|
In 1998, the Wisconsin Environmental
Education Board adopted the following definition:
| "Environmental education is a lifelong learning process that leads to an informed and involved citizenry having the creative problem-solving skills,
scientific and social literacy, ethical awareness and sensitivity for the
relationship between humans and the environment, and commitment to engage in
responsible individual and cooperative actions. By these actions,
environmentally literate citizens will help ensure an ecologically and
economically sustainable environment." |
The world's first intergovernmental conference on environmental education was
organized by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) in cooperation with the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and was
convened in Tbilisi, Georgia (USSR) from October 14-26, 1977.
Delegates from 66 member states and observers from two nonmember states
participated. Representatives and observers from eight U.N. agencies and
programs also participated. Three other intergovernmental organizations and 20
international nongovernmental organizations also were represented. In all, 265
delegates and 65 representatives and observers took part in the conference.
The Tbilisi Declaration was adopted by acclamation at the close of the
intergovernmental conference. The declaration noted the unanimous accord in the
important role of environmental education in the preservation and improvement of
the world's environment, as well as in the sound and balanced development of the
world's communities.
The categories of environmental
education objectives adopted were:
-
Awareness. Develop observational and other process skills that contribute to an awareness
of and sensitivity to the total environment and its problems.
-
Knowledge. Acquire basic information about the natural environment in order to understand
how it functions, how it is affected by human activity, and how harmony between
human activity and the natural environment can be achieved.
-
Attitudes and environmental ethic. Develop feelings
of concern for the environment and the motivation to participate actively in
environmental maintenance and improvement.
-
Citizen action skills. Develop skills needed to identify, investigate, and take action toward the
resolution of environmental issues. -
Citizen action experiences. Gain experience in
working individually and collectively toward the resolution of environmental
issues.
Grant
applicants will need to detail how their project relates to one or more of these
fundamental tenets of environmental education. |
