1.1 Environmental education
The concept of environmental education was first formalised by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1970 and further supported by the establishment of the International Environmental Education Programme (IEEP) in 1975, following the recommendation from the United Nations (UN) conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972.
The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) convened the first intergovernmental conference on environmental education in Tbilisi in 1977, to unanimously declare the significant role of environmental education in the preservation and improvement of the world's environment, and in supporting equitable global development. Known as the Tbilisi Declaration, it built on the Belgrade Charter (UNESCO, 1975) that defined the goal of environmental education (EE):
To develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones.
The Tbilisi Declaration promoted clear goals and objectives of EE and defined a series of guiding principles (Box 1).
Box 1 Guiding principles for environmental education – Tbilisi Declaration (1977)
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 non-formal 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.
The ambition for environmental education in the context of sustainable development was further promoted in the Agenda 21 framework generated as a result of the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, where a reorienting of education towards sustainable development was developed (Box 2). After this event the UK created a Sustainable Development Education Panel (SDEP) to look at the development and application of Agenda 21 across levels of education and proposed seven concepts of sustainable development (Box 3) to be covered across wide-ranging curricula.
The different agreements and policy initiatives are evidence of growing calls for a much-needed transition in education. They are a window on some key initiatives of education for sustainability over the last 50 years that show a common pattern calling for an environmental imperative to be integrated within formal, and informal learning structures. Core to these calls for education for sustainability is the importance of seeing sustainability in the round and its:
- concepts and complexity
- multi-scale
- diversity
- interdependency of systems
- inter and intra-generational impact
- local and global
- the rights of human and non-human
- equity and justice
- citizenship
- stewardship
- precautionary approaches.
These components describe the various facets (the ‘what’) of education for sustainability over a 50-year period. However, the concept of transition requires us to not only scope the agenda but to actualise change through practice. The rest of the unit will explore the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of education for sustainability.
Box 2 Agenda 21 Chapter 36 – Basis for action
36.3. Education, including formal education, public awareness and training should be recognized as a process by which human beings and societies can reach their fullest potential. Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environment and development issues. While basic education provides the underpinning for any environmental and development education, the latter needs to be incorporated as an essential part of learning. Both formal and non-formal education are indispensable to changing people's attitudes so that they have the capacity to assess and address their sustainable development concerns. It is also critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective public participation in decision-making. To be effective, environment and development education should deal with the dynamics of both the physical/biological and socio-economic environment and human (which may include spiritual) development, should be integrated in all disciplines, and should employ formal and non-formal methods and effective means of communication.
Box 3 Seven concepts of sustainable development
- Interdependence – of society, economy and the national environment, from local to global
- Citizenship and stewardship – rights and responsibilities, participation and co-operation
- Needs and rights of future generations
- Diversity – cultural, social, economic and biological
- Quality of life, equity and justice
- Sustainable change – development and carrying capacity [the number of people, animals, or crops which a region can support without environmental degradation]
- Uncertainty, and precaution in action
Activity 6.1 Actions towards education for sustainability
This section has highlighted some of the environmental and sustainability education agendas over a 50-year period.
3. 
Select three adaptations and three challenges and share them with your peer online learners in the Activity 6.1 forum discussion.
1 Transitioning to ‘education for sustainability’