings.
For children: school bags, pencil case, notebook, jacket, story book
For facilitator: flipchart, manual for lecture
For general: guidebook, leaflet, calendar, poster, sticker
Materials such as school bags, pencil cases, notebooks, jackets and story books were
distributed after finishing the lecture in elementary schools. Even if the lectures finish, children can
read and learn by themselves continuously. Flipcharts and manuals are used in the implementations
in elementary schools and rangers have been studying by themselves by using materials. The
guidebooks, leaflets, calendars, posters stickers are distributed to those who visit the park office and
the national park.
7) Environmental Education for Children
With rangers performing a key role, the classes of environmental education were taught at the
elementary school both inside and around the national park, in a way that specialists and the staff of
the NGO as well as the park office supported the activity. The purpose of a lesson is to get students
to think about the importance of protecting animals and plants together by telling them how deeply
such animals and plants are concerned with their lives both directly and indirectly, and what would
happen to their lives if those plants and animals disappeared.
Outputs of environmental education are as followings. The one is that the environmental
education activities have been tried out more than 10 primary schools. The activity has been
continuously carried out. The second is that more than 100 rangers and staffs participated in the
activities and enjoyed their duties in the real fields. Their motivation of engaging in the park
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management began to be improved. Thirdly, rangers got the ability to conduct environmental
education by their own responsibility. They could develop the capability to conduct lectures
without the park staffs, the expert, or the staffs of NGO. The fourth is that the collaborative
relationship between NGOs and governments were built.
8) Field Survey
Community-based programs are essential so that people can sustain the same living by using
resources of the park. First of all, it is necessary to comprehend the present condition of residents’
lives by conducting the field survey. The basic field survey can give us fundamental information
for the community-based programs.
It was found that many cultivation lands which had been customarily used by local people
were embedded in the park without negotiation during the long history (Fig. 4). As a result, vast
tracts of private land of villagers were not been recognized as land ownership, included within other
institutions areas such as plantation area, state forestry cooperation area and national park (Table 1).
The agricultural cycle based on several agricultural styles was found (Fig. 5). In addition, the local
people largely depend on forest resources for their daily consumptions (Table 2, Table 3). Local
people’s knowledge of the national park is extremely high and they agree that using forests in the
park can destroy the ecosystem. However, many people eager to be given the right to use forests
and lands.
Outputs of the field survey are as followings. Firstly, the social and economic village
conditions were revealed. Secondary, the orientation of community-based programs was pointed
out such as agricultural development, plantation of useful plants the demarcation of the
communities’ property lands and so forth. These programs are going to be considered in detail.
Conclusion of Implementation of Environmental Education The conclusion of implementation in Gunung Halimun National Park can be summarized
as followings. Firstly, the method of environmental education in the national park was developed.
This method can be adopted in other areas not only in Indonesia but also in all over the world.
Secondary, the necessity of environmental education was comprehended by rangers, staffs and
teachers. Thirdly, rangers and staffs acquired the ability to conduct environmental education. The
fourth point is that local people could have the opportunity to negotiate with park staffs and a little bit
improve the misunderstanding about them. The fifth point is that individual and institutional
relationships between the government and the NGO have been built.
Substantial Supporting System 1) Role of NGOs
NGOs can be “intermediary” or “third party” to mediate both local people and governments.
In addition, NGOs can play an important role to deliver and fulfill the immediate needs services
which can not be carried out by large-scale governments. This can be probably achieved by the
encouragement of local participation by NGOs. The ideal participation is that local people can be
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involved in every stages of decision-making. If these participation is adequately succeed, local
community be empowerment and organize local institution for their own responsibilities. Apart
from these, NGOs can represent people’s interests and rights through advocacy. Local people do
not have self-power to insist their basic living rights.
There are seven NGOs in Gunung Halimun National Park who have carried out
community-based programs such as distribution of vegetable seedlings, plantation of first growing
trees, ecotourism, boundary mapping, establishment of mini-hydraulic power plant and so forth.
However, these projects cannot run continuously. Even if their programs have been carried out
continuously, the positive impacts on local communities are limited. The problem may be the lack of
finance, technology, capacity building and so forth. Annis (1988) states that “small-scale” can
mean merely “insignificant”, “politically independent” can mean “powerless” or “disconnected”,
“low-cost” can mean “underfinanced” or “poor quality” and “innovative” can mean simply
“temporary” or “unsustainable.” NGOs must recognize that their own activities can be limited
without financial, political and technical supports of governments.
2) NGO-Government Relationships
It is obviously effective that cooperation of NGO for implementation of environmental
education. However, the problem between NGOs and governments can be frequently found and
can be obstacles for the substantial achievements. Governments incline to ignore the existence of
NGOs and not to evaluate the potential capacity of NGOs. They do not try to recognize the more
effectiveness of the programs if they cooperate with NGOs. On the contrary, NGOs themselves
avoid the linkage with governments and only criticize the activities and policies of governments.
This situation can make the relationship worse.
3) Role of Experts
Fig 6 shows the relevant actors who have any connections with local communities. States
can be categorized as public sector, which are large-scale and have powerful authorities. Local
communities are collective actors which are based on group systems. NGOs are private sector
which principle is voluntary organizations participatory decision-making. Basically, south NGO
can directly support grassroots community activities. Experts can support or cooperate
governments to solve the actual problems in the field to achieve the local needs. However, it is
often difficult to reach the sufficient achievements. This is the reason why NGO are expected to
cooperate with governments. The cooperation of ODA with NGOs can strengthen the activities.
Three types of partnership can be found. The first is that ODA directly cooperates with south
NGOs. The second is that ODA cooperates with the representative of South NGOs. The third is
that ODA cooperates with north NGOs. The common thing in each case is that south NGOs have
direct responsibility in the real fields.
Thus, experts can be a bridge between central governments and NGOs. Experts can play an
important role to make opportunities to facilitate good relationship between two parties for the future
sustainable development.
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Conclusion The conclusion can be summarized as the followings. Firstly, local empowerment through
environmental education is essential in protected areas in developing countries. As is shown above,
in the protected areas local use of resources have to be guaranteed, while preserving fauna and flora
for the purpose of biological diversity. If local people are ignored, the real biodiversity
conservation can not be achieved. Secondary, it is important for experts to strengthen cooperation
and collaboration not only with governments but also with NGOs. To compensate both sides each
other, the close cooperation is indispensable. Thirdly, experts can play action-oriented supportive role
for related institutions for the future self-reliance. It is necessary to do technological and financial
cooperation with international organizations and relevant organizations throughout the world in the
first stage by experts. However, experts can only play a role as facilitator, catalyst or their party.
The sustainable management can be accomplished by the local-based management in cooperation
with relevant actors.
References Annis, S. (1988) Can Small-Scale Development be Large-Scale Policy? In Direct to the Poor:
Grassroots Development in Latin America edited by S. Annis and P. Hakim. Boulder and
London: Lynne Reinner, pp. 209-218.
Harada (in print) Protected Area. In The State of the Environment in Asia 2002-2003. Tokyo:
Springer [in Japanese, Hogochiiki no Genjyo in Ajiakankyohakusho 2000/01. Tokyo:
Toyokeizaishinposha. pp. 306-310.].
IUCN (1998) 1997 United Nations List of Protected Areas. IUCN.
WRI, IUCN and UNEP (1993) Global Biodiversity Strategy: Guidelines for Action to Save, Study,
and Use Earth’s Biotic Wealth Sustainably and Equitably. WRI, IUCN and UNEP.
- 42 -
- 43 -
Phase 1
Phase 2
Prelim inary Lecture
in a V illage
Lecture in V illage
Evaluation
M aterials
Management of Environm ental
Direct EE
Com munity-based Program s
Prelim inary F ield
Survey
F ield Survey
Workshop with
Local People
Projects
Indirect EE
Awareness of Local Communities
Fig. 3 Two Approaches
Education Center
Tourist
Pro vid e In fo rm a tio n
Na ture O b se rva tio n
w ith In terprete r
E xpe rien ce T ra ditio na l
L ife Sty le
Local People
D e velop M a te rials
Im plem e nt L ectu re s
C a rry o u t Su rv ey o f
L oca l C o m m u n itie s
Sug g es t a n d
Im p le m e n t
C o m m un ity-ba se dPro g ra m
Urban People
D ev elop M a ter ia l
Co n stru ct a n
E nviro nm e nta l
Ed uca tio n C e nte r
Fig. 2 Target Groups
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Fig. 4 Historical Changes of Forest Divisions
Table 1 Proportion of Land Acreage (%)
Paddy Field
Village Name Private PlantationState ForestryCooperation National Park
Ciptarasa 17.9 0 81.5 0.6
Leuwijamang 54.2 15.9 0 29.9
Cibedug 1.8 0 7.7 90.5
Gardens
Village Name Private PlantationState ForestryCooperation
National Park
Ciptarasa 3.4 0 96.6 0
Leuwijamang 25.9 7.6 0 66.5
Cibedug 3.9 0 0.7 95.4
Netherlands
Japan
1960
1977
1979
1992
Forestry (Kehutanan)
Strict Nature Reserve (Cagar Alam)
National Park(Taman Nasional)
Plantation
Local Government
Protected Forest (Hutan Lindung)
Community Land
Plantation(Perkebunan)
Private Property
State Forestry Corpo rationPlantation
Community Land
Strict Nature Reserve
Private Property
Private Property
Private Property
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
(Garapa n)
Private Property
Private Property
State Forestry Corpo ration (Perum Perhutani)
(Milik) (Desa)
- 45 -
Swidden Cu ltivation (h um a/ lada ng )
Secondary C rop (jami)
Secondary Forest (re um a kolot)
Shrubland (re um a n gora ) Garden (ke bun)
Mixed Garden(ke bun ta lu n )
Paddy F ield (saw ah )
Water is abundantWate r is no t abundant
(less than 5 yea rs)
(more than 5 years)
Primary Forest or Old Secondary Fo rest (leuw eung kolot)
(1~2 years)
(1~2 years)
Tree Garden(ta lun)
1) Swidden cultivation is often conducted within mixed gardens or tree gardens.2) During the fallow season, vegetables are cultivated and fish are bred in paddy fields.3) Paddy fields are often converted to gardens.4) Secondary forests and tree gardens seldom revert to old secondary forests.
Fig. 5 Traditional Agricultural Cycle
- 46 -
Table 2 Frequency of Gathering Wild and Domesticated Species as Food and Fuel Wood within 30 days (%)
Table 3 Places Where People Gather Food and Fuel
Wood within 30 days (%)
FoodPrimary forest Secondary forest Garden etc. Paddy field Others
Old secodary forest Scrub
Ciptarasa 11.4 8.5 67.1 13.0 0
Leuwijamang 4.6 8.7 74.8 10.5 1.4
Cibedug 15.1 4.2 63.1 17.5 0.1
Fuel WoodPrimary forest Secondary forest Gardens etc. Others
Old secondary forest Scrub
Ciptarasa 22.6 12.3 65.1 0
Leuwijamang 12.9 21.9 50.3 14.9
Cibedug 41.0 34.0 24.8 0.2
Food Fuel wood
Wild Cultivated Wild Cultivated
Ciptarasa 39.2 60.8 60.0 40.0
Leuwijamang 31.2 68.8 38.1 61.9
Cibedug 35.2 64.8 76.6 23.4
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Public sector
Collective action sector
Private sector
SN GO SN GOSN GO
SN GO
Central Governmen t
Local Com m unity
N NGO
Local Governm ent
Fig. 6 Relationships among State, Local Community and NGOs
ODA
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Resource Persons’ Presentation (FEE) Mr. Heiko Crost
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- 55 -
Country Reports
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AUSTRALIA
Sustaining and Developing Environmental Education in Australia: Exploring national support systems
Ms. Debbie Heck
Introduction
Environmental education has been defined by the national government in Australia in 'its broadest
sense to encompass raising awareness, acquiring new perspectives, values, knowledge and skills, and
formal and informal processes leading to changes behaviour in support of an ecologically sustainable
environment' (Department of the Environment and Heritage 2000:3). This paper will explore what
support systems have been put in place at a national level to sustain and improve environmental
education.
Support Requirements
In Australia seven areas of need have been identified by the national government through a
consultation process nationally. The seven areas include:
1. development of a national framework for environmental education activities;
2. raising the profile of environmental education in Australia;
3. better coordination of environmental activities;
4. greater access to quality materials
5. more professional development opportunities for teachers in the formal education sector;
6. more integration of environmental education into mainstream education (including tertiary
level education) and vocational training activities;
7. better resourcing of community organizations involved in environmental education.
The Department of Environment and Heritage Portfolio has been identified as the area within the
national government that should take responsibility for addressing these needs through undertaking
the following three responsibilities:
• development of a national environmental education strategy, which seeks to better coordinate
current environmental education activities;
• provision of high quality accessible and relevant support services for environmental education;
• provision of funding to support contributions already being made by State and Territory Governments, industry and community.
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Examples of Support
To achieve the above aims the Minister for Environment and Heritage has developed through a
process of consultation a national action plan outlining the strategies and activities that will be
undertake by the government to support and sustain environmental education. This document was
released in plan from in July 2000.
The National Environmental Education Council was established in July 2000. The role of the
National Environmental Education Council is to seek to address the areas of need through the
provision of advice to the Minister for Environment and Heritage on how environmental education
should be progressed in the areas of schools, tertiary, business, industry and the community. The
terms of reference of this council include:
• maintaining an overview of national environmental education programs and materials;
• identifying priority environmental education issues for national action;
• identifying priority environmental education research needs in Australia;
• providing strategic advice on the environmental education activities of the Environment and heritage Portfolio
• providing advice on the forward work plans of the Australian Environmental Education Foundation;
• advocating practical environmental education in all spheres of education and formal training in vocational, business and industry and community education sectors;
• providing annual reports to the Minister with recommendations for further implementation of the National Action Plan
The council is made up of a wide range of members including those from the following groups
students, teachers, academics, indigenous, science journalist, education bureaucrats, education
specialists, industry and business representatives. Members of council have joined one of three
committee groups to consider carefully the interests of schools, tertiary and business. The school
committee has for example commissioned a curriculum mapping exercise. The purpose of the
exercise is to provide a snapshot of where environmental education is included in the state and
territory curriculum documents. This will provide a great deal of information that will support both
the government in making funding and program decisions but also other organizations and
businesses developing materials for use in schools. The analyses of the gaps evident in environment
education will provide a significant set forward for formal environmental education in Australia.
The next task of the school committee is to further explore ways to audit environmental education
materials developed by community, professional groups, educators, publishers, business and industry.
One of the key criticisms of environmental education has been that because many teachers are not
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trained in the area of environmental education they do not have the ability to be discerning about the
materials. There is a lot of concern that environmental education materials produced are biased.
There has also been a great deal of material developed of very questionable quality. One support
mechanism for teacher and those developing materials is a quality audit process that will allow
teachers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of materials that they might access on various
topics. The development and implementation of the process has not been confirmed, at this stage this
area in being discussed by council only.
The tertiary committee has begun work with Universities by holding forums at some universities to
allow members of business and industry an opportunity to talk with senior members of the university
staff about the needs for the development of environmental education in the tertiary sector. There are
two main thrusts to this work. First, the development of sustainable management practices within the
intuitions that will allow students to experience the outcomes and processes involved with best
environmental practice. Second, there is a need to ensure that all students have access to the
consideration of how their future job or profession impacts on the environment as well as how
humans generally impact on the environment. To date one forum has been held providing the
opportunity for those from finance, worm farms as well as students to express their ideas about what
is important for future graduates from university.
In addition to the National Environmental Education Council a National Environmental Education
Network has also been established. The Network has members from education and environment
portfolios from the state/territory and national level government. To date members of this group have
meet twice to discuss the status of environmental education in Australia. The process of meeting
regularly has been a fantastic support mechanism for those working in state/territory and national
government. The network has allowed those working in environmental education to make
connections with each other and provided them with opportunities to share ideas and resources.
These meeting have resulted in a number of state/territories developing joint project or adopting
strategies already proven to work in other locations.
Maintaining an up to date communication mechanism with environmental education is also one of
the challenges. The mechanism used to maintain communication has been a web site. Recently the
Environmental Australia website has been updated. There are special pages dedicated to informing
everyone about the work of the National Environmental Education Council and the National
Environmental Education Network. There are also a wide variety of links to organizations and
programs in environmental education offered through this very important tool. The Environment
Australia website is located at the following URL http://www.erin.gov.au/education/index.html
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Future Plans
There are a number of aspects of the national action plan that have not yet been undertaken. The
main reason for this has been access to funding. One of the key strategies is the development of an
Environmental Education Foundation. The role of the foundation is a very significant one in terms of
teacher professional development, writing quality materials as well as the development of research as
needed in the field of environmental education. As the work of the National Environmental
Education Council progresses I am sure that more and more of the areas of need within
environmental education will addressed. Australia at the time of writing this paper is currently due to
go to the poll for the election of that national government. The fate of the National Action Plan and
the Council will lie in the hands of the elected government.
Lessons Learnt
To sustain and further develop environmental education in Australia it has been important to:
• develop some sort of base line information or snapshot of what environmental education looks like this is being undertaken in the school and business sectors
• strategies and plans for supporting and developing environmental education need to be developed in a consultative manner with all stakeholders
• consultation takes a long time
• maintain open lines of communication within and between environmental education
providers
• seek to identify innovative ways of influencing those in power about the importance of
environmental education
Conclusion
This paper has explored some examples of support activities and mechanisms developed within the
national environmental education arena in Australia. There have been significant gains in terms of
levels of support for environmental education in Australia since the release of the National Action
Plan in July 2000. The Australian Association for Environmental Education has played an integral
role in the development of environmental education in Australia and the support this organization
plays is significant. However, there is still need for further support mechanisms to be developed by
both government and professional associations to sustain and develop environmental education in
Australia.
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Reference
Department of the Environment and Heritage (2000). Environmental Education for a Sustainable
Future: National Action Plan. Canberra, Environment Australia, Department of Environment and
Heritage.
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CHINA
EPD Project in China
Ms. Zhang Xi
Background EPD Project has been undertaken in China for three years since 1998. Chinese Working
Committee of EPD Project had organized national five workshops and considerable achievements in extending EPD project, disseminating successful experiences for the end of upgrading the quality of basic education. International Education Bureau of UNESCO, National Commission of the People Republic of China for UNESCO and Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences provided great support for EPD project including sending experts to project schools organizing headmasters of project schools to for short-term training abroad.
Development of Chinese EPD Project 1. The number of EPD schools
At present, there are more than 150 EPD schools that fall into three categories, that is member schools, experimental schools and national model schools (leading) schools. (See the below) Name Number % Member schools 150 (more) 100% Experimental schools 120 80% National model schools: 20 13%
●Member schools refer to schools registered in China and willing to participate in EPD project
and abide by Constitution for EPD Project.
●Experimental schools refer to schools which have stable teaching resources and involved in
pilot projects for at least two years under EPD principles headmaster. Among 150 member schools of EPD Project in Beijing and other provinces, 120 schools were
selected as experimental schools according to constitution of EPD Project from December 2000 to March 2001. After application submitted, Natcom studies credentials and conducted field trips to schools located in various area. At the end of March 2001, 120 schools were approved as first group of EPD experimental schools in China.
●Standard for model school:
(１) Profound understanding of EPD Project's principles, thoughts, fundamental conceptions and outstanding theory development;
(２) Education quality of experimental schools is improved greatly and appraised by students, teachers, paterfamilias and superior leading departments through developing EPD Project;
(３) Through EPD Project, a lot of advanced teachers who get marked result in the aspect of creation of education and teaching and obtain honor titles above district level are successfully trained;
(４) Through EPD Project experiment, headmasters form scientific and special thoughts of running
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schools. The schools get successful experience of improving education quality and are appraised by superior leading departments above district level.
Based on 120 existing experimental schools of EPD Project, Chinese Working Committee of
EPD Project will organize to examine the first group of national-level model schools of EPD Project.
20 national-level model schools of EPD Project should be planned to examine. 2. Principle
All of EPD activity aim to raise teachers’ consciousness on further understanding of environmental education in primary, second school and vocational school, to become a new school-model, that is student-center learning. And educate children teenagers to foster the awareness of environmental education, scientific thinking mode, scientific learning methods, and health for sustainable development, and cultivating their relevant abilities.
Five broad principles posed for designing concrete intervention in EPD project, namely:
• to help all of students attach themselves to (not forced to) the whole education process, • to give new comprehensive course, that integrate education,not teach directly, • to encourage to cooperation study, • to attention to society ,community, • to encourage to innovation for progress.
3.Training
Training is important to the headmasters and teachers in EPD, now there is third class by
different organizer in China:
The first is school-based. A lot of specialists were asked to go to EPD member school and
give their advance. Some lessons to the views, and teacher talk about their experiment, question each
other.
The second is area-based.
Area-based training aimed to promote area EPD working.
From January to August 2001, 16 training of teachers’ qualification of provincial, city and
district levels had been organized. 4100 teachers had received the training. And 6 Training for
headmasters of district level was organized. 700 headmasters are received the training. The third is national workshop. Five national courses were given to teachers and headmasters. Form the 5th national courses of EPD Project; we know the main method of training includes:
(1) Monograph reports (2) Experience exchange of teachers
(3) Rewarding exemplary schools or teachers 149 excellent thesis and 128 excellent cases are chose by Chinese Working Committee. All
of those will be published a series of “EPD in China” Standards of excellent thesis:
(1) Thesis is outstanding to show leading thoughts, fundamental conception and experimental principle of EPD Project;
(2) Thesis comes from typical examples and actual school experiment;
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(3) Conclusion is creative, which has constructive meaning to education reform and sustainable development of economic society.
Standards of excellent case: (1) Choose actual education and teaching example from EPD Project experiment; (2) Teaching case in the class should give prominence to show 5 principles.
4. Exchange of Experiences and EPD Forum
29 EPD exhibitions have been organized, including inspections and instructions for 8 times by Natcom. Main content of exhibitions were class visit, course evaluation by experts, exhibition of experimental result of school EPD Project, speeches of students and evaluation of paterfamilias and communities.
According to the plan, “Education Forum of Environment, Population and Sustainable Development” wi11 be held from 4 to 6 December 2001.
In view of the present situation, a document << Constitution for National Project on
Environment, Population and Sustainable Development (EPD) >> were discussed in 2001.EPD
school categories, standard, principle and others were adopt.
Three supporting systems of environment education: materials, human resources and social resources Latest definition of supporting system covers not only the resources in term of materials such as curriculum, textbook but also the human resources including teacher, technology, and information. It even contained many other symbolic things such as policy, networking and social relations, which are popularly considered. Support system Materials Human Resources Social Resources Example Curriculum,
Textbook, Information
Teacher, policy, Networking, Technology,
Social relations, NGOs, Mass medium
●About materials: (A case : “to protect nature” is requested to be taught in nature and social ,Grade 6 in Primary school, by Ms.liyan ,Zhanlanlu No.1school Xicheng district, Beijing)
Environment education has been a significant part of education system in China, but is not an independent course.
The content attached to environment education are offered in nature and social, science, Chinese language and extra-curriculum, even integrated in various subject.
In China, teachers often make more use of books, newspapers and pictorial than video .The
reason is a series of “ to protect nature ”were published, but publication special compiled for
education were difficult to find, even video. In fact, teachers should use all materials. A more important fact is that it is difficult to find children ’ books of environment education, it
led to many problems including decreasing students’ subject matter interest. Hence, more and more printed matter and video on environment education should be developed
for not only teachers but also children.
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●About human resources
A. Teacher (A case: an investigation about garbage can in Liangxiang district)
--For a teacher it is obviously more important to his idea on teaching than renew the textbook. --Teacher job
The teacher’s job is to nurture divergent solutions and to help students to recognize and expand their ability to think critically. He or she acts as a catalyst, encouraging students to propose hypotheses and to analyze the validity of previously gained personal and academic knowledge.
--Subject-matter interest
The effect for subject-matter interest was also significant at all levers of success and failure and student type.
In short, people enjoy and appreciate learning more about what already interests them than
about topic that holds little interest.
So teacher need make everybody interest subject matter.
--Inquiry lessons that encourage students to develop their own frames of thought are complicated and time consuming to plan but extremely effective in the classroom. --Emphasize cooperation rather than competion. --Child-sensitive, high-quality care in classrooms promotes pro-social behaviors. B. Policy & Networking
Today, more and more policy-makes in china have had a clear idea of the important of environmental protection, serious of policy were draw up and networking was established. (Give a graph of networking)
C. Technology
The digital media is causing educators and students alike to shift to new ways of thinking about teaching and learning.
The effects digital media produces on teaching can be boiled down to 8 major ones. Needless to say, a whole generation of teacher’s needs to learn new tools, new approaches,
and new skills.so digital media should be developed urgently. ●About social resources
A. Social relations It’s well known people live work in distinct community, and culture of community will
imperceptibly influence. In spur everyone in community on awareness of environment, school
plays a guide role.
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B. NGOs Non-government organize should master public mind easily, so organize activity are
welcomed and achieve function. (“Volunteer activity”)
C. Mass medium Mass medium is a main socialized channel of environment education, including
Radio, TV, advertisement, poster can make a breakthrough for limited school education.
In short, more and more work in supporting system on environment education remains to be done. Great efforts are to be made for flexible policy, enriched teaching materials, learning strategies.
Following china’s accession into the WTO, opening up of china to the world enters a new
stage. We dedicate ourselves to developing a free economic, also make great efforts to
promote the consciousness of environment.
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FIJI
Reciprocal Support Systems in Environmental Education Fiji Report
Ms. Viniana Kunabuli
1. Brief Background about Fiji
1.1 Geographical
Fiji is very small by global standards, its land area being 18,272 square kilometers. Over 300
islands comprise the Fiji Archipelago, out of which only 97 are inhabited .Fiji is located
between the latitudes 15 degrees and 22 degrees south of the Equator; and between 177degrees
west and 175 degrees east longitude.
1.2 Population
Fiji’s population is close to 800,000
1.3 Educational Institutions Primary schools - 705
Secondary schools - 152
Regional University - 1
Technical Colleges - 2
Teacher-training Colleges - 3
Medical school - 1
Nursing school - 1
2. Environmental Education
2.1 In schools Environmental Education is not taught as a subject on its own in primary and secondary
schools. Instead, environmental education is integrated across the entire school curriculum
with every subject area at every year level dealing with the environment in some way. Some
subjects, by their very nature, present greater opportunities for environmental education than
others but all have something to offer.
One of our responsibilities at the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of
Education has been to train teachers (during Environmental Education workshops) to
improve their knowledge and skills in delivering Environmental Education using the
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existing curriculum and to recognise the vast assistance they can receive from other support
systems.
2.2 Tertiary Institutions – These have courses and or units in Environmental studies.
2.3 Non-Formal and Adult Education
These are carried out largely by other Government Ministries, NGO’s and
Municipal Councils.
3. Support Systems in Environmental Education Many Government and private organisations engage in activities relating to Environmental
Education :
3.1 Government Departments
3.1.1 Ministry of Education ( Curriculum Development Unit)
CDU runs environmental awareness workshops for teachers at all levels.
CDU also liases with other ministries and NGO’s on issues relating to other
environmental programmes and activities.
3.1.2 Department of Environment
This Department is the national focal point for local and international environmental
programmes.
It provides technical advice on pollution control methods and other environmental issues.
The Department also:
-Formulates policies related to environmental issues and concerns.
-Assists in the monitoring of the policies that have been implemented.
The Department has an Education and Information Unit which engages itself with the
following activities
• Coordinate National Environment Week campaign and facilitate other
environmental campaigns
• Provide assistance in developing educational programmes for schools and
institutions.
• Assist CDU with environment information
• Produce educational materials such as brochures, weekly fun pages, video tapes and posters.
• Undertake environmental projects and researches
• Conduct workshops , seminars and lectures on environmental issues
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• Provide a wide range of information to the researchers from tertiary and secondary institutions.
3.1.3 Department of Energy
This Department conducts awareness programmes , on Energy Conservation ,for schools
in collaboration with the University of the South Pacific, CDU and Pacific Regional
Energy Programme.
3.1.4 Ministry of Women & Culture
Field Staff are involved throughout the country in raising community awareness in
maintaining a healthy and safe environment. Focus areas include: household
consumption and waste disposal, traditional medicine, subsistence production , marine
ecosystems, sustainable use of resources.
3.1.5 Ministry of Forests
It's major role is to manage, monitor and police the forest sector. Develops & Implements
Forestry Environmental Education programmes for schools, landowners and the general
public. Organises annual National Arbor Week.
3.1.6 Ministry of Tourism
Develops and implements Ecotourism workshops
Promotes sustainable development of the tourism industry.
3.1.7 National Trust for Fiji
Actively involved in the conservation, protection and management of Fiji's national
heritage, flora and fauna and natural amenities.
Two of its objectives are:
a)To protect and conserve the unique features of Fiji's environment
and to seek preservation of representative and unique examples of
Fiji's historic and archaeological sites.
b)To educate and strengthen community awareness of conservation
& preservation requirements of natural & cultural heritage
3.2 NGO's
3.2.1 Live and Learn Environment Education
Works with CDU in organising Environmental Education workshops for schools.
3.2.2 OISCA (Organisation for Industrial, Social & Cultural Advancement)
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Monitors environmental devaluation and provides rehabilitation programmes
through community projects and planting children's forests in primary schools.
Target groups - village communities, primary school children and parents,
settlement communities and school committees.
Current activities -reforestation, mangrove replanting, vegetable planting.
3.2.3 Pacific Concerns Resource Center (PCRC)
PCRC is the secretariat of the regional Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP)
movement, and works to educate the people of the Pacific regarding their
environment, political and economic equity and justice and peace in the region.
3.2.4 South Pacific Regional Environment programme (SPREP)
Goal- to build national capacity to protect and improve the environment of the
region for the benefit of the Pacific island people.
Co-ordinates regional workshops on Environmental issues.
3.2.5 South Pacific Action Committee for Human Ecology & Environment
(SPACHEE)
Aims to promote sustainable development through environmental management,
training and environmental education/awareness raising activities.
Promotes awareness with provision of environmental information through:
- a public Resource Center
- SPACHEE newsletter
- School environmental materials booklets
- Media & publicity materials
3.2.6 The University of the South Pacific (USP)
USP plays a major supportive role in supporting Environmental Education
programmes.
3.2.7 Municipal Councils
Promote healthy living.
Implement environmental policies e.g. Litter Decree
3.3 Media
Environmental Education is supported through :
- workshops
- pamphlets
- posters
- newsletters
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- videos
- TV & radio programmes
- Special activities
- Special funding
4. Conclusion
There are so many organisations being actively involved in environmental education.
However there is a need for proper networking between these agencies in order to avoid
duplication of work.
As these organisations go about their business , the ways in which they collaborate with one
another and link their programmes are crucial factors for successful implementation of
Environmental Education.
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INDIA
Support System on Environmental Education in the School curriculum in India
Dr. K. B. Gupta
The environment and its problems are fast becoming the concern of all sections of society.
Due to increasing human population, pressure on the environment has led to its exploitation and
large scale degradation. At present the nature and extent of environmental problems, would over
especially in the developing countries like ours, is not only multifarious but actually posing a serious
threat to the very survival of organisms including human. This has necessitated efforts to create
awareness, among the citizens about environment and its problems, provide them knowledge and
skills to enable them to participate in the protection of environment and conservation of natural
resources effectively either individually or in groups and at the institutional or community level.
Environment has also become an integral component of school education at all levels starting
from primary to senior secondary stage since sixties. The national policy on education (NPE) 1986
has given a special emphasis on enriching education with environmental concepts. It has
recommended “protection of the environment” as a core component of school curriculum. Further, it
stresses on the need of providing environmental education (EE) to all.
Para 8.15 of the National Policy on Education states:
“There is a paramount need to create a consciousness of the environment. It must permeate
all ages and all sections of society, beginning with the child. Environmental consciousness should
inform teaching in schools and colleges. This aspect will be integrated in the entire educational
process”.
In our country changes in the educational system particularly the school stage could be
discussed in light of education policy on 1968; the National policy on education, 1986 and National
Curriculum Framework, 2000. The efforts at the school level have been directed at the following
areas:
1. Strengthening of curricula with environmental concepts at various levels of school
education.
2. Strengthening of training programmes for the functionaries specially the teachers, teacher
educators and curriculum developers.
3. Strengthening activities to create awareness and interest among the school going population
to motivate them to participate in improving the quality of environment.
1. Strengthening of EE in the curriculum
NCERT prepared a National curriculum Framework for school education in November 2000
and is writing new generation of textbooks as per the guidance of framework for all stages of school
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education. A brief detail of ideas are given below:
Primary Stage
Science forms an integral part of learning at the primary stage. It has to be learnt mainly
through concrete situations related to immediate environment during the first two years of schooling.
The focus is on sharpening senses of the learners and encouraging them to discover, observe and
explore their environment and surrounding. This will lead to enrichment of the experiences, mostly
on their own and supplemented occasionally by the teacher. The experiences and activities can be
gradually structured during the next three years of primary education where environmental studies
(EVS) has been introduced as a subject. The focus is on objects, events, natural phenomenon and
learners environment. Children continue to learn to observe, explore and identify occurrences in their
environment.
Upper Primary Stage (Classes Ⅵ- Ⅷ)
The environment continues to be a major source of learning and the students try to
understand the changes taking place all around. They gain an understanding of living world, balance
of nature through the study of air, water and energy, conservation of natural resources, health,
nutrition and diseases, soils and agricultural practices and adaptation.
Secondary Stage (Class Ⅸ- Ⅹ)
Learning of science continues to be built around natural and social elements of environment.
The concepts dealt in these classes are – matter and its properties, energy, relationship of various
physical processes and technological applications of principles of science, living organisms, their
organization and life processes, health and nutrition, industry, agriculture problems of environment
etc. There is integration of science, technology, society and environment in teaching and learning at
this stage.
(National Curriculum Frame Work for School Education published by NCERT November 2000).
(b) Approaches for incorporation of EE (main features of school curriculum)
Environmental education is not a separate subject in the school system. Keeping in view the
nature and content of EE it has been integrated into various subjects like science, biology, chemistry
geography, language, mathematics, on whole curriculum is environment based.
Environmental concepts/topics have been incorporated and developed spirally and through out. For
example soil, air, water, flora and fauna, pollution, conservation are dealt in primary, upper primary,
secondary and senior secondary stages but with different focus at various stages. In primary classes
more emphasis is to create awareness and interest among children in their surroundings. As the
children progress towards senior classes more technical knowledge about the ecological concepts
and environment such as population, biosphere, pollution and conservation with greater participation
of children in investigations is covered to motivate them to participate in protection of the
environment.
(c)Instructional Materials NCERT, has included environmental concepts in the school textbooks which are widely
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adopted or adapted by the state education boards of the country. Still, there was a need to develop
other support materials to improve teaching learning of environmental concepts/dimensions given in
the curriculum. Teacher’s guide, test-items, workbooks, laboratory manuals, activity books, films,
charts etc., are also prepared to supplement teaching-learning process.
(d)Supplementary Reading Materials
In order to promote EE, NCERT has developed several supplementary reading materials and
activity books. These publications include
1. Our tree neighbours
2. Insects
3. Oceans
4. Investigating air and water pollution
5. Energy and you
2. Training Programmes We have enriched the curriculum with environmental information specially about Indian
environment and its problems. It is observed that teachers with their subject background feel
difficulty in transacting the environmental concepts in their teaching.
In order to strengthen this aspect NCERT organizes inservice training programmes though NIE
departments like DESM and RIEs for resource persons from DIETs, SCERTs and other training
institutions. Some training programmes are organized exclusively for all teachers of Navodaya
Vidyalayas, Railways, Sainik schools. The programme in science/subjects like biology have
substantial environmental components. NCERT also organized many training programmes for
curriculum developers from different state Educaton Boards.
Use of Educational Technology Several films/video programmes on Indian environment for creating awareness and
providing basic knowledge about our environment and its problems have been developed by NCERT.
DESM in collaboration with Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET) has prepared
training films. As a result of which a film/video library has been established which loans films to
schools. We encourage schools to organize celebration of world environment day, would forestry day,
wild life week and exhibitions on environment related projects undertaken by the children.
3. Promotion of EE through extension activities a. NCERT has several ongoing activities which provide ample opportunities for promoting EE and
reaching large number of children, teachers, parents and schools in general. DESM undertakes the
following activities as part of annual extension programmes.
(1) School Science: This is a quarterly journal which exclusively promotes science education.
This journal regularly brings out papers, articles, news features on EE, wild life and
environment.
(2) National Science Exhibition: This is another forum where children prepare their models for
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competition at the district and state level to reach the national level and National Science
Congress level. The themes of the exhibition are generally environment based such as food,
health and nutrition for all, Agriculture, energy, environment, pollution etc., and models are
quite useful for the visiting general public and school.
4. International Collaboration:
NCERT has collaborated with UNESCO, UNEP in activities on environmental education. In
fact NCERT has been identified by these agencies as center of excellence for school consultation and
training seminars and case studies sponsored by UNESCO-UNEP –international environmental
education programme (IEEP).
Some of the important UNESCO- UNEP- IEEP programmes in which NCERT made a substantial
contribution are given below:
1. UNESCO, consultation meeting on developing guidelines for evaluation of EE training activities,
NCERT. New Delhi, 1990.
2. UNESCO, consultation meeting on developing international networks in EE Philippines, 1991.
3. UNESCO, Training Seminar on incorporation of EE in primary school curricula 1991., Malta
4. International Conference on Human Ecology, Jaipur, India 1991.
Training materials on EE
5. Environmental Education Module : Inservice Training of Teachers and supervisors in EE for
primary school, EE Series No.6, UNESCO, 1983.
6. Environmental Education : A process for pre-service Teacher Training Curriculum Development.
EE series No.26, UNESCO, 1986
Projects
7. UNICEF- Nutrition, Health and Environment and Environmental Sanitation(NHEES).
8. UNESCO – Environmental Education – A pilot project on problems of urban marginal areas.
Additional Inputs People of India has very rich cultural heritage. Under this they have succeeded in the
conservation of nature. Various schemes have also been launched by Govt. of India. These schemes
give additional support for strengthening environmental education on our country.
1. Community Action and Tradition of India
Community involvement has been extremely effective in the area of environmental
conservation.
The chipko movement has lead a scope to stop indiscriminate felling of trees. This movement
has inspired similar movements like Appiko in the Karnataka state where farmers protected against
the clear felling of forests to plant teak and eucalyptus.
Anna Hazare started on integrated development programme based on water shed
management.
Rajender Singh who got Megasay award worked on water harvesting in Rajasthan. Like that there
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are many persons who are working in such areas. The religion/belief and traditions has also
contributed in preserving the scared grooves and various flora and fauna.
2. Orientation to School Education : Scheme of Ministry of Human Resource Development
(MHRD), Govt of India (a) This scheme was launched by the ministry with a purpose to involve non-governmental
organizations (NGO) working in different parts of the country along with the efforts of
Governmental organizations. This has helped NCERT and other educational agencies to further
localize the curriculum and strengthen with environment specific situations/problems. This scheme
was implemented through nodal agencies – Center for Environmental Education (CEE), Ahmedabad,
Uttrakhand Seva Nidhi (UKSN), Almora and CPR Environmental Education Centre (CPREEC)
Chennai. These NGO’s have developed several print and audio visual materials on environmental
topics. Yhey organized teachers training programmes and help in planning and processing of
projects of governmental and non-governmental organizations for sanction and follow up.
Some state education departments, SCERT/SISE/SIE participating in the scheme have
established EE cells for development of materials and training and other activities under the scheme.
The scheme provides opportunities for taking up local specific environmental projects, set up schools,
nurseries, produce and collect information on environmental situations.
The activities undertaken by NGOs and EE cells have led to a large number of print and
audio visual materials on local specific environmental situations. Several training programmes were
organized by the nodal agencies.
(b) Realising the need for teacher preparation and development of training materials NCERT took a
project for an effective implementation of environmental education at school level. NCRET has
recently brought out four training modules for each regions of the country i.e. North, South, East and
West under the scheme of EOSE. These training modules are region specific and are being used by
DIET (District Institute of Education and Training) personnel in training teachers teaching at primary
and upper primary levels.
This has given a lot of support to Environmental Education in preparing the resource
personal at district level.
(c) Creation of Environmental Awareness –National Environment Awareness Campaigns (NEAC)
are being organized every year in order to spread the message of environmental conservation across
society. Seventeen organizations located in different parts of the country currently function as
Regional Resource Agencies that of the campaign.
(d) The National Museum of National History (HMNH) organizes a large number of on-site and
outreach education activities, organization of temporary exhibition and conservation, teacher
orientation workshops and publication of popular literature on the environment. The Regional
Museums of Natural History are being set up on the same pattern.
3. Constitutional Mandate As per the recommendations of the United Nation Conference of Human Environment, 1972
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at Stockholm, our constitution made 42nd amendment act in 1976. A specific provision article 48A in
part IV dealing with Directive Principles of State Policy was added.
This article provides that states shall endeavor to protect and improve the environment and to
safeguard the forests and wild life of the country. Safeguarding of forests and wild life is very
important because they affect the environment.
A fundamental duty has been for every citizen under article 51A(g) to protect and improve
the natural environment including forests, rivers, lakes and wild life and have compassion for living
creatures.
4. Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Government of India has large number of institutions
specializing in different research areas in environment and encourage voluntary groups working in
different parts of the country. It also has network of State Department of Environment and Science
and Technology Departments. This ministry helps the government in framing and enacting legal
measures for environment protection. Some of the important acts are given below:
− Prevention of cruelty to animals Act 1960
− Wild life (Prevention) Act 1972
− Forest Conservation Act 1980
− Air pollution control Act 1981
− The Environmental protection Act 1986
− Forest Act 1988
− Motor Vehicle Rules 1998 under pollution Control Act.
− On 3rd November the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in her major decision has banned
smoking in public places.
5. Several universities have started courses on ecology, wild life, environment, environmental
engineering for post graduate studies and research in these areas.
6. There are more than 1000 eco-clubs set up by the Ministry of Environment of Forests through out
the country at state levels. The state governments in turn have multiplied it at school level in their
states. The students generally take project or perform activities in the area of pollution, waste
management, paper conservation, organic manure, biological diversity, school nursery programmes,
energy, water harvesting and environmental audit etc. Apart from these efforts Govt. of India has also
set up
− 19 national parks and 202 wildlife sanctuaries in the country.
− land use commission at the National level and land use boards in the states.
− pollution control boards at center and state levels
− national afforestation and eco-development boards and the national waste lands development board.
These boards and commissions monitor the land use, bio reserves and various types of
pollution at the national, state and local levels.
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Difficulties in implementation Some of the difficulties in implementation of the programme of environmental education
are:
− classroom teacher is unable to get proper guidance to carry out the planned activities
− supplementary and reference, materials are not easy to get
− the teacher gets little time to plan activities properly
− constraints of covering the syllabus inhibits the initiative to be innovative
− the teacher does not get administrative support unless fellow teachers, headmasters ad
supervisory staff are also properly oriented for the environmental education programme
− the teacher losses interest in the new approach in the absence of regular follow up action
− teachers are not trained in Environmental Education at pre-service level
− The resource such as zoos, museums, parks, old forts, wildlife sanctuaries due to inadequacy
and non-utilization of resource, inadequacy of resource and transport facilities, accommodation
at the places where environmental objects exist.
Suggestions
Environmental Education key concepts covered need further strengthening on attitudinal and
participatory actions.
− Environmental Studies may be introduced as a content-cum-method subject at the pre-service teachers training courses.
− To develop more materials on EE to be used in classes, correspondence courses and through mass media for non-formal education.
− To develop and implement a well planned programme of teacher education both pre-service and in-service with emphasis on environmental education.
− To evaluate the impact of the programmes of environmental education at suitable intervals of time both at the level of school as well as teacher training.
− To reform the system of evaluation of students
− To establish network for dissemination of EE information
− Professional organizations of subject teachers and voluntary bodies may also include conservation of environment in their activities.
− To provide opportunities for interaction among GOs, NGOs, Curriculum developers and also with environmental experts for enrichment of the personnel involved at various stages of
development and implementation.
− Possibility of internet and other advancement made in the Information Technology (IT) should
be explored to reach out to teachers, teacher educators and students
− Production of more of CDs and other multi media products rather than on reading materials.
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INDONESIA
Key Issues in Environmental Education at Basic Education and Secondary Education
Dr. Atam Dastam
Introduction In the past time, Department of National Education conducted two Seminar and Workshop
about Environmental Education. The first seminar conducted by Directorate General Of Basic
Education and Secondary Education at October, 29-30, 2001. And the second seminar conducted
by Center of Environmental Study from University of Indonesia cooperated with UNEP,
BAPPEDAL and Hanns Seidel Foundation Indonesia.
Based result from these seminars, there were some issues about Environmental Education
especially Environmental Education Matter in basic education and secondary education in Indonesia.
Briefly description about these issues are :
1. Curriculum policy and environmental education matter
2. Learning condition
3. Teacher Quality
4. Condition of Learning strategic
5. Condition of Nature damage
6. Autonomy regulation
Description of Environmental Education at Basic Education and Secondary Education
1. Curriculum policy and environmental education matter
Currency Curriculum policy in environmental education has a clearly goal both in basic education or
secondary education, especially in natural science and social science. For example this matter
included in Biology and Geography subject matter at secondary education.
In the fact, this continuity environmental education policy in the learning process in the classroom
are different. Content of subject matter become text book only and knowledge oriented. Not yet
directed to developing other potential student, as all cognitive potential, affective and psychomotor.
As example in learning process in the classroom happened giving transfers matter from teacher to
student only. Evaluation oriented to achievement knowledge only, other acquirements from potential
development ignored, including affective potential and psychomotor.
Consequences from this condition for students are :
1. There are not developing potential cognitive especially in thinking skill.
2. There are not developing other potential especially affective domain and psychomotor.
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3. There are not recognized their reality environmental
2. Learning condition Learning condition in the classroom generally not discussed more environmental matter that
associated with reality environment, where the student live. This condition become more difficult
because there are not supported from learning facilities, completely literature and library
service both for student or teacher. In addition there are not participated from other related
component as around community and regional government. Learning process also most be
found teacher who active more than student. The student recorded and listened only, sometimes
asked some question to the teacher.
The consequences of this condition for student are :
1. The student more passive than active in learning process
2. There are not developing observational and analysis ability about problem of around
environmental in their life and its solution.
3. The longer consequences is lost of environmental carefully.
3. Teacher quality Based on data amount of teacher population who has experienced education and training in
environmental education competence are :
1. Basic education
Teacher population : 1,139,329
Have experienced Education and Training competence : 8, 546.
2. Secondary Education
Teacher population : 472, 716
Have experienced Education and Training competence : 4, 680
3. High School
Teacher population : 217, 768
Have experienced Education and Training competence : 6,552
Consequences from this condition :
1. Human Resources in environmental education at basic education, secondary education and
high school are less provided properly.
2. This condition have indicate poor resources related with developing a good environmental
education.
3. Need for providing an education and training for teacher about environmental education matter.
4. Condition of Learning strategic
Most Learning strategic in the classroom used classroom learning oriented, that there are not
much use outside matter about educational environment. More used text book oriented. The students
less participated learning activities in the nature. Learning matter resources not much nature oriented.
Learning Plan made by teacher not yet used learning strategic to drive inquiry process. Learning
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evaluation to product or learning out put that achieved by student not included their learning process.
Consequences from this condition :
1. There are on going separated process between student and their environment
2. There are breakdown process in the student personality ( attitude, appreciation, value ), become
have more individual interest.
5. Condition of Nature damage Condition of Nature damage in Indonesia especially happened in forest field, beach, coral
life, river, lake, mountain and others field, in a heavily damage. Most of mountain lost in a plenty of
big trees. So that much landslide in a rainy season. Flood has been frequently happened in the rainy
season. It’s make the painful for citizen both in a city or rural area. Result from this condition
also have impact to air pollution especially in city or industry area.
Consequences from this condition :
1. The nature heavily damage that need a seriously attention
2. There are most of lost natural resources both species or a diversity
3. There are ongoing poor process of natural resources
6. Autonomy regulation Autonomy regulation have been conducting by Indonesian government, that have goals to
empowerment the country potential. Including human resources and natural resources. This
regulation have received and under taking by all regional government. So that regional government
have responsibility to develop human resources in their territory including in educational.
Consequences from this condition :
1. Regional Government have heavily responsibility to develop quality education especially in
environmental educational.
2. Regional government must provide human resources and other facilities to develop their
welfare of society.
SOLUTION ALTERNATIVE There are some solution alternative to solve Environmental education problems :
1. Improvement environmental education system
2. Empowering the teacher of environmental education
3. Increasing community participation around the school system in environmental education
4. Environmental subject matter in the classroom used natural resources that provided around the
school
5. Environmental around have to be a references for learning resources for both teacher or student
6. Regional government given wider opportunity to make education policy especially in
environmental education
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JAPAN
Supporting Systems for Environmental Education in Japan.
Dr. Kiyoshi Ogawa and Dr. Nobuyasu Katayama
1. Institutional Frameworks by Governments
The Environment Basic Law in 1993 prescribes to promote the support for environmental
education (environmental learning). It encourage local governments to support local activities.
Some local governments enact an ordinance for the purpose.
(1) Support for Training
Some local governments have their own training programs of environmental education for
citizens and school teachers. Tokyo Metropolitan Government has provided a program to train
environmental learning leaders (to be terminated in 2001). This is a two-year program consisting of
lectures and field exercises. Some of those who have completed this program work as a
professional coordinator in the field of environmental learning. It is, however, pointed out that they
have weak ties with existing environmental protection organizations and environmental education
organizations. Saitama Prefectural Government holds a training conference every year for teachers,
which aims at providing the participants with a field experience in the nature and forestry. At the
more local level, Itabashi City and Bunkyo City in Tokyo have some lectures of environmental
learning (or environmental protection leadership training) for citizens respectively. In many cases,
training programs for school teachers are held by the committee of education in a local government
and training programs for citizens are given by the section of environmental administration in a local
government.
Monbukagakusho, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of
Japan, issues the teaching guidelines of environmental education and holds the training program for
environmental education teachers (once-a-year, one week program, about 200 participants) and
environmental learning fairs (once a year, confided to each prefecture government).
(2) Financial Supports
The financial supports by the national government go to the organizations which operate
fields activities in the form of a grant by quasi-governmental organizations. For example, the
Ministry of Environment → Japan Environment Corporation → private organizations; the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs → Japan International Cooreration Agency (JICA). The Ministry of
Environment allocates to Japan Fund for Global Environment, which is managed by Japan
Environment Corporation and aims to support environmental protection activities, 260 million yen
( 2.1 million dollar) a year for domestic activities, 300 million yen for Japanese organizations to
operate overseas activities, and 93 million yen for non-Japanese organizations to operate overseas
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activities.
The national and local governments usually make direct funding only in the case of a project
programmed on the basis of official planning, such as GLOBE Project by Monbukagakusho.
The supporting system for school teachers by the Education Board of Fujiwara Town, Mie
Prefecture, is a distinctive example in the activities of a local government. Fujiwara Town prepares
a budget which the chair of the Education Board can decide how to use, and the budget is distributed
the basis of the research and field reports of school teachers. Because Fujiwara Town encourages
environmental education all over the town, the supports of school teachers put an emphasis on the
field of environmental education.
(3) Distinctive Examples of a Supporting Framwork
Some local government establishes their own system of assistance and support for
environmental education. For example, Mie Prefecture provided its money for the fund which
aimed at the supports for non-governmental organizations and the job training of local governments.
The fund also made the database of citizens’ experiences of environmental education and maintains
it for public use. Kanagawa Prefecture provides its citizens with the failing including conference
rooms, mailboxes for non-governmental organizations, and a free space for information exchange in
the front of Yokohama Station, which is the largest railway station in the prefecture. This policy is
highly appreciated among organizations and citizens who are actively engaged in environmental
education.
The Ministry of Environment conducts the support of Junior Eco Club, which is an
environmental protection and research organization by elementary school children and teenagers,
and provides information at the national level.
2. Supports by Non-Governmental Organizations
(1) Human Resource Supports
As far a database of specialists in the field of environmental issues, some organizations
including Japan Environment Association list up their recorded lecturers for public needs. Some
publishing companies like a newspaper company have its own database of human resources in
various fields including environment. Some of the databases are available with or without
payment.
There are some projects that encourage and appraise environmental activities of pupils and
students. Japanese Society for Preservation of Birds gives awards to schools for the purpose of
birds protection campaign. Yomiuri Newspaper Company runs an essay contest on the theme of
environment, which is sponsored by 7-ELEVEN Japan Company.
In Japan, the publishing and education industry have been developed and provide a variety of
educational materials in the field of environment on the commercial basis.
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(2) Financial Assistance by Non-Governmental Sector
Financial Sponsor
There are not so many financial support organizations that specialize in the field of
environmental education in Japan. The Fuji Film Green Fund is an exceptional case; it invites
applications for the programs of NGOs in the field of natural environment protection and education
of nature conservation every year. The main applicants are NGOs and schools.
In Japan the number of financial support organizations have been increasing whose target
does not specializes in but includes environment related areas. The organizations which aims at the
financial support for the research and activities by NGOs and individuals except for professional
researchers are as follows:
The Toyota Foundation (Surrounding Environment Research Contest, Grants for Citizens’
Activities), Tokyu Environment Cleanup Foundation (limited to the research and activities focusing
on the Tama River), Hino Motors Green Fund (the financial support for nature protection), Nippon
Life Insurance Foundation (the support for children's activities), The Sanwa Midori Fund
(tree-planting campaign and nature protection).
The Fujiwara Foundation focuses, which is an trust mainly based on individual heritage, aims
at nature protection activities in the Tama River on a small grant.
National Federation of Workers and Consumers Insurance Cooperatives ( welfare section and
environmental section) and The Provident Society of School Teachers and Officers operate an
financial assistance as a part of the social dividend activities.
There is almost no financial assistantship by environmental NGOs in Japan except for
small-scale examples such as Nature Conservation Society of Japan and Kansai Organization of
Nature Conservation. The Japanese Society of Environmental Education provides its members
with Urano Financial Assistantship for Environmental Education.
Leevise Foundation is a case in which a foreign-based foundation provides financial
assistantship for Japanese environmental NGOs.
The Toyota Foundation has a distinctive system in which the allocated referees give some
advise to the supported organizations in its environmental research contest.
Many corporations make a donation as the case may be.
3. The Present Condition of Supports by Universities
Although the official supporting system of universities in the field of environmental
education has not been well developed yet in Japan, some teacher colleges establish a facility for
environmental and field education. They are engaged in research and education for their students
as well as accede to some individual requests from teachers, citizens and students. They also have
some open seminar to give a chance for training, a program for incumbent teachers to learn in a
graduate school, and the individual assistance of professors for schools and mass-communication
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companies. In some case, they play a role of a coordinator to make a request to universities and
attached schools for the participation in the independent educational projects sponsored by
Monbukagakusho such as GLOBE Project and AP Seminar.
4. International technical cooperation in education in Japan
It is well known that Japanese ODA in international technical cooperation is mainly offered
through JICA, Japanese International Cooperation Agency. Although many projects are now
on-going in JICA, there is no cooperative project in environmental education. In the field of
education, one of the largest areas of international cooperation is related to science and mathematics
education; some projects are at the primary and secondary levels, and the rest involves pre- and
in-service teacher training courses. The other areas are related to education in agriculture,
technology and medical sciences as well as vocational education. In addition, technical cooperation
is programmed to the administration and management officers in the central and local governments
of developing countries who are working in education (Table 1).
As well as other types of cooperation activities, these are some of the types of cooperation in
education offered by JICA. These are as follows:
1) Technical cooperation project,
2) Technical cooperation by individual expert,
3) In-service training for teachers in their own country,
4) In-service training for teachers in Japan,
5) Training for administration and management officers in Japan,
6) Teaching by a member of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, JOCV.
As well, Monbukagakusho offers some programs such as one and a half years of in-service
teacher training at a Japanese university to enhance the educational level in developing countries.
Among the in-service trainees there might be a few teachers and educators who wish to study
environmental education during their training period.
On the other hand, many projects on nature preservation and conservation and environmental
assessment, which are not related to education, are organized by government agencies or NGOs.
The environmental assessment projects are required in relation to logging, mining and
agricultural development.
In such projects and programs, many national, municipal and private universities in Japan are
concerned. JICA and other international agencies have asked such universities to join their activities.
Two national universities established centers, which work on international cooperation systematically,
namely the International Cooperation Center for Agricultural Education (CCAE) of Nagoya
University (agriculture-related sections) and the Center for the Study of International Cooperation in
Education (CSCE) of Hiroshima University (development education and science and mathematics
education). The CCAE of Nagoya University gives training programs for non-Japanese trainees in
agriculture and sends their research staff abroad. The institute has started to make a human
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Table 1 JICA International Cooperation Projects and Programs in Education*
Country Names of Projects and Programs
Indonesia - Project for Development of Science and Mathematics Teaching for Primary and Secondary Educatio.
- Primary and Secondary Education Planning - Study on Regional Education Development and Improvement
Project - The Higher Education Development Support Project
Mongolia - Education Policy Formulation
Cambodia - Girl’s Education Planning
Pakistan - Improvement of Literacy Rate
Philippines - Package Cooperation for Development of Science and Mathematics Education (including JOCV)
- Program for Training Teacher in Educational Technology - The Science and Mathematics Education Manpower Development
Project Samoa - Education Advisor
Jordan - The Project for the Specialized Training Institute
Palestine - Seminar on Elementary and Secondary School Education.
Egypt - Development of Creativity Lessons for Primary Education - Development of Creative Science and Mathematics Lessons for
Primary Education Ghana - Science, Technology and Mathematics Project
Kenya - Project for Strengthening Science and Mathematics Education in Secondary Schools
- Jomo Kennyata College of Agriculture and Technology - Science and Mathematics Education by JOCV
Rep. of South Africa - Secondary Science Initiative in Mapumalanga Province - In-service Teacher Education and Training in Science and
Mathematics Tanzania - School Mapping and Micro-planning in Education in the Republic of
Tanzania Bolivia - Assistance for Educational Reform
- Project for Construction of Primary Schools Guatemala - Education Administration at Regional Level
- Advisor of Girl’s Education - Program Officer / Sociology by JOCV
Jamaica - Technical and Vocational Education and Training Improvement Project at Technical High Schools
Poland - Polish-Japanese Institute of Computer Technique - Education of Highly Qualified IT Specialists in Central and Eastern
Europe Countries in Accordance to Demands of the Job Market * The information was obtained mainly from the JICA website (See References).
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resource database of the agronomists and researchers related to environment in Japan to aim at
international cooperation as well as the acceptance of international students to Japanese universities.
The CICE of Hiroshima University encourages the activities of many researchers who are interested
in development education and science and mathematics education. The center also organizes
seminars and workshops on international cooperation in education as well as international
cooperation projects and training programs. Its activity spreads to the collection and provision of
information related to international cooperation in education and to the production of a human
resource database concerning educational development. CCAE and CICE cooperate with JICA
and other international cooperation agencies to implement cooperation projects and training
programs. To facilitate the implementation of such projects and programs, these centers organize
nationwide consortiums of experts.
Some other national universities, such as Tokyo Gakugei University (TGU), also organize
consortiums to support JICA projects. A consortium is composed of some education experts and
scientists from all over the country and gives suggestions and comments to the project leader and
JICA. In the case of TGU, we organized a consortium for the project of international technical
cooperation in pre-service science and mathematics teacher education in Indonesia. In addition to
some long-term experts, many short-term experts have visited Indonesia so far according to the
project plan. However, most of their periods of stay were actually very short; sometimes they were
shorter than one month, because these experts were very busy and could not stay longer. Every
year some faculty members in teacher-training institutes have stayed at TGU. In our humble
opinion, most of both Japanese short-term exerts and Indonesian trainees spent time meaninglessly
during their stay. The length of stay for most Japanese short-term experts did not seem to be
enough to transfer their knowledge and skills to their Indonesian counterparts. It also seemed that
for Indonesian trainees, their period of stay was not enough to get the knowledge and skills to
develop a science and mathematics teacher training course program and teaching/learning materials.
In addition, training programs for Indonesian trainees offered by the science and mathematics
departments of TGU seemed to be inadequate.
Focusing on human resources for technical cooperation in education, we find these are not
satisfactory to actual necessity: Project leaders and the members of every consortium are always
looking for educators or scientists appropriate to serve as long-term or short-term experts. There is
no system to develop human resources for the international technical cooperation in education. In
addition, only a little effort has been done by the Japanese government to establish a certain system
for supporting each expert who joins a project. As a result human resources are limited and
restricted in Japan, and it is not rare that a person is nominated as a short-term expert for different
projects in the same year.
Another issue might be pointed out. Among the long-term and short-term experts who have
worked on projects so far, some were not good at any international languages such as English. So,
even if they had enough knowledge and skills to support the project, they could not contribute so
much to the project. Although the upper limit of stay for a short-term expert is three months, the
average of term of stay is only around one month as described above. It seems too short to transfer
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their knowledge and skills to their counterparts and teacher trainees.
So far, international cooperation projects and programs in education which were planned
by Japanese agencies have not seemed to be truly cooperative activities; they have looked more
like one-way provision of technical assistance to developing countries. In addition, many
projects and programs were not necessarily conducted effectively. From now on, we have to
consider how we can organize the international cooperation system in environmental education
efficiently and effectively.
5. Conclusion: Features and Challenges of Japanese Supporting System for
Environmental Education
Generally speaking, a support system for environmental education consists of human,
material, informational, financial, training resources.
Human resources refer to manpower in general, lecturers invited from the outside, secretaries
and administrators, subcontractors for technical assistance, the delegation and supply of local human
resources.
The selection of lecturers and committee members in national and local governments
depends much on the personal networks of the person in charge of the project; there are no official
requests to The Japanese Society of Environmental Education. Some local governments make a
informal requests to the secretary office of academic societies.
Material assistance means the supply of meeting spaces, equipments/instruments and raw
materials. Informational assistance includes the preparation of informational resource centers,
libraries, the websites of the internet. Although the discount system of postage charges is available
in the field of social work in Japan, it has not been allowed for environmental activities yet.
Financial resource comes from assistantship foundations, donation, earnings from service
supply (project operation in commission) and so forth. Japanese government has not allowed tax
benefits for non-governmental organizations yet. Because of the lack of their own monetary
resource, most of NGOs in Japan are more willing to make a contract of project operations with
governments than to offer financial assistantship.
Some civil servants and school teachers with eagerness participate in training programs by
themselves, using a holiday without a financial support, because officially-provided training
programs are not enough in terms of capacity and opportunities. It depends on the decision of their
principal whether school teachers are recognized to participate in a non-official training program as a
part of their duties or not. No matter how many of training opportunities are available, training
programs are not effective; because the person in need cannot participate in them if there is no
support in regard to their working condition such as an official leave for off-the-job training and the
preparation of substitute teachers.
Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 and the
enactment of Environment Basic Law in 1993, the term "environmental education" has become
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popular in Japan. On the other hand, there are many problems to be solved in the field of
environmental education in Japan. Because the reliable standard in this area has not been
established yet, the content of training programs tends to emphasize individual knowledge and
technical exercises/experiences rather than the viewpoint from which to grasp environmental
education as a whole systematically. In addition, academic degrees and the achievement of
education and research are not valued very much; entitlements on environmental education are
booming but most of them were informally established by the organizations which have no
relationship with environmental NGOs, school teachers and academicians who have been working
hard in environmental education.
References A handbill provided from the Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education,
Hiroshima University.
http://www.jica.go.jp/english/global/edu/cases.html accessed Nov. 14, 2001
http://www.jica.go.jp/english/global/edu/contrib.html accessed Nov. 14, 2001.
http://www.jica.go.jp/english/global/edu/project.html accessed Nov. 14, 2001.
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MALAYSIA
Support Programmes and Activities in Environmental Education in Malaysia
Ms. Sharifah Fatmah Alhabshi
1.0 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Environmental education (EE) in Malaysia is an educational process about, for and
through the environment to upgrade the living standards of the people. The environment consists of
all the physical, social, economic and political factors which are interrelated and affect the well-being
of the people. EE aims at improving the quality of life people and the quality of the environment
with importance placed on sustainable development through an understanding and wise management
of all the natural resources.
1.1 Aim The aim of environmental education is to create a society that is sensitive and cares about
environmental issues and at the same time is knowledgeable, skilled and committed to act as
individuals or as a group to solve environmental problems.
1.2 Objectives
Environmental Education enables students to :
1.2.1 gain experience, knowledge and basic understanding about the environment and its
problems.
1.2.2 be sensitive, aware and caring about the environment and problems related to it.
1.2.3 have a positive attitude, value and love the environment and be motivated to be
actively involved in the preservation and conservation of the environment.
1.2.4 understand that national development should only be undertaken with careful
planning.
1.2.5 acquire skills needed to identify and solve environmental problems.
1.2.6 be given the opportunity to be actively involved in solving environmental problems.
1.3 The Status of Environmental Education Environmental Education is not taught as a subject but elements of environmental education are
infused across all subjects in both primary and secondary schools.
1.4 Environmental Education Content The elements of environmental education across the primary and secondary school curriculum are
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as follows :
1.4.1 God is the Creator of the Universe and All Living Things.
1.4.2 Earth and the Universe.
1.4.3 Non-Living Things and Natural Resources.
1.4.4 Living Things and Their Environment.
1.4.5 Interaction between Man, Animals and Plants.
1.4.6 Management of the Environment.
� Renewable and Non-Renewable resources.
� Human activities and their effects on the environment.
� Environmental issues, problems and solutions.
� Population and related environmental problems.
� Importance of conserving the environment.
2.0 IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
2.1 Among the strategies adopted by the Ministry of Education are the following :
2.1.1. EE is infused across the school curriculum.
2.1.2. Advocation of spiritual, moral and student-centred approaches in the teaching and
learning of EE using environmental education learning stations that can easily be set up.
Schools are encouraged to set up EE learning stations in the school compound and also
in the surrounding areas. These stations are set up for the purpose of practical work and
hands-on activities. For example, at the Station of Plants, student compare and contrast
leaf shapes and bark texture for identification, etc. Some of the learning stations that can
easily be set up in the school compound include :
・ Station on Various Types of Pollution
・ Station on Plants
・ Station on Animals
・ Station on the Uses of Various Types of Energy
・ Station on the Recycling of Waste Materials 2.1.3. Teaching and learning methods that are student-centred, fun and interesting and these
include practical work, investigations, experiments, projects, study visits, games, demonstrations, discussion, etc.
2.1.4. Evaluation and monitoring to ensure the success of the environmental programmes
carried out in the schools.
2.1.5. Preparation of EE materials to be used in primary and secondary schools such as :
・ Teacher’s Guide Books on the Infusion of Environmental Education Elements Across the Primary and the Secondary School Curriculum.
・ Marine Education Kit (in collaboration with Department of Fisheries).
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・ Greening of Schools (in collaboration with World Wild Fund for Nature Malaysia).
・ Translated version of Mobius Curriculum : Understanding the Waste Cycle (in
collaboration with United Motor Works Malaysia).
2.1.6. In-service teacher-training courses on EE for resource teachers
( EE is a compulsory subject to be taken by trainees in teacher-training colleges)
3.0 SUPPORT PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES
In the Malaysian Development Plans, all the organizations in the public sector are required to give
emphasis on EE and on sustainable development in all their development plans and programmes.
The private sector is also encouraged to follow suit. Various agencies both from the govermental and
non-governmental sectors as well as inter-governmental cooperation have come in support of EE in
Malaysian schools.
3.1 Government Agencies
3.1.1 Department of Environment (DOE), Ministry of Science, Technology and the
Environment.
a) Environmental Awareness Camp
・ This is an on-going activity for school children 14 – 16 years of age.
・ DOE’s modules cover seven ecosystem of forest, highlands, riverine, marine, organic
farming, plantations and urbanization.
・ 3,200 students have participated in 80 camps held all over Malaysia.
b) WIRA ALAM project
・ Emphasize on the involvement of school children in protecting and preserving the environment.
・ This project is divided into three categories that is : I. WIRA ALAM DIRI (Knowledge and self awareness)
II. WIRA ALAM KOMUNITI ( Community Activities)
III. WIRA ALAM (Nature Activities)
c) PRIAS (Scrap Book Competition)
・ Emphasizes environmental issues.
d) River Watch Programme
・ To educate and instill awareness among school children on the importance of rivers.
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・ Participating schools have to submit report of analysis on water quality of selected river twice a month to DOE. Based on the results, DOE will identify rivers that are clean,
half-polluted or polluted.
e) Environmental Cadets / Brigade
・ A uniform group established in school to create environmental awareness on the
significance of conservation.
f) Environmental-Themed Competition
・ Novel-writing Competition
・ Environmental Poetry Writing Competition
・ Inter-University Environmental Debate
・ ASEAN Inter-University Environmental Debate
g) Environmental Materials
・ Production of Animation Series.
・ Video clips
・ Documentaries
・ CDs on environmental songs
・ Era Hijau (Quarterly magazine distributed to all schools)
・ Posters
・ Pamphlets
・ Booklets
h) Training Programme
・ Environmental Awareness Workshops for selected teachers from each state. Teachers
will then conduct environmental camps at school level funded by DOE.
3.1.2 Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture
The Department of Fisheries gives more emphasis on public awareness in conservation and
protection of marine resources in marine parks.
Marine Education Kit
・ With collaboration of the Hong Kong Bank Bhd. (HSBC) and WWF Malaysia, the
Marine Education Kit was produced to highlight the importance of Malaysia’s rich
marine heritage. This kit is a teaching aid focusing on four marine habitats that are
mangroves, seashores, coral reefs and oceans and seas.
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3.1.3 Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN)
・ Nature conservation courses were conducted at all the three Nature Study Centres: Nature Study Centre at Wang Pinang, Perlis, Nature Study Centre at Bukit Rengit, Lanchang,
Pahang and Nature Study Centre at Kuala Atok, Taman Negara, Pahang.
・ The main aim of these courses is to instill awareness among the younger generation on the
importance of nature conservation.
3.1.4 National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN)
・ A workshop on “Managing Malaysia’s Natural Heritage – Investing In Our Future” was conducted in April 2001. Students from selected secondary schools and undergraduates
from the local universities attended the workshop.
・ In 2002, a workshop on Career Options in Biodiversity will be held for secondary school
teachers.
3.1.5 Department of Local Government, Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
� Book and Video on Rubbish and Your Life.
� Song on Recycling in three different languages (Malay, Chinese and Indian).
3.2 Non-governmental Agencies
3.2.1 World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia (WWF Malaysia)
・ WWF sponsored 12 teachers to attend an environmental teaching course in United
Kingdom, after which the teachers assembled a handbook and resource kit to meet the
urgent need for interesting teaching material.
・ WWF has provided technical support in establishing a model field center for environmental education.
・ WWF has also conducted pre-service and in-service courses for teachers.
・ Production of Resource Kits :
(i) Marine Education Kit In collaboration with HSBC and the Department of Fisheries.
(ii) Posters : Water Bird Migration, Greening of School, Green House Effect, Ozone
Depletion
(iii) Mobile Education Unit This unit will visit a school daily by bringing the forest into the classroom through
interesting slide shows, films, videos and fun quizzes. (iv) Fraser’s Hill Nature Education Centre (FHNEC)
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This center was set up with the objective of inculcating a better understanding of highland forests, their importance and the need to conserve them. The center provides visitors with information and programmes to enjoy the highlands of Malaysia.
3.2.2 Malaysian Nature Society (MNS Malaysia)
The educational initiatives of MNS can be outlined as:
a) Ex-situ approach – through outreach programmes such as schools’ nature club,
seminars and lectures, exhibitions, etc.
b) In-situ approach – through the establishment of Nature and Research Centres in Forest
Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), Cameron Highland, Endau Rompin and
Rimba Ilmu Environmental Education Programme in University of Malaya.
3.2.3 Wetlands International – Malaysia Programme
・ Organised an intensive training course for Putrajaya Wetland Nature Guides, a constructed wetland at Putrajaya.
・ Began developing of a Wetland Education Camp Activity Pack consisting of education modules for wetland camps at the Tasek Bera as the first Ramsar site in Malaysia. Topics
covered include general ecology, the concept of sustainability, threats to the natural
wetland ecosystem, water supply and wetland statistics.
・ Wetland Education Kit Distributed to primary schools in Bera District, Pahang Darul Makmur.
・ Wetland Wonders In collaboration with Hongkong Bank and the News Straits Times, publish a four-page
supplement Wetland Wonders on the last Sunday of each month.
3.2.4 Hongkong Bank Corporation (HSBC)
HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad’s on-going partnership with the Department of Fisheries
Malaysia, Wetlands International – Asia Pacific and other non-governmental organisation such as WWF Malaysia enables the bank to continue supporting various initiatives to protect Malaysia marine environment for the benefit of present and future generations.
3.2.5 United Motor Works Corporation Sdn. Bhd. (UMW Corporation)
・ In 1995 and 1996, UMW sponsored a workshop on 3R using ‘The MOBIUS ®
Curriculum: Understanding the Waste Cycle’.
・ In 1997, ‘The MOBIUS ® Curriculum: Understanding the Waste Cycle’ was translated
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into the national language Bahasa Melayu and distributed to all secondary school.
3.2.6 Malaysian Newsprint Industries (MNI)
Malaysian Newsprint Industries Sdn. Bhd. supply world-class, premium grade newsprint
based on recycling old newspapers and magazines. MNI helps the environment by:
・ Organizing The Most Successful Paper Recycling Schools Competition. Most of the
schools involved have successfully collected more than 50 tonnes of newspapers.
・ Recycling Programme in schools, offices, hotels, charity organization and local
community.
・ In collaboration with MNS, organized a teacher’s Environment Camp to demonstrate the
significance of preserving nature.
3.2.7 British Petroleum Malaysia (BP Malaysia)
In collaboration with INTAN, Nature Education Course focussing on Biodiversity was
conducted and funded for school children in 2001. The main aim of this course was to instill awareness among the younger school children in preservation and conservation of Malaysian Biodiversity. In 2002 a Workshop on Career Options in Biodiversity will be held for secondary school teachers.
3.2.8 Southern Waste Management Sdn. Bhd.
・ A solid waste management company established in 1997 and currently based in Johore.
The education unit frequently gives exhibitions and talks on recycling solid wastes to
school children from age 5 – 18 years, undergraduates and to the local community.
4.0 International Cooperation
4.1 Danish Cooperation for Environment and Development (DANCED)
Bilateral relationship between the Danish and Malaysian Government was formalized through a
signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Danish Ministry of
Environment and Energy and the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and the
Environment in 1994.
Project Proposal : Strengthening of Environmental Education in Primary and Secondary
Schools in Malaysia.
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The Pilot Project :
・ The pilot project will take place in two states involving 20 schools and three teachers from each school.
・ The teachers will be provided with comprehensive training during the 3 years project period.
・ The training will be organized in monthly cluster session where new methods are introduced. The teachers will then plan learning session and reflect on the outcome during
the following cluster session where additional competence is added.
5.0 CONCLUSION
Since the implementation of EE is infused across the curriculum and not as a subject, the
support from various sectors have been of great help in making EE interesting, exciting, fun and
assist in making students aware of the need to conserve the environment. The cooperation has
brought closer ties between both the government and non-governmental sectors in their common
goal to address the environmental issues in line with the aspirations of the Malaysian goverment.
Implementation of EE especially in the co-curricular activities bears a high cost and the involvement
of non-governmental sectors help alleviate the financial constraints. This has enabled EE to have a
wider and better coverage and higher participation of school children in Malaysia. In terms of
training and exposure to EE, the assistance from experts in the environmental discipline have been a
tremendous help in assisting teachers keep abreast with the current and latest environmental
information and issues.
Without doubt, conservation of the environment is a paramount importance for every
nation in the world. Therefore it makes sense for government and non-govermental agencies to
work in tandem in these issues so as to conserve and safeguard its natural heritage for its future
generation.
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NEW ZEALAND
Reciprocal Support Systems of Environmental Education with a view to the Further Promotion of it in the Asia and Pacific Region.
Report from New Zealand, Aotearoa
Ms. Heidi Mardon
New Zealand is committed at many levels to environmental education and there is a range of
supporting policies, programmes and networks, both nationally and locally. How many of the
support systems are reciprocal rather than one way needs further exploration. There are still many
challenges to be met in creating effective support systems; challenges in strategic direction,
coordination and regional support, in order to effectively guide communities through environmental
learning and action for long-term change. The following is an overview of the current support
systems for environmental education in New Zealand followed by some examples illustrating the
main challenges for New Zealand.
Overview of Environmental Education Support
Policies and Guidelines
• Learning to care for Our Environment, Me Ako ki te Tiaki Taiao, A national strategy for environmental education (Ministry for the Environment, 1998.) Six priority areas are highlighted:
1. Encouraging the integration and coordination of environmental education activities.
2. Evaluating and improving the effectiveness of environmental education activities in the
transfer of knowledge and the implementation of policy.
3. Maintaining and enhancing the capacity of tangata whenua to fulfil their responsibilities as
katiaki.
4. Incorporating the aims of environmental education across the schools curriculum.
5. Promoting environmental education in business education and training.
6. Providing individuals and communities with the information and understanding to enable
them make environmentally sound decisions. A coordinating group and a Maori focus group were set up to advise and strengthen networks
for the implementation of the strategy.
• National Strategies for Waste Minimisation, Energy Efficiency and Conservation and Biodiversity. All released in 2001, these strategies highlight environmental education as a
necessary mechanism for achieving environmental goals in these areas. It is expected that
implementation plans for all these strategies will support environmental education.
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• Guidelines for Environmental Education in New Zealand Schools (Ministry of Education, 1999). Released to every school the focus of the guidelines is on supporting teachers to plan
and implement environmental education programmes as part of the New Zealand Curriculum
Framework in primary and secondary schools. These guidelines depend on individual teachers
or schools choosing to include environmental education processes, there is no contractual
education obligation to do so.
• Local Councils’ environmental education strategies are evident in a small number of Councils that are responding to their obligations to safeguard the environment in ways other
than regulation and advertising. These strategies give support to Council staff to work with
communities and organizations to achieve both educational and environmental goals.
Professional development
• The Guidelines for Environmental Education in the New Zealand Curriculum is being implemented through a limited national professional development process involving national
facilitator training and local professional development for a small number of interested
teachers.
• The Enviroschools Programme, a recently developed sustainability education programme has begun to run facilitator training workshops and support regional groups to work holistically
with schools and their communities. This supports the environmental education activities of
both the Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry of Education.
• Masters Degree in Environmental Education. This has been offered in New Zealand since 1999, through the Christchurch College of Education, in conjunction with Griffith University in
Brisbane Australia. There are an increasing number of participants in the course coming from
teaching and a number of other backgrounds.
• Undergraduate papers in environmental education are offered though a growing number of colleges of education and university degrees.
Programmes
• The National Waterways Programme , the Enviroschools Programme and Businesscare are examples of programmes that began locally and are now starting to be made available
nationally.
• Local and Regional Councils have Environmental Education Programmes in some areas that
support specific sectors such as schools, communities and business, and many programmes
focus on specific local issues such as water, coastal care or waste.
• The Conservation Awareness Programme, run through the Department of Conservation, supports national and regional conservation education focusing on raising awareness and action
to conserve and protect sites of natural significance.
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Materials and Resources The Environmental Education Directory for New Zealand lists a range of activity packs, contacts,
booklets, leaflets, programmes and resource kits seen to be useful for environmental education.
There are over 2000 resources listed under the following 17 topics: air, biodiversity, coasts, energy,
hazardous substances, heritage, infrastructure, land, Maori, minerals, natural hazards, plant and
animal pests, transport, wastes, water, courses/programmes and contact details. This directory is
available in hardcopy and on a website and highlights the range of resources available.
Networking
• New Zealand Association for Environmental Education (NZAEE). A national association
with, six regional branches, the NZAEE plays a coordinating and networking role through
dissemination of information, environmental education events, newsletters and, in January
2002, a national conference, ‘A Place for You’, is being held in Hamilton New Zealand.
• Small, voluntary environmental education networks are operating in some regions, such as
REEF (Regional Environmental Education Forum) which operates in the Bay of Plenty
• EE List server email group supports educators from around the country, many use it to ask
questions, share resources and highlight new programmes, events and employment
opportunities in the environmental education field.
Funding • The Sustainable Management Fund, a national fund available from the Ministry for the
Environment, has environmental education as one focus and has supported the development of
key environmental initiatives.
• Environment Centre Funds became available in 2000 to aid the establishment and development
of regional environment centres to support environmental education and regional coordination.
• Council environmental funds are available in many regions, some of which specify the
environmental education value of a project as criteria for applying.
Examples of support in environmental education.
1. National Implementation of the Guidelines for Environmental education in the New
Zealand curriculum. This Ministry of Education contract is being implemented by the Christchurch College of Education.
The process for implementing the guidelines focuses on the professional development of interested
teachers through the support of regional syndicates. Two national training workshops have been
run with syndicates returning to their regions to run local workshops for interested schools. One
training workshop and a follow-up workshop were run from which a smaller number of schools
were chosen in each region to pilot the Guidelines with further support from facilitators. Pilot
schools are currently underway.
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Lessons
• It is beneficial to have coordinated teams with links to local government as well as schools.
• National strategic direction and coordination is crucial in supporting regional teams across the range of sustainability issues that environmental education covers in schools.
2. A Local Council approach Many Councils have been active in supporting and implementing environmental education in their
regions and Hamilton City Council is one example. Hamilton City Council’s Sustainable
Environment team coordinates the Environmental Education Programme working with schools,
business and communities. The approach used is holistic rather than single-issue education, with
the aim is of long-term change. Main support programmes are:
• The Enviroschools Programme - Schools commit to a 3 year process of environmental learning and action. A facilitator and a resource Kit support schools to create a Vision
Map, EE Policy and to develop the curriculum to ensure that environmental education
becomes an ongoing part of school life. In turn schools support the programme and the
facilitators by reflecting, documenting and sharing their experiences. Enviroschools
facilitators are currently being trained in other regions to support this sustainable schools
approach nationwide. The programme has a strong indigenous component, which is seen
as an essential part of all education for sustainability.
• HEIRS – Hamilton Environmental Improvement in the Riverlea Suburb. The community was invited by Council to contribute to the planning and development of their
local environment. Support was given through facilitated workshops, field trips, and
environmental improvement actions. The HEIRS group now have a website, regular
newsletter and an ongoing environmental improvement plan for their community.
• Gully Restoration Project. A multidisciplined team produced the Gully Guide, a
step-by-step approach to restoring a native gully, this was followed by a series of
workshops and the formation of a steering committee to coordinate and support people all
over Hamilton to restore parts of the extensive gully system.
• Festival of the Environment – an annual event that encourages all individuals and groups
and agencies to celebrate and promote their environmental work and to give people
opportunities to become involved in projects, programmes and courses.
Lessons
• For environmental education to benefit a range of people the communities and groups have to own the project and be involved in decision-making, planning and actions from the outset.
• Written resources alone do not make effective environmental education, skilled people are needed to facilitate the process of engaging groups and communities to enable changes in
people’s behaviour.
• Effective support involves a coordinated approach between many different agencies. The
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above programmes all involved Council staff working with community groups, educators and
the regional council. Building relationships is crucial to environmental education.
Challenges for reciprocal environmental education support in New Zealand
Whether a support system is reciprocal or one-way may depend upon the level or type of
participation of different parties. Who determines what support is needed? Are all parties asked
what they can offer as well as what they need? Is everyone considered to be part of the learning?
Three main aspects of support needed further development in New Zealand to widen participation,
highlight common goals and create a coherent direction. Questions of reciprocity need to be asked
along the way.
National strategic direction A national advisory group, representing key Ministries and environmental education agencies, is
needed to set a strategic, long-term direction for environmental education. The existing
coordinating group for the national environmental education strategy works only for the Ministry for
the Environment without links to other Ministries. The NZAEE plays a national networking role
but lacks funding. A National advisory group must have the capacity to develop the linkages
between existing organisations and programmes and develop long-term strategic goals.
Regional support structures. Ongoing facilitation and funding for schools and communities is needed if long term environmental
behavioral changes are to take place. Regional support networks should include local government,
iwi, (local Maori ) business, and community groups. These networks need to be resourced to assist
schools and communities, of which they are a part, to gain expertise in working towards
sustainability. Community environmental education needs to be seen as a valuable form of
employment instead of a voluntary activity.
Skilled facilitators of environmental education. There is still a focus on producing educational materials rather than training and employing
facilitators to support environmental education. The tendency is to see resource kits as the main
support mechanism for environmental education and for facilitation to be a short-term activity.
Employment opportunities for people skilled in environmental education and facilitation need to be
increased so that schools, community groups and businesses can be supported through long-term
processes that enable organisational and physical changes for a sustainable environment.
Facilitators need the support of the communities they work with and access to professional
development.
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New Zealand is at the crossroads of meeting the challenge of education for a sustainable future. We
are looking forward to the release of the Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Development which
will hopefully provide essential political support for the individuals and organisations involved in
environmental education and education for sustainability.
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PAKISTAN
Support System, Programme and Activity for Environmental Education
Mr. Aurangzeb Rehman
Modern advancement in Science, the rapid population growth and high depletion rate of
resources has put an extra pressure on our natural resources. Population growth and human activities
rate have a direct co-relation with the deteriorating rate of natural environment, Intensification of
agriculture, greater Industrialization, over exploiting of natural resources, increased use of
Cloro-Floro-Carbon (CFC's) waste disposal, increased pollution of land, air and water are all
resulting in the deterioration of our natural environment and resources. Depletion of energy resources,
consequence of deforestation, soil erosion and loss of wildlife are leading towards a catastrophic end.
Any environmental problem in one part of the world is likely to effect the rest of the world. The
globe of today presents an international community surrounded by a unified environment. There is a
need for joint efforts to be made and to suggest ways and means for the improvement of our natural
environment and to stop further deterioration.
In the context of Pakistan where 68% of the population lives in rural areas the environmental
problems are not yet acute. The reasons are obvious, our country is not much industrialized and
modern techniques of agriculture including excessive use of pesticides are limited. Yet rapid growth
of population is posing a major threat to our natural environment. Indiscriminate uses of natural
resources have led to the environmental degradation. The factors for this environmental degradation
are different in urban and rural areas to some extend. While in urban areas, growing population
influx, rapid industrialization and increasing use of automobiles are adding to the pollution, in rural
areas soil erosion, desertification, water logging, salinity, deforestation and excessive use of
pesticides and fertilizers are other factors responsible for creating environmental problems. Lack of
adequate awareness in the masses about environmental problems further compound and complicates
the situation.
Education has been considered as an important means towards the economic development of
a country. Education helps in suggesting possible solutions to many of our problems. Environmental
degradation has been one of such problems for the country. This may include the wider world wide
issues such as threat to the depletion of ozone layer, global warming pollution etc and also include
the important local issues like air and water pollution, deforestation soil erosion, desertification,
water logging, disposal of solid and municipal wastes etc. An educated citizen of today and a
responsible person of tomorrow has to contribute individually as well as collectively for bringing
necessary changes in the existing environmental situation.
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The National Education Policy (1998-2010) indicates the commitment of the Government
for inclusion of latest development concerns in school Curricula,
"Emerging key issues such as Population and Environmental Education, health Education, AIDS
education, values education etc. shall be introduced and integrated in Curricula" (Para 5.5.4 - IV,
Page-32).
The Ministry of Education of Pakistan realizing the importance of providing awareness and
information to our younger generation has initiated certain actions on its part to provide necessary
information and skills to combat and contribute towards preservation of resources and to bring
improvement in our natural environment. The Ministry is catering to the need of Environmental
Education through the school system. The Coordinated Environmental Education Project (CEEP)
1988 - 92 implemented by the Ministry of Education under financial assistance from the Ministry of
Environment has been instrumental in creating awareness about environmental concerns through the
development of instructional material package and a limited teacher orientation/training.
Environmental Education can assists in not only providing necessary information and
awareness about the existing problems, but may also help in suggesting possible solutions to this
effect. This awareness/orientation is being provided through the formal and non formal system of
education to not only for our younger generation but through them to their families and the
community. Ministry of Education, taking cognizance of the complex and diverse nature of
environmental problems, has formally integrated the concerns of environmental issues in its national
Curriculum. New trends and issues in education like population education, Human Rights,
Preventive education etc. which effect environment has also been included in the Curriculum. All
these concepts have been appropriately incorporated in the textual material The Curricula of teacher
training has a compulsory component on Environment education. The courses in environment
engineering are also being offered in some of the Universities so as to provide manpower for
environmental friendly companies and institutions.
The Ministry of Education has incorporated the concepts of Environmental Education in the
existing textbooks. Teacher Training on a limited scale has also been carried out through different
short term projects. Workshops/Seminars on the subjects have also been organized by the Ministry at
national and International level, some with collaboration of international organizations like
UNESCO, UNFPA, IEEP etc. The Ministry is also collaborating with active NGOs like IUCN,
WWF and others who are actively involved in Environmental Education activities. The Ministry of
Education has also developed training manuals on Environmental Education together with a draft
inter-disciplinary course on environment and population education (collaboration with UNESCO,
Paris). Presently the Curriculum for Environmental Education at Secondary level has been
developed. The textbook is being developed by the Provincial Textbook Boards and the subject will
be introduced as an optional subject.
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The Ministry of Education within its limited resource has initiated necessary steps to incorporate
the concepts of Environmental Education in relevant subjects in the School system. Teacher
education/training on a limited scale has also been conducted with the aim of integrated
Environmental Education in related activities of Curriculum/School programme as well as extra
Curricula activities. The aims is to provide information, awareness and necessary materials to our
children and teachers on the issues of Environment conservation and preservation.
Besides the efforts of Ministry of Education many national and International organization and NGOs
are also contributing and collaborating in the area of Environmental Education with schools,
communities and public at large. It is quiet important that activities which effects the life of every
one and in every sphere should contribute towards the provision of awareness and rational decision
making. The supporting programmes/activities are being carried out in the country by all the
Sectors including public sector, private organizations, institutions, NGOs , CBO’s etc. Some of the
relevant programmes are briefly described below.
Population Education Program It is important and necessary to increase the population carrying capacities, while protecting
the productivity of Natural Resources base, the Population Education programmes being
implemented by the Ministry of Education and other line Ministries like Ministry of Population
Welfare, Ministries of Health, Environment and Rural Development, Women Development etc, have
an essential component of environment preservation and environmental awareness and education.
The Ministry of Education has recently implemented a project of population Education which had an
important core theme/message of "Environment and Eco system" besides health and nutrition,
family and social life, etc. The quality of life was the main theme addressed through the programme.
Environmental preservation conservation and rational decision making was highlighted through
related themes. These included the theme of Population & Environment, Quality of life, agriculture
migration, Health, development etc. The effect of population growth on environmental and eco
system was highlighted in textbooks and teachers education/training, besides development of
AV/Aids, like instructional charts, Audio & video cassettes, slides etc, which are extensively being
used by the students in the schools. A similar programme was also implemented through the
non-formal system for out of school youth. Environmental preservation and related information was
provided through textual material as well as A.V aids including charts, film strips etc.
Mass & electronic media support Mass media compaign especially targeting on Environmental preservation and conservation
promotes awareness on environmental related issues including the need for creating awareness and
provision of necessary information and education. Special programmes are organized at the state
onward T.V. and regular Radio programmes on weekly basis for a duration of 20 –30 minutes are
organized in national and regional languages for all Pakistani. Press in Pakistan is extensively
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publishing articles, case studies, photographs together with a debate on environment related issues.
Some of these form the basis for further discussion in the school on environmental related issues.
The recently introduced project/programme on Poverty Alleviation has introduced contents on
Environment and Health issues. The relevant programme are now been designed for not only raising
the quality of life but also contributing towards conservation of Environment and stopping it from
further degradation. All economic welfare programmes include a component on environment
preservation. Activities are analyzed in terms of their impact on environment, and only
environmental friendly activities are supported.
Development of conservation strategies On the pattern of the National Conservative Strategies (NCS) which is in vogue, the
Provincial governments are developing conservation strategies. The component of mass awareness
and education on environmental related issues occupies an important component in the possible
strategy. Presently two of the Provinces out of the total four have implemented their conservation
strategy, the remaining Provinces are in the process of developing relevant strategies.
Development of Related Courses. The Ministry of Education has initiated an activity for the development of Inter disciplinary
Course on Environment and Population which establishes as linkages between the two. This course
will be implemented at under graduate level in the Colleges/Universities of the country. The courses
has been developed with the assistance of UNESCO.
Institutional support.
a) Environmental Directorates The Government has set up the Environmental Directorate at all Municipal level with a
specialized Section on Environmental Protection & Preservation. These Directorates not only manage solid waste disposal, vehicular pollution etc., but also implement awareness raising programmes for the public in general and the students in particular at the school level. This will support the necessary improvement in the Environmental preservation and conservation.
b) Environmental Protection Agencies The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been established at the Federal level
and its counterparts at provincial levels. These agencies address to the environmental problems
including support for educational activities. The environmental protection councils have
developed some educational material, which are being used as resource/reference material by
the some of the schools. Support is also provided by institutions like Energy Conservation
Center, Pakistan Forest Institute, Zoological Survey and NGO's like World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF), Pakistan Institute for Environmental Development Action Research (PIEDAR),
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Sustainable
Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Leadership for Environmental Development (LEAD) etc.
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c) Research Organizations Scientific and industrial organizations have conducted researches in related fields of
environmental degradation, pollution of air, land and water and other related issues. These
researches are quite relevant with the environmental education at higher levels. Some of the
important organizations include Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(PCSIR), Pakistan Institute for Nuclear Science & Technology (PINSTEC) etc. Different
Municipal Directorates in the country also maintain laboratories where analysis are carried out
and research reports are published periodically.
Non formal and distance learning support. In the area of non formal education the distance learning Institutions etc., (Allam Iqbal Open
University) has initiated the courses on Environmental issues including Environmental Education,
which is specially designed for households ladies, out of school youth and the community members.
National Plan of Action for Women Development. The Ministry of Women development of the country while designing a national plan of
action for women development has included the area of Environmental Preservation, Conservation
and other related issues, in their programmes for which incentives would be provided for not only
bringing improvement in the environment status but also for inculcating the sense of responsibility in
the young generation. As daily resources managers and as primary keeper of environmental values
women have an important role to play as active partners in development that entails ecological and
social sustainable. Population and health issues are entry points for organizing and empowering
women, while education and communication are the keys of bringing them further in the main
stream. An incentive programme for bringing women into the area of contributing towards
environmental improvement is being designed.
Support through allied courses at School The emerging trends in education like Drug abuse, Human Rights, preveutive education
against HIV/Aids etc. are all being integrated and infused in the existing school programme. The
contents of carrying and sharing, self- esteem, rights & duties related to all are being included in the
programme.
Celebration of relevant activities The World Environmental Day and other related days like World Population Day are
celebrated at the national level as well as related activities of speech declamation, debates, essays
competitions, poster drawing, walks etc and other related activities are organized by the schools,
NGOs and related organization which further promote the concepts of Environmental preservation
and the need for more information and Environmental education. Environmental clubs have been
established in all the Government schools together with the concepts of greening of schools
programme which has been carried out at the schools.
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Examinations The Ministry of Education through a Prime Minister Directive has included a compulsory
portion on Environmental Science in General Science subject at Secondary level. A compulsory
question carrying 15% marks is included in all public School Examination by the examining Board
throughout the country.
Support from tertiary Education Higher education in Environmental Education, Environmental Science and Environmental
Engineering including bio tech have been introduced in many Universities leading to Master and
M.Phil degrees. Programmes are being now introduced to offer degree of Ph.d in Environmental
Science and in Engineering as well. The University of Peshawar is offering Environmental
Science/Education Program at Masters and higher level.
Teacher Education/Training Teachers play an important role in the dissemination of information for creating awareness
amongst students. The attitudinal change expected in a student is also moulded through the skills
possessed by our teachers. Training of teachers is an important component of the educational system
in any country. Teacher training in the public sector is carried out by the Provincial Education
Departments, which maintained specialized departments/institutions for the purposes. Regular
courses on Environmental Education, Population, Drug Abuse are conducted for the
orientation/training of teachers. Some of the renowned NGOs in the country have played an effective
role in providing orientation and training to the teachers in the field of Environmental Education.
These organizations of course have restricted their activities to the urban areas of the country and in
majority of the cases for the teachers in private sectors. However, the role of teacher education and
training in the area of environmental education can not be ignored, provided an effective support is
there for the dissemination of environmental education. As most of the teachers in the country have
not been provided training during their teaching career in general subjects. Similarly, orientation and
training in environmental education is also limited to very few teachers of the school system.
From the above support program /activities we may infer that some of these programs can be
very effective in carrying forward an advocacy campaign for the Universalization of Environmental
Education in the country e.g. the mass and electronic media support can provide mass awareness and
orientation on environmental related issues as well as can advocate for a certain component on
Environmental Education at all levels. These campaigns can be quite effective in the designing and
development of national policies on environmental related issues.
The materials on environmental issues and Environmental Education developed in
different projects and programs can be adopted/adapted for general information as well as for
necessary information/ education at the school level. Teacher orientation and training carried out by
different organizations including the effective NGOs can be taken advantage of by the school system
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in terms of material development, organization of activities and teacher orientation/training
programs.
The conservation strategies being developed/implemented include the component of
Environmental Education thereby establishing the relevance of Environmental Education in relations
to all the related activities.
There are certain related issues with respect to a coordinated support program in
Environmental Education
• Most of the programs initiated by different ministries and departments are carried forward in isolation without involving the other stakeholders and line ministries.
• Related research carried out on environmental problems is usually not shared among all stakeholders and as such no greater advantage can be drawn out of it.
• Media campaign on environment are usually carried forward by journalists who are not well trained in environmental issues especially in Environmental Education
• Environmental Education is not introduced as an independent subject. Integrating its related concepts with different subjects do not highlighted the importance of Environmental Education.
• Sharing of expertise and material developed by other countries are not shared amongst one another and hence no appreciable advantage is derived out of the international experience.
There is a dire need that a collaborative effort is made at the national level involving all
stakeholders including the private sectors organizations so that an effective system of support can be
developed for Environmental Education in the country.
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PHILIPPINES
Environmental Education Reciprocal Support Systems in the Philippines
Dr. Angelina P. Galang
Reciprocal support systems that will be covered in this report are those between and among:
educational institutions, non- - governmental organizations (NGOs), government, business, foreign
groups and multi - lateral agencies.
A. Between and Among Academic Institutions
1. Networks - There are two networks of educational institutions that are focused on environmental
education (EE):
a) The Environmental Education Network of the Philippines (EENP) – This is a network of around 60 institutions and one NGO representing all regions of the country.
It started in 1987 with funding first from Ford Foundation and later from the Canadian
International Development Agency. Since 1994, the Network has subsisted mainly on
membership fees with assistance from other groups for specific projects. Its Board of Directors
come from member institutions and it runs the operations of the Network
Development of EE programs has relied on resources within the Network for information
sharing, training, and curriculum development and program assessment. For example, it
has developed a curriculum for a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science which a
number of its members have started; it has developed an EE Assessment Program for "Dark
Green Schools" for use of its members and hopefully, by others. A team of trainors has
gone around the country giving EE training. It holds one annual and one regional
conference on a relevant topic of the day every year.
b) The Philippine Association of Tertiary Level
Educational Institutions in Environmental Protection and Management PATLEPAM). This is a
Network of 380 colleges and universities also from all over the country which started in 1995.
It is supported by government. Secretariat functions are provided by the Environmental
Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The Association's Board of Directors consists of regional representatives who serve as the bridge
between the national Board and the schools in their regions. It also includes a representative
from the Commission on Higher Education, also a governmental body. Its activities are similar to
that of the EENP.
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c) The Environmental Outreach Network - A group of schools have also formed the Environmental Outreach Network. Their programs
involve reaching out to communities and areas outside of their campuses. One example is
reforestation in denuded uplands. The schools teach and train the residents on the needed
knowledge, attitudes and skills. Human and financial resources of the schools are thus used to
uplift underprivileged groups through field projects in which EE is integrated. In turn, the
faculty and students involved in the outreach projects are made aware of the realities in the field
and can thus integrate theory and application.
2. Partnerships - Bilateral partnerships also exist between educational institutions. These
partnerships usually involve sharing and exchange of faculty, cross - enrollment of students and joint
research. Over the past few years, there have been a growing number of partnerships between
Philippine and foreign universities. Such partnerships are often more likely to be supported by
foreign or multi - lateral funds.
For examples of partnerships between colleges or universities and another educational institution
see Appendix A.
B. Academic Institutions and Government
1. Mandated Support - By decree from the Office of Philippine presidents, the government is
mandated to promote EE through the Environmental Management Bureau, the Department of
Education and the Commission on Higher Education,
a) The Environmental Management Bureau - The government body which actively
implements the government's EE program is the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB)
of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, (DENR) specifically its
Environmental Education and Information Division (EEID). Besides initiating programs, it
provides support to other agencies and institutions on their own EE programs. It has
produced manuals, books, posters and audio - visual materials which it disseminates for use
by schools, NGOs and other groups. The EEID receives an allocation from the national
budget. Its programs are also supported by bilateral and multilateral agreements and grants.
b) The Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education - These two
bodies do not have specific programs on EE as yet but they provide support through their
positive response to initiatives of other groups.
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2. Regular/ Ad hoc Collaboration - Other government agency work with academic institutions in
support of their specific programs some regularly, some as the need arises. The EMB, the DENR
in general and other government bodies regularly call on the academe and other private sector groups
to provide inputs to and feedback on their environmental programs. The Department of Energy
uses universities as its Alternative Non - Conventional Energy Centers and relies on the expertise of
the academe for these Centers' manpower. In many programs, the academe is represented in
governing committees, e.g., in the Eco - labeling Technical Working Committee of the Department
of Trade and Industry. For other examples of academic institution - government linkages, see
Appendix B.
C. Academic Institutions and Foreign and Multi - lateral Agencies
Foreign funding through embassies, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, the
United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Environment Program, etc. initiate or
are tapped for EE programs and projects. Usually, however, the EE activity is attached to global
issues, e.g., climate change, biodiversity, etc.
A major work sponsored by ADB in 1997 was a research on the status of EE in the country, in the
Elementary, High School, Tertiary and Technical / Vocational Education. The study resulted in a
framework for EE in these different levels, an EE National Action Plan, sample lessons and audio -
visual materials and teacher training. The World Bank has regularly supported EE for the youth
such as summer training camps for high school students, competitions, etc. For examples of
academic institution - foreign/ multilateral linkages, see Appendix C. . .
D. Academic Institutions and Non - Governmental Organizations
(NGOs) - While many schools have their outreach programs, usually around their own campuses,
much of the work in the field is done by NGOs. These are private non - profit groups who involve
themselves with a particular environmental issue or with grassroots communities who are working
for their own environments' survival. NGOs often link with schools for their academic and training
expertise. Reciprocally, the academe benefits from their exposure to realities in the field, realities
which enrich their own teaching. For examples of academic institution - private / NGO linkages,
see Appendix D.
E. Academic Institutions and Multi - Stakeholders - In the Philippines, many programs
and large projects are launched and / or implemented using a multi - stakeholder approach. This
approach cooperative endeavors among government, business and civil society. Often, the
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academe is involved.
One current important program is the Partnership for Clean Air (PCA). The academe is
represented in the Coordinating Committee as well as in the various sub - committees. .
Sponsored by the ADB, and the U.S. Asia Environment Program, awareness - raising and
education is among the initial steps to be taken. Training of trainors will be done jointly by the
Miriam College ESI and the University of the Philippines Los Banos College of Development
Communications. Scientific research will be led by the Ateneo de Manila University.
A recent example of such significant multi - stakeholder project was the support given to the
joint EENP - PCA national conference on alternative clean sources of energy entitled "Towards
an Environmentally Sound Energy Future". It was supported financially by ADB and
UNEP; the EENP manpower was augmented by the NGO Concerned Citizens Against
Pollution, the Department of Energy and the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources.
Often, outreach projects of schools involve multi - stakeholders. For examples, see Appendix E.
F. Academic Institutions and Business
Businesses and civic groups, e.g. Rotary and Lions Clubs, are often tapped for assistance in
schools' EE programs. They provide sponsorships, scholarships and technical expertise. In turn,
schools provide continuing education to business employees and club members.
LESSONS LEARNED
Reciprocal support programs maximize to a great extent the resources of institutions. No institution
has all the expertise; thus, sharing of knowledge and capabilities reaches more students. The
partnerships have been generally very satisfying and effective. They have benefited not only
students but also reciprocating institutions because of knowledge and skills transfer.
Many of the programs included in this report were made possible by the vision and initiatives of
individuals, those in either high positions in their schools or in government. They are the
enlightened leaders who realize the value of environmental education (EE). Unfortunately, many
more need to establish their own EE programs or be pro-active in EE for their constituents. Thus a
program to institutionalize EE in the whole educational system of the Philippines is needed. There
is need to strengthen .EE in the government agencies tasked with education, i.e., the Department of
Education and the Commission on Higher Education.
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While projects have been implemented due to the strong commitment of the people concerned, some
have discontinued due to lack of funds. There is need for financial support for these programs.
Incentives can also given to encourage partnerships.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The examples given in the appendices are information gained from a mini- research done by fax.
The research also solicited recommendations for enhancing reciprocal support systems in the country
and in the region. The recommendations are premised on the many benefits brought on by
partnerships. Below are the recommendations:
1. Enhanced exchange of information and sharing of field experiences between and among schools
in the country and in the region.
2. Regionalized degree and research programs.
3. Cross - registration among members of networks. .
4. Resource mapping on EE the region. The results can lead to decisions regarding cross -
enrollment and cross - crediting of courses among universities.
5. Regionalized funding support.
6. Study tours.
7. Scholarship fund development and fund assistance program through the networks.
8. More cooperative research projects among schools.
9. Government incentives for inter - college / university partnerships.
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Appendix A
Educational Institution Partner Institution – Education Institution
Nature cooperation
De La Salle University Central Luzon State University
General Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
University of Batangas MOU
Nueva Viscaya State Institute of Technology
MOU
California State University & Harvard University,
U.S.A.
Educational and Scientific Cooperation
Meijo University, Japan Education and Scientific Cooperation
University of the Philippines National University of Singapore
Student Exchange
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Student Exchange
University of the Philippines
Open University
School of Environmental
Science and Management (SESAM) University of the
Philippines, Los Baños
Course Development and
Faculty sharing
Miriam College University of the
Philippines, Los Baños
Faculty and Student
Exchange; Joint Research- Co-thesis advising,
cross-enrollment
University of San Carlos
Leyte Institute of Technology
& La Consolacion College
Use of facilities, for Miriam
College’s off-campus classes
Maryhill School of Theology Faculty sharing
University of the Philippines Faculty sharing
Perpetual Help College Co-thesis advising
Griffith University, Australia Co-thesis advising
University of New England,
Australia
Co-thesis advising
School of urban and
Regional Planning University of the Philippines
University of the
Philippines, Mindanao
Environmental Impact
Assessment
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Appendix B
Educational Institution Partner Institution –
Government
Nature cooperation
University of Northern
Philippines
Ilocos Sur Provincial Office Establishment of the
College of Environment Sustainable Development
Nueva Viscaya
State Institute of Technology
Provincial Management
and Department of Environment and natural
Resources (DENR)
Research in Mass
Propagation of Indigenous Tree Species
Department of Natural
Resources
Inter-agency planning,
development and conservation of protected
landscapes
Miriam College Department of Education Provision of MA
Environmental Education to 75 teachers in the National
Capital Region
Department of Education in Region VII
Provision of MA Environmental Education to
25 teachers in Region VII
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Appendix C
Educational Institution Partner Institution –
Foreign/Institutional Agencies
Nature cooperation
University of the Philippines,
Iloilo
Canadian International
Development Program –
Local Government Program
(CIDA-LGSP)
Partner provides tuition and
other support
Don Bosco technical College Swiss Contact Hydrocarbon Refrigerant
Systems Research,
Education and Training
Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology
Cleaner Operation Project
Nueva Viscaya Institute of
Technology
ERP-CASCADE
Caraballo and Southern
Cordillera Agriculture
Development
Joint training & information
drives
Northern Mindanao State
Institute of Science and
Technology
CIDA-LGSP Provision of funds and
expertise
Misamis Oriental State
College of Agriculture and
Technology
International Center for
Support in Agroforestry
Swedish International
Development
Cooperation Agency
United Nation Food and
Agricultural Organization
International Institute for Rice
Research
Southeast Asia Research
Center for Agriculture
Resources for the Future
Southeast Asia Network for
Agroforestry Education
Program
University of the Philippines,
Diliman
UNESCO Environmental Science
Program
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Appendix D
Educational Institution Partner Institution – Private Agencies / NGOs
Nature cooperation
De La Salle University St. Luke Medical Center Research and Biotechnology
Manila Observatory Promotion of
Environmental Awareness and Institutional
Capability-Building
Miriam College Manila Observatory Climate Change
Information
School of Urban and
Regional Planning, University of the Philippines
Diliman
United Coconut Planters
Bank
Integrated Management of
Tubbataha Marine national Park
Benguet State University PINE TREE (Project Initializing Employment
through Training in Environmental Enterprise
Education, training, livelihood and tree
seedlings; training for environmental volunteers
Don Bosco Technical College
Mangyan Missions Micro-Hydro Electrification Project for Mangyan
Communities
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Appendix E
Educational Institution Partner Institution –Multi stakeholders Linkages
Nature cooperation
Miriam College Local Government of Bulacan
Foundation for Philippine
Environment
Philippine Australian Community Assistance
Program
Environmental Livelihood Training in Biak-na-Bato
National Park
St. Mary’s College Nueva Viscaya Institute of Technology for Philippine
Environment
Kalahan Foundation Local Government Conservation
International
Center for Environmental Management and Training
University of the Philippines
Baguio
IDRC, Canada
FPE LGU of Sagada
Research on material
resources management of the locality
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REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Recent trend of Environmental Education in Korea
Dr. Hyo Hyun Sung
I. Environmental Education in Korea
1. The objectives and contents of environmental education The general objectives of the environmental education in Korea are awareness, knowledge
and skill, participation and attitude which were made by UNESCO. Recently, more emphasis
has been put on the objectives of the affective domain than on those of cognitive domain.
The main contents of environmental education have been the relationship between
environment and human beings, the concept of environment, the causes of environmental
problems, the causes, phenomenon and measures of every kind of environmental problems
(water, air, soil, waste, noise, vibration, bad smell, food, radioactivity, fertilizer, and drugs),
environmental sanitation, etc.
Recently, environmentally sound and sustainable development (ESSD), sound consumerism,
ingestion of clean and nutritious food, traffic safety have become issues. And the education
about environment, education in and from environment, and education for environment have
been placed under the category of environmental education, and especially the interest and
support in the education for environment by experience have recently been increased.
On the whole, the relative importance of environmental ethics, environment and society, and
environment and economy has been increased when compared with the importance of
environmental pollution. The education for sustainability has, however, not been performed
enough.
2. The policy for Supporting Environmental Education
The Ministry of Environment is mainly in charge of the politic support for the development
of environmental education in Korea. And the Ministry of Education & Human Resources
Development encourages the implementation of environmental education in the following: the
curriculum of environmental subjects, teacher's training, and general encouragement in
elementary, middle, and high school. But there is no departments exclusively responsible for
these activities.
Other ministries also emphasize the environmental education: education by the Ministry of
National Defense intended for solders, education by the Ministry of Administration and
Self-government for Civil Defense Corps members, and social education programs concerning
environment by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Youths and
Juveniles, the Ministry of Woman. Separately from these above, Presidential Committee for
Sustainable Development is making efforts for environmental improvement.
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3. The Current State of Environmental Education in Schools1 The educational system including the educational curriculum in Korea is a centralized one,
and it is stipulated in the national educational curriculum made by the central government that
the environmental education in elementary and secondary schools should be taught and
emphasized through all the activities of subjects related to environment. As an attempt to spread
environmental education all over the country, several model schools are implementing the
environmental education under the support from the Ministry of Education and the Offices of
Education of each city and province.
The current national curriculum for environmental education in elementary and secondary
school focuses on consideration of learner's ability, learner's activities, and learner's region of
everyday life. The contents of environmental education are scattered subjects in elementary
schools and an independent subject as 'Environment' in middle school and 'Environment and
Ecology' in high school of the secondary school. With upgrading of schools, the aims and
activities of environmental learning move up from value-centered, through activity-oriented and
to cognition-centered.
Table 1. The number of secondary schools which teach environment subject as regular
subject
year
School
`95
`96
`97
`98
`99
2000
2001
Total
Number 44 53 311 343 340 341 396 Middle
school % 1.6 1.9 11.4 12.6 12.5 12.4 14.5
2,731
Number - 133 164 287 349 370 430 High
school % - 7.0 8.6 15.0 18.3 19.0 22.0
1,957
Number 44 186 475 630 689 711 825 Total
% 1.0 4.0 10.3 13.6 14.9 15.2 17.6
4,691
Liberal lectures concerning environment are offered in most of colleges, And the number of
departments which included 'environment' in the name of department has increased almost
double for the past 20 years. The graduates who graduated from these colleges and obtained the
required qualification in 2000 has increased in number by nearby 50% compared with those
who graduated five years ago.
4. The Teacher's Training for Environmental Subjects The teachers for teaching environmental subject in elementary and secondary schools are
provided as the following.
1 The educational system in Korea is as in the following: 6 grades in elementary schools (from 6 to 12 years old), 3 grades in middle schools (from 13 to 15 years old), 3 grades in high schools (from 16 to 18 years old).
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In the first place, the teachers in charge of other subjects are qualified to teach subjects
concerning environment after completed training for teaching environmental education for a
given time. Also, those who graduated from the departments of environmental engineering or
environmental science or from the department of environmental education in teacher's college
can obtain the teacher's license for environmental education. There are 4 teacher's college
offering environmental education departments. And 15 colleges over the country offer the
environmental education program in the graduate school of education.
5. The State of Social Environmental Education The social environmental education is intended for two groups of people: the first group
consists of general social people, and the other is the group consists of environment concerned
officials and workers in the field of environment.
For establishing Eco-centered Life values in Social Environmental education of Korea,
environmental ethics education should be 'the new eco-centered environmental ethics education'
which makes some contribution to overcome ecological crisis and to create new alternatives.
Also it should be not a simple behavior change but 'eco-centered environmental ethics
education', what is called, as 'ecological literacy education' which changes the views of values,
thoughts and attitudes etc. In this, as a new social curriculum, 'ecological literacy education'
means to cultivate the ability which can recognize environmental problems correctly and to
overcome ecological crisis wisely we face with today.
The number of NGOs for environmental activities is about 1,000 as of 2001, and the number
of locally small-scale grass-root organizations for pure environmental preservation activities has
increased recently. Nowadays, not only the non-governmental organizations for environmental
preservation activities but also non-profit organizations(NPOs) are in the trend of cooperating
with one another.
II. The Tasks and Improvements for Developing Environmental Education
The common tasks including the methods which are driven in Korea at present should be
implemented cooperatively in the time.
1. The constitution of the law for environmental education encouragement is being driven in Korea.
The constitution of environment education law is being driven cooperatively by Korean Society
for Environmental Education and the Environmental Forum in National Assembly. They held a
public hearing on this constitution with the first draft on October 26, 2001.
2. The research and development is being driven for the new contents and methods of
environmental education. That is to say, new contents and methods are to research and develop
the education in ESSD, consumers, food traffic safety.
3. Efforts are being made to accept environmental subjects and lectures even within the previous
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system. That means that we should increase the chances to learn environmental education even
within the present curricular and social system. For example, we can do more environmental
activities in elementary and secondary schools.
4. We are establishing the second comprehensive plans for the environmental education. The first
comprehensive plans for the environmental education including the master plan and action plan
for the development of environmental education was made with the Ministry of Environment in
center.
III. An Examples of the Environmental education in Korea : the environmental
education programs for community based organizations Implemented by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO under the auspices of UNDP(Sept. 1996 ~
Aug. 1998)
1. Problems Addressed Environmental NGOs and the government have been conducting environmental preservation
activities since the early 1990's. Even though their activities have contributed to the promotion of
public awareness of environmental problems, most of the attention has been focused only on the
preservation of the environment itself, rather than on finding viable alternatives to the conflicts
that exits between the arguments of environmental protection and economic development.
Therefore, one of future directions of environmental education programs should emphasize the
relationship between the conservation of the environment and sustainable development, if Korea
and other developing nations are going to move ahead in a development process that will take into
account the wider social-economic impact of economic development on current and future
generations.
Such an initiative should encourage a holistic approach to environmental issues, and promote
discussion on balanced models of sustainable development. Furthermore, it should be directed not
only towards the understanding of environmental degradation and appreciation of nature, but also
should be practically oriented both to bringing about policy changes, and developing an
individual's ability to act on issues.
2. Objectives of the project
The development objective of this project was to contribute to fulfilling sustainable development
through the creation of effective environmental ecological education programs, training leaders
form community based organizations who are engaged in environmental issues in various sectors
and through disseminating project reports and an education guidebook transferable to national
policy.
Three immediate objectives were developed within the project to contribute to the overall
development objective. These immediate objectives were,
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• To design a new type of environmental education program which links environmental issues and sustainable human development through community based organization actions.
• To implement and evaluate an education & research program with at least 40 major community based organization working towards the development of a consensus and
expertise of environment and development education.
• To development, and disseminate an environmental training guide for community based
organizations.
3. Project strategy A pilot environmental education program was developed and implemented forty participants from
community-based organizations toward development of consensus and expertise on environment
and development education. The first phase of the pilot program was in-country discussions on
environment and development issues, including lectures, workshops and field study trips. Next,
international study tours of four routes were carried out with the aim of evaluation programs in
other countries and developing an conceptual framework for further in-country training by
organizations represented by the participants. The results of all these activities reflected on the
development of an environmental education guidebook.
4. Findings and Recommendation A pilot environmental education programme was conducted with 40 mid-level leaders from
community based organizations for the development of the consensus and expertise on
environment and development education. Major problems encountered include :
• It was suggested that the subjects of curriculum should be more diversified. While this had
been already considered in an earlier step of the program development, more subjects could
not be included due to the limit of time and budget.
• According to the participant's evaluation, workshops, an interactive and participatory educational tool, were more educational and valuable rather than lectures. However, the time
for some workshops was not enough due to long lectures.
• Domestic and overseas study tours were carried out successively with environmental sites or
organizations in order to learn the experience and expertise. Both study tours were successful
introducing new ideas and stimulating discussion on sustainable development. However, little
linkage between domestic and overseas study tours could be found in terms of their subjects
and, therefore, educational effects of study tours were somewhat less than expected.
• There existed difficulty in operating visiting programs at some domestic study tour site because managers of some development sites were reluctant to communicate with trainees for
environmental education or to show the site to the public.
• Overseas study tour courses were composed with more than two countries and cities and in
certain cases, travel time between countries and cities took so long and sometimes too many
visiting sites were arranged in one city. Therefore, some participants felt a lack of time to
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understand and experience the activities of visiting sites and organizations. An intensive study
tour to one country or one city or one site is considered worth trying in future.
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THAILAND
Reciprocal Support System of Environmental Education with a View to the Further Promotion of it in the Asian and Pacific Region
Ms. Koontolrat Ratanasing
High expectation on environmental education is increasing in the Thai society. Apart from the
education authorities, other sectors, both government and private agencies, realize its importance and
try to involve educational aspect into their works and create linkage to education authorities and
education institutes. However within the long established system of education, some supports are not
well accomplished. The practices of different supports existing at present need to be studied and
improved while more efforts need to be developed both at local and international level.
Existing Supporting System
The current supporting system for environmental education in Thailand could be
divided into 2 main categories as follows;
1. Supporting system through the existing administrative structure of the Ministry of Education
The school supporting system is seen as one of the main working system of the Ministry of
Education for schools take responsibilities to put educational policies into practices. The
supporting system comprises training, supervising, monitoring, financial support, and
project-based activities.
According to the administrative structure of the Ministry of Education, there are departments
directly responsible for school management at each type and level of education. Thus most of
government primary schools are under the development known as the National Commission for
Primary Education while secondary schools are under the Department of General Education.
Similarly the Commission for Private Education works with private schools and the Department
of Technical Education supports technical schools and colleges. The structure allows the related
departments to work out on their own supporting system including financial as well as
academic supports to school under them.
Within each department with specific type and level of schools under its umbrella, a supervising
system is established as one of its supporting system. Education supervisors in each subject
areas are appointed to responsible for giving academic advisers to teachers mainly on spots. As
far as environmental education is concerned, it is understood that educational supervisors on
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social would do the jobs since the related contents and elective subjects on environmental
education of the current curriculum appear prominently in social studies. At the primary and
secondary education, there are 3 levels of educational supervisors; at regional level, provincial
level, and district level.
However supports from other agencies within and outside the Ministry are always welcome and
cooperation is one of the common practices.
2. Supporting system from other related agencies
Since environmental education becomes one of the topics interested by various agencies,
government and non-government sectors at local as well as international level, working on
environment with high expectation on raising awareness among new generation. Thus different
type of supports could be expected including material development, training, initiatives,
information, projects, experts, study visits, student activities, competition, and financial support.
Type of Supports
1. Academic support and professional development
2. Material development
3. Information dissemination
4. Research and development
5. Financial support
6. Student activities organization
7. Professional activities organization
Related Problem and Issues
Lesson learnt from the existing support system could be discussed as follows;
In relation to the built-in supporting system of the organization, the followings are noticed;
1. Lack of specific supporting system for environment education and lack of environmental expert
supervisors. As mentioned above on supervising system, the responsibility to help support
teachers academically on environmental education falls mainly in hands of those whose work is
in the area of social studies alone. This can be constraint on promoting environmental education
in its wider concepts across curriculum. In addition problems are on expertise and sufficiency to
support number of schools and teachers throughout the country too.
2. Coverage of supporting system. Normally supporting activities especially training, further
education, supervise, and others could only support specific target groups and leave out the rest.
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One of the efforts to try covering the whole citizen is to hand thing down several steps from
building up master groups at different levels to do the jobs. With such strategies it is proved that
qualities can only decreased and/or distorted as thing goes along the steps.
As far as the short term supporting from other agencies is concerned, the following issues would be
discussed;
1. No continuous practices guaranteed after a supporting effort end.
Concerning an environmental education project, no matter how good results a project could bring,
many who involved in the project find it hard to continue practicing after project end. One of the
effort to solve this problem is to develop most sustainable way of working procedure out of a
supporting project by avoid introducing extra practices into routine work.
2. Less further dissemination and multiply effects from target groups to others.
In most case, few selected staffs are involved directly in project-based activities with hope that
ideas and practices would be shared to others afterwards. Unfortunately in most cases it is hard to
work out that way. Multiply effects of many project ideas and initiatives to other teachers within
the same school as well as to those working in another schools are obviously unaccomplished.
3. Emphasis usually limits to one specific topic of environmental depends on interest and concerns of
supporting groups.
A number of agencies seem to lend their hands to support education jobs. However they come
with their specific interests and concerns on specific environmental issues either energy, water,
forest and others. Thus environmental education would be promoted with more emphasize on
one thing and left out many other things. In addition schools and teachers could develop negative
attitude towards such extra supports after several projects come separately for them to do more
works in limited opportunities and times they are allowed in the education system.
Future prospects to promote supporting system in the region
The fact that environmental issues can never solve by anyone sector alone in anyone country.
Everything links and efforts on others. That becomes the needs for an effective supporting system for
environmental education at local level. Type of supports could fall under the above mentioned works.
However it is important that strategies need to be discussed in order that all efforts would bring into a
more sustainable practices.
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VIETNAM
Environment Education Program in Vietnam and Its Supporting Activities
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son
A. BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
- Education, training and raising people’s awareness of the environment have long been
considered as one of the fundamental and important solutions to Environment Protection.
Regulation No. 19 in the Declaration of the UN Meeting on “People and Environment” in
Stockholm in 1972 said “the aim of Environment Education for the youths as well as for
adults is that they have morality and responsibility in environment improvement and
protection”.
- Following that Declaration, the United Nation Education Program in collaboration with
UNESCO launched the International Environment Education Program (IEEP). In October
1975, IEEP held an International workshop on Environment Education in Belgrade where it
came up with a Framework Agreement on the purposes and regulations about Environment
Education.
- Since the Belgrade Meeting, IEEP has carried out a number of activities. As a result, about
60 countries now have incorporated Environment Education in their school curricula. In
1987, under the Chairmanship of UNESCO, the International Meeting on Environment
Education and Training held in Moscow adopted an Environment Education program for the
decade of 1990-1999. At the Earth Summit (Rio-92), the matter of Environment Education
was reaffirmed and included in the Agenda 21 on Education, Training and Public awareness
with the demands of “incorporating the concept of environment and development, including
those of population, in all education programs; enabling children to participate in researches
on health and the environment, setting up curricula for pupils and students...”
B. THE FACT IN VIET NAM:
- Viet Nam has paid great attention to education, training and raising awareness of the
environment. This is in policies and laws of the Party and State on Environment Protection
which are as follows:
• Directive 36-CT/TW of the Central Committee of the Party dated 25 June 1998 on
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“Promotion of Environment Protection in the process of National Industrialization and
Modernization” affirmed the solution No.1 “continually educating. disseminating and
forming good habits, ways of life and public movement to protect the environment”
• National Action Plan for the decade of 1991-2000 on environment and sustained
development also makes it clear that: education, training, universalization and raising
awareness of the environment has been seen as one of the supporting activities of the
program. Concrete activities include: implementation of formal education on the
environment; technical training; raising awareness on environment and the setting up of a
universalized education and training network.
• The Draft of Strategy on Environment Protection to the Year 2010 highlights promotion of
education and raising people’s awareness of the environment.
• The Draft of Environment Action Plan for the Year 2001-2005 focuses on encouraging community participation with activities: including Environment Education in school and
university curricula, enabling Environment Protection activities by voluntary groups,
promoting the community’s access to information on environment problems...
- With the above-mentioned support from the Party and State, the activities of raising
environment awareness have been implemented across the country widely. Many activities
on Environment Education have been carried out by National Training Center with the
financial and technical support of many countries and international organizations.
Ø Environment Education applied in Formal Education (In School):
o Gradually, Environment Education has been designed, piloted and put into the
formal education curricula from pre-school up to higher education.
o The Govement-Retified Plan on "Incorporation the contents of Environment
Protection in the National Education System" is an overview of Environment
Education experience, the necessary contents of Environment Education and training
and measure to implement school environment curricula.
o Along with official education activities, various extra and supplementary education
activities have also been carried out. The project on "Environment Education in
Secondary School in Vietnam" supported by Danish International Development
Agency for the 10-year period (1994-2004) focuses on forming and empowering
staff specialized in Environment Education. The method of the project is intensive
training. Up-to-now, it has established a line of project consultants and a system of
Environment Education Supervisors in all 61 cities and province nationwide.
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Ø Environment Education applied in Non-Formal Education (In Community):
o In parallel with Formal Education, Environment Education for the community has
been pushed up. A number of programs on environment capacity building and
intensive knowledge training have been implemented.
o The Environment Department has opened training classes on raising fundamental
environment awareness for the managing staff, and those working in unions,
associations and enterprises.
o Especially, the Environment Department has held an inspector-training course with
five modules and intensive contents about environment inspection.
o The Center of Environment and Resource under Hanoi National University held
regular higher education training courses on "An ecological approach to resources
development, management, and environmental impact evaluation.
o At present, the Environment Department under the Ministry of Science, technology
and Environment of Vietnam is setting up programs to provide and improve
environment knowledge for staff in the non-environment sectors. It is also drawing
programs to raise environment awareness for those working in unions, associations,
political and cultural organizations
o These activities aim at introducing a systematic program with all necessary
knowledge and contents to enable different target groups to participate in
Environment Protection through concrete actions.
Ø Assessments:
o With the participation of numerous agencies and organizations in Environment
Education and Training, the environment awareness for different target groups, on
the one hand, has been improved. On the other hand, there has been an unsystematic
situation, which sometimes causes a waste of funds for Environment Education.
o In that content, it is vital to define priority target groups and programs as well as
rational/good ways to implement them, so that Environment Education and raising
awareness in Vietnam could be well organized or implemented.
o There should be researches on the real situation and the need for education and
training. These can improve environmental awareness and most effectively
implement environmental programs.
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o It is necessary that the State introduce concrete, continual and focused plans for
Environment Education to prevent an unsystematic situation. Tasks need to be
clearly assigned to prevent overlapping out any group.
o Environment Education and raising awareness programs must improve the
community's awareness and show them how to solve their local environment
problems.
o Implementation of the plan "Incorporating the contents of Environment Protection in
the National Education System" is aimed at systematically organizing Environment
Education and Training in school.
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Future Hopes
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FUTURE HOPES Australia - Debbie Heck
- Focus on how to promote environmental citizenship within the Asia-Pacific Region.
- Professional Development for Environmental Educators.
- Research & Evaluating in EE: Measuring our progress
China – Zhang Xi
Focus on:
− Evaluation of EE.
− Headmaster Training and teaching strategy.
− Education Outside the classroom
− Curriculum Development And I hope more and more EE teachers join us. Next Seminar should provide more:
− Case teaching (example of “How to teach” by EE teacher)
− Visiting for EE Research
Fiji - Vini Kunabuli
− A follow-up on what has happened in region on support systems which have been themes for Seminars I to V
− A focus on the use of indigenous knowledge in EE
India - K.B. Gupta
The fifth UNESCO/Japan seminar on EE with a view to the further promotion in the Asia-Pacific
Region has given an opportunity to interact with the participants of different countries. This has
helped me to know the status of Environmental Education in their country.
In the future seminar following issues may be taken up for discussion.
1. Ways and means of findings of NGOs in the formal system of school education without
increasing curriculum load.
2. Training to teachers, teacher educators, curriculum developers, administrators
3. Strengthening of EE concepts in the curriculum on attitudinal and participatory actions.
4. Reformation of system of evaluation of students in EE
5. Establish network for dissemination of EE information.
6. National policy on education mentioning a special emphasis on xxx education with
environmental concepts
7. feed back mechanism/follow up action
8. More interaction at National and International level
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Indonesia - Atam Dastam
1. International Standard Curriculum EE
2. Environmental value education and evaluation strategy on EE
3. Environmental education research
Germany - Heiko Crost
Keeping the contact to good old Europe, especially to the Foundation of Environmental Education or
German Association for Environmental Education.
New Zealand - Heidi Mardon
To further the long-term aims stated today → so that we can have a stronger political structure in
place in the future. That is, to have a Ministerial EE Committee for Asia-Pacific and to support
funded EE policy development of National Governments.
→ This would need support from the formation of National Advisory Groups (with representatives
from all sectors) and on the, yet to formed, Asia-Pacific steering group UNESCO/JAPAN Seminar
cycle would achieve this with a staged approach.
Pakistan - Aurangzeb Rehman
As the previous seminars have been organized on the related themes of Environmental Education
it would be desirable that future seminars/workshops are organized on the follow up activities
initiated by the countries of the region. It would also be good if some activity on the development
of some material on EE is organized. The material can be for schools, communities and teachers.
In the beginning we can start with posters and charts which are visual and do not involve much of the
language (which way be different for different countries/region).
It is also hoped that the future seminar may focus on the means and ways to share expertise and
material within the countries of the region.
Republic of Korea - Hyo Hyun Sung
− UNESCO/JAPAN Seminar on EE has to have ultimate goal. So the steering committee have long-term picture (framework) based on the final goal.
− UNESCO Asia and Pacific regional bureau delivery our resolution of each year to each country national commission for UNESCO to reflect into government policy on EE.
− The delegates from each country should be coherent. So they know some processes in UNESCO/JAPAN Seminar on EE and to get final goal, systematically.
UNESCO - Lucille Gregorio
1) Long-term planning (for the next cycle), different relevant themes each year, and follow-up
actions reviewed during the next year seminar.
2) Continuing sharing/exchange of ideas among participants
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Japan UNU/IAS - Kenichi Sakamoto
1. First, I would like to thank the contribution from UNESCO/Japan and Tokyo Gakugei
University for this seminar.
2. Through a few years' works, processes for EE are make clear as a whole. But, I think that EE
is the method for the sustainable development and society. It is necessary to measure the actual
figures and indicators towards the sustainable development; the final target of EE and this seminar.
I hope that UNESCO/Japan, Japanese Government and Tokyo Gakugei University will realize our
common mission and continue the work in the future.
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Closing Remarks
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Closing Remarks
Dr. Takeei Koizumi
Director, Field Studies Institute for Environmental Education
Tokyo Gakugei University
Distinguished participants.
Ladies and gentlemen:
Welcome to our institute! We are grateful for your visit to our institute. Our institute is not big
one. But this institute is one of the most important organization in environmental education in Japan.
We hope a completion of this institute in near future.
Now it is my great honor to make closing remarks at this fifth seminar. I am really convinced
that our seminar has been successfully and fruitfully finished, and I thanks to your sincere
cooperation. I really appreciate that all of you can reach some agreed syntheses. These
recommendation, I think, are useful at all levels of organizations and from national to individuals.
For myself, this seminar was tremendously useful and many reports and experiences of
participants encouraged me much. Through this seminar, I felt that realm of environmental education
is extremely wide, and circumstance differs in each country. In some country air or water pollution or
deforestation are big problems, however, in another countries nature conservation is more important.
However, it is necessary, I consider, that teaching of environmental education become independent
as a one subject in near future.
At a closing remarks of third seminar in 1999, Prof. Yamashita emphasized that adults or
grown-up persons are necessary to be taught environmental education, and this must be carried out
through children. That is, a teacher can teach adult or parents through his children or students.
However, in Japan, during two years people changed their mind and become to notice the
environment. This change must be worthy to note. Many citizens joined field excursions or lecture
meeting delightfully to learn ecology or physical geography, or nature conservation.
Now I would like appreciate all participants from abroad because the Japanese members
steering committee could have very joyful and fruitful time during this seminar. I wish to thank you
by calling each participant's name, however, please permit me pick up five persons. First I thank
Professor Harako, though he is my stuff, but I would like to thank him here, who is organizing this
seminar as a secretary of general. Next I sincerely appreciate four persons, Mrs. Lucille Gregorio, Mr.
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Heiko Crost, Mr. Kusano and Mr. Harada, Who carried out important role in this seminar. Finally I
thank all participants again and also our university staffs who have been supporting us with too many
office works from the beginning.
Now we would like to close this seminar, and thank you very much all participants again.
Please have a safe trip back to your home.
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Agenda
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Agenda
November 19 (Monday) Arrival and check in of participants November 20 (Tuesday) Day 1 9:30 - 10:00 Registration 10:00 - 10:20 Opening Ceremony 10:20 - 10:40 Group Picture 10:40 - 11:00 Orientation 11:00 - 12:00 Keynote Speech UNESCO/PROAP 12:05 - 13:00 Lunch 13:00 - 15:30 Group Work I -Country reports sharing -Common understanding of reciprocal suport systems of environmental education 15:30 - 16:00 Break 16:00 - 17:00 Roundtable Discussion I Group reports and discussion 17:00 - 18:00 Free Time 18:00 - 20:00 Welcome Reception November 21 (Wednesday) Day 2 9:00 - 11:00 Roundtable Discussion II Case presentation by Resource Persons and discussion 11:00 - 12:00 Group Work II Discussion on some topics related to reciprocal support systems of environmental education 12:00 - 13:00 Lunch 13:00 - 15:30 Group Work III Group discussion continued 15:30 - 16:00 Break 16:00 - 17:00 Roundtable Discussion Ⅲ Group reports and discussion November 22 (Thursday) Day 3 9:00 - 10:00 Group Work IV Preparation for group presentation 10:00 - 11:30 Roundtable Discussion Ⅳ Group presentations and Wrapping up 11:30 - 12:20 Lunch 12:20 - 16:30 School vist to Sengawa Elementary School in Musashino City 16:30 - 17:00 Closing Ceremony
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List of Participants
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List of Participants Participants Australia Ms. Debbie Heck Faculty of Environmental Sciences Griffith University Nathan, Brisbane 4111 Australia Phone: +61-7-3875-7510 Fax: +61-7-3875-7459 E-mail: [email protected] China Ms. Zhang Xi Associate Research Fellow Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences(BAES) No.7 west Chang'an Street Beijing 100031 P.R.China Phone: +86-10-66067144 Fax: +86-10-66075470 E-mail: [email protected] Fiji Ms. Viniana Kunabuli Seinior Education Officer Curriculum Development Unit Ministry of Education Marela House Suva Fiji E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +679-306077 Fax: +679-305953 Indonesia Dr. Atam Dastam Head, Centre of Environment Universitas Negeri Jakarta Rawamagun Muka Komplek Universitas Negeri Jakarta Jakarta Timur Indonesia E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: +62-21-4890856 Fax: +62-21-4890856
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India Dr. K. B. Gupta Professor DESM(Department of Education in Science and Mathematics), NCERT(National Council of Educational Research and Training), New Delhi 110 016 India Phone:91-11-6561742, 91-11-6011181 Fax:91-11-6868419 E-mail: [email protected] Japan Mr. Satoshi Ichikawa Associate Professor Center for Environmental Education and Lake Science Faculty of Education, Shiga University 2-5-1, Hiratsu, Otsu, Shiga 520-0862 Japan Phone: +81-77-537-7858 E-mail: [email protected] Mr. Kazuyuki Mikami Professor, Director" Environmental Education Center Faculty of Education, Miyagi University of Education Aramaki-aza-Aoba, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-0845 Japan Phone: +81-22-214-3545 Fax: +81-22-214-5594 E-mail: [email protected] Malaysia Ms. Sharifah Fatmah Alhabshi Principal Assistant Director Curriculum Development Centre Ministry of Education Persiaran Duta 50604 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Phone: +60-3-6201-1522 Fax: +60-3-6201-0861 E-mail: [email protected] New Zealand Ms. Heidi Mardon NZAEE (New Zealand Association for Environmental Education) Enviroschools Programme National Coordinator 14Staithes Drive North, Whitby, Porirua New Zealand Phone: +64-4-2355939 Fax: N/A E-mail: [email protected]
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Pakistan Mr. Aurangzeb Rehman Assistant Educational Adviser Ministry of Education Curriculum wing sector H-9,Islamabad Pakistan Phone: +92-51-4448340 Fax: +92-51-4430104 Philippines Dr. Angelina Galang Executive Director of the Environmental Studies Institute Miriam College Katipunan Rd., Quezon City, Philippines E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +63-2-4364736 Fax: +63-2-9205093 Republic of Korea Ms. Hyo-Hyun Sung Profesor, Ewha Womans University Department of Social Studies, College of Education, Ewha Univ. 11-1 Daehyun-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-750 Korea Phone: +82-2-3277-2668 Fax: +82-2-3277-2659 E-mail: [email protected] Thailand Ms. Koontolrat Ratanasing Head of the Special Programme Unit Curriculum Development Centre Department of Curriculum and Instruction Development Ministry of Education Sukhumvit Road, Ekamai Bangkok 10110 Thailand Phone: +66-2-391-0055 Fax: +66-2-391-5029 E-mail:[email protected] Vietnam Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son
Specialist - Education Section, Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO.
#8 Khue Hao Hanoi Vietnam Phone: +84-4-1993604 Fax: +84-4-8230702 E-mail: [email protected]
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Resource Persons UNESCO/PROAP Ms. Lucille Gregorio Specialist in Science and Technology Education UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Bureau for Education 920 Sukhumut Rd. Bangkok 10110 Thailand Phone: +66-2-391-0599 Ex. 317 Fax: +66-2-391-0866 E-mail: [email protected] FEE Mr. Heiko Crost Head of the Frankfurt Teachers in service training institute Hessisches Landesinstitut fur Padagogik Gutleutstr.8-12 60329 Frankfurt Germany Phone: 0049 69 2568 312 Fax: +49 69 2568 320 E-mail: [email protected] JICA Mr. Takahisa Kusano Planning Director, Forestry and Natural Environment Department Japan International Cooperation Agency Shinjuku Maynds Tower BLDG. 7th Floor, 1-1, Yoyogi 2-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 151-8558 Japan Phone:+81-3-5352-5273 Fax:+81-3-5358-5349 E-mail:[email protected] Mr. Kazuhiro Harada
Long Term Expert(Environmental Education), Biodiversity Conservation Project (Presemt: Vice-Director, Center for Development of Indonesian Community)
1-5-13-404, Kiheicyo, Kodaira-shi Tokyo, 187-0044 Japan Phone:+81-42-332-5290 E-mail:[email protected]
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Facilitator Dr. George Jacobs JF New Paradigm Education, Education Consultant and Writer International Plaza, 10 Anson Road, #46-06, Singapore 079903, Republic of Singapore Phone:+65-222-4685 [email protected] www.georgejacobs.net Observers UNU/IAS Dr. Ken'ichi Sakamoto UNU/ZERI Project Science Adviser Institute of Advanced Studies The United Nations University 53-67 , Jingumae 5-chome Sibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8304 Japan Tel: +81-3-5467-2323 Fax: +81-3-5467-2324 Tokyo Gakugei University 4-1-1 Nukuikita-machi Koganei, Tokyo 184-8501 Japan Mr. Eiichiro 'Atom' Harako Associate Professor Field Studies Institute for Environmental Education Tel : +81-42-329-7668 Fax: +81-42-329-7669 E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Toshihiko Higuchi Professor Field Study Institute for Environmental Education Tel : +81-42-329-7667 Fax: +81-42-329-7669 E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Nobuyasu Katayama Associate Professor Tel: +81-42-329-7518 E-mail: [email protected]
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Dr. Mikio Kimata Professor Field Studies Institute for Environmental Education Tel: +81-42-329-7666 Fax: +81-42-329-7669 E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Takeei Koizumi Professer Director of Field Studies Institute for Environmental Education Tel & Fax:+81-42-329-7309 E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Kimiko Kozawa Professor Tel : +81-42-329-7430 Fax: +81-42-329-7444 E-mail: [email protected] Mr. Seiichi Matsukawa Lecturer Tel & Fax: +81-42-329-7412 E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Kiyoshi Ogawa Associate Professor Tel & Fax: +81-42-329-7547 E-mail: [email protected] Mr. Hideaki Shibuya Associate Professor Tel & Fax: +81-42-329-7345 E-mail: [email protected] Mr. Masao Tsukahara Professor Tel: +81-42-329-7620 E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Shuji Yamashita Professor Tel & Fax: +81-42-329-7312 E-mail: [email protected]