Planning education to care for the earth - IUCN Knowledge Network

Zambia: environmental educationInstitue and IUCN have worked together to train broadcasters from theSouthern African Development Community (SACD) region.As a result, coverage of environmental issues by the media - both print andelectronic - has improved. More needs to be done, however, in particular forrurally-based journalists.Need for a strategyA strategy for environmental education has developed slowly in Zambia andmuch remains to be done. A fully-articulated policy on the environment hasto be drawn up by the government, with a policy for environmental educationwhich would serve as the basis of a strategy. (Zambia has some way to go inimplementing the “Caring for the Earth” document and Agenda 21 adoptedat the World Conference on Environment and Development, which wouldserve as a guide for an expanded programme of environmental education).Government Departments dealing with resources - for example, theDepartments of Water, Energy and Lands - should make a concertedcontribution to the development of environmental education. There is a needfor coordination of policies relating to environmental and natural resourcesissues among Ministries.Environmental education lacks trained manpower at the primary, secondaryand teacher training levels and funding for all aspects of the programmeneeds to be increased.Gaps and priorities need to be set in relation to target groups; few activitiesreach women and youth. A strategy requires the development of methodsand techniques of educating all the target groups, accompanied by thedesign, development, printing and distribution of appropriate teachingmaterials. Techniques which give an inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinarycharacter to subjects in the curriculum have to be worked out.There is a need for NGOs to coordinate their environmental educationactivities.Finally, there is an overriding need for a national coordination ofenvironmental education.Demonstrating the benefitsThe aims of environmental education - creating awareness, changingattitudes, giving individuals and communities knowledge of the environment,equipping them with skills to identify and solve environmental problems,and mobilizing popular participation - call for a prior understanding ofcurrent perceptions. In its work with teachers, ZEEP has tried to establishwhat people say, do, and think but do not express about the environment. Anindication of some of the perceptions the education programme has to work151