| The Role, Objectives, and Characteristics of
Environmental Education
I. The Conference recommends the
adoption of certain criteria which will help to guide efforts to develop environmental
education at the national, regional, and global levels:
1. Whereas it is a fact that biological and physical features
constitute the natural basis of the human environment, its ethical, social, cultural, and
economic dimensions also play their part in determining/he lines of approach and the
instruments whereby people may understand and m~e better use of natural resources in
satisfying their needs.
2. Environmental education is the result of the reorientation and
dovetailing of different disciplines and educational experiences which facilitate an
integrated perception of the problems of the environment, enabling more rational actions
capable of meeting social needs to be taken.
3. A basic aim of environmental education is to succeed in making
individuals and communities understand the complex nature of the natural and the built
environments resulting from the interaction of their biological, physical, social,
economic, and cultural aspects, and acquire the ~knowledge, values, attitudes, and
practical skills to participate in a responsible and effective way in anticipating and
solving environmental problems, and in the management of the quality of the environment.
4. A further basic aim of environmental education is clearly to show
the economic, political, and ecological interdependence of the modern world, in which
decisions and actions by different countries can have international repercussions.
Environmental education should, in this regard, help to develop a sense of responsibility
and solidarity among countries and regions as the foundation for a new international order
which will guarantee the conservation and improvement of the environment.
5. Special attention should be paid to understanding the complex
relations between socio-economic development and the improvement of the environment.
6. For this purpose, environmental education should provide the
necessary knowledge for interpretation of the complex phenomena that shape the
environment, encourage those ethical, economic, and esthetic values which, constituting
the basis of self-discipline, will further the development of conduct compatible with the
preservation and improvement of the environment. It should also provide a wide range of
practical skills required in the devising and application of effective solutions to
environmental problems.
7. To carry out these tasks, environmental education should bring about
a closer link between educational processes and real life, building its activities around
the environmental problems that are faced by particular communities and focusing analysis
on these by means of an interdisciplinary, comprehensive approach which will permit a
proper understanding of environmental problems.
8. Environmental education should cater to all ages and
socio-professional groups in the population. It should be addressed to (a) the general
nonspecialist public of young people and adults whose daily conduct has a decisive
influence on the preservation and improvement of the environment; (b) to particular social
groups whose professional activities affect the quality of the environment; and © to
scientists and technicians whose specialized research and work will lay the foundations of
knowledge on which education, training, and efficient management of the environment should
be based.
9. To achieve the effective development of environmental education,
full advantage must be taken of all public and private facilities available to society for
the education of the population: the formal education system, different forms of nonformal
education, and the mass media.
10. To make an effective contribution towards improving the
environment, educational action must be linked with legislation, policies, measures of
control, and the decisions that governments may adopt in relation to the human
environment.
II. The Conference endorses the following goals, objectives, and
guiding principles for environmental education:
The goals of environmental education are:
1. to foster clear awareness of, and concern about, economic, social,
political, and ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas;
2. to provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge,
values, attitudes, commitment, and skills needed to protect and improve the environment;
3. to create new patterns of behavior of individuals, groups, and
society as a whole towards the environment.
The categories of environmental education objectives are:
Awareness—to help social groups and individuals acquire an
awareness and sensitivity to the total environment and its allied problems.
Knowledge—to help social groups and individuals gain a variety
of experience in, and acquire a basic understanding of, the environment and its associated
problems.
Attitudes—to help social groups and individuals acquire a set
of values and feelings of concern for the environment and the motivation for actively
participating in environmental improvement and protection.
Skills—to help social groups and individuals acquire the
skills for identifying and solving environmental problems.
Participation—to provide social groups and individuals with an
opportunity to be actively involved at all levels in working toward resolution of
environmental problems.
Guiding principles—environmental education should
· consider the environment in its totality—natural and built,
technological and social (economic, political, cultural-historical, ethical, esthetic);
· be a continuous lifelong process, beginning at the preschool level
and continuing through all formal and nonformal stages;
· be interdisciplinary in its approach, drawing on the specific
content of each discipline in making possible a holistic and balanced perspective;
· examine major environmental issues from local, national, regional,
and international points of view so that students receive insights into environmental
conditions in other geographical areas;
· focus on current and potential environmental situations while taking
into account the historical perspective;
· promote the value and necessity of local, national, and
international cooperation in the prevention and solution of environmental problems;
· explicitly consider environmental aspects in plans for development
and growth;
· enable learners to have a role in planning their learning
experiences and provide an opportunity for making decisions and accepting their
consequences;
· relate environmental sensitivity, knowledge, problem-solving skills,
and values clarification to every age, but with special emphasis on environmental
sensitivity to the learner's own community in early years;
· help learners discover the symptoms and real causes of environmental
problems;
· emphasize the complexity of environmental problems and thus the need
to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills;
· utilize diverse learning environments and a broad array of
educational approaches to teaching, learning about and from the environment with due
stress on practical activities and first-hand experience.
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