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CHAPTER 4. PUBLIC AWARENESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

4.4. Environmental Education

Environmental education is one of the most effective ways of increasing environmental public awareness and constitutes a crucial factor in the success of public involvement activities for environmental protection.

Environmental education molds the full process of relationships between humans, society, and nature/the environment. It shows the dependence of man on the environment and teaches responsibility for changes made therein. Therefore, environmental education must be recognized as an inseparable element of the whole educational process of each human being, together with information policy, economic strategy, and protection of human health.

Environmental education is a continuous, lifelong process and means learning about nature/the environment through gaining scientific knowledge and through the arts, experience, imagination, and dreams, as well as through activities for environmental protection.

The education of children, supported by positive models taken from the home, brings the best results. The objective of environmental education is to develop, from the earliest years, a taste for beauty, admiration for the surrounding natural world, and at the same time, a rejection of selfish-oriented consumption attitudes. Each person is a consumer, because since birth he/she makes use of natural resources, vegetation, animal products, forests, fossils, lakes, and water reservoirs. Therefore, understanding the laws of nature and the truth that natural resources are limited, constitutes the basis for the formation of pro-ecological behavioural models, in the first instance amongst the very young. It is connected with awakening an interest to acquire knowledge about the environment and methods of its protection through self-study and use of various sources of information, including books, television programmes, computer programmes and the Internet. On the basis of acquired knowledge, young people are encouraged to present their ideas connected with nature conservation and the practical implementation thereof. Therefore, conveying practical knowledge, which may be useful to environmental protection, is another basic goal of environmental education.

Effective environmental education is modern education. The fundamental principles for the development of environmental education in the world and its features were defined during the conference organized by UNESCO and UNEP held in Tbilisi in 1977.

The features of environmental education were defined by the Tbilisi International Conference, held in 1977. It was decided that environmental education should:

• be a long-term and interdisciplinary process,
• be holistic - should pay attention to natural relationships and relationships between man and natural systems,
• consider the environment in many aspects, in natural, social, political, economic, moral, aesthetic and technological contexts,
• consider the environment in the following dimensions:
  • local and global,
  • past, present and future,
• inspire people to make rational decisions,
• foster opportunities for resolving environmental problems at a local level,
• create environmental ethics and stimulate the development of environmental sensitivity and awareness,
• develop critical thinking and teach people how to express their own environmental opinions,
• teach how to work together, communicate, and cooperate to resolve environmental problems and how to acquire skills in that field,
• encourage to experience, value, and appreciate, the beauty and importance of the environment,
• foster environmental studies, observations, experiments, and participation in cognitive and practical activities,
• foster self-reliance and taking of initiatives,
• create individual responsibility for the environment,
• use a broad range of methods, techniques, and styles of teaching and learning.

According to UNESCO's definition (1987): Environmental education is a permanent process in which individuals gain awareness of their environment and acquire the knowledge, values, skills, experiences, and also the determination which enable them to act - individually and collectively - to solve present and future environmental problems.

Environmental education understood and conducted according to these principles will help to form appropriate attitudes in the young so that their behaviour towards wildlife and the surrounding environment will be mature and rational.

The scope of environmental education is broad and varies depending on age, occupation, etc., beginning from the explanation of basic notions and principles of ecology to development of sustainable consumption models. The knowledge conveyed in the framework of the environmental education should be interdisciplinary and must be matched to the perceptive abilities of the age of the target audience.

Table of Contents

• Brochure
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• International Year of Forests
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• World Environment Day
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• UNEP Campaign
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