Planning education to care for the earth - IUCN Knowledge Network

Planning education to care for the earthThis process is the most common in the Sahel. Institutions andorganizations which are conscious of the environmental issues come to thefield with the aim of prompting populations to change their behaviour andattitudes. This is the method followed by Tiers Monde, IUCN, Danish RedCross, PFIE-CILSS, and others. The organization may propose a readymade process. Faced with serious “silent emergencies”, which thepopulation doesn’t see holistically, with all the interactions and interrelations, the organization aims to create awareness leading to concertedaction. First, the organization must take into account the existingstructures, whether traditional or administrative, as well as the knowledgeand values of the local culture. Then make sure that the process isaccepted by the population. All concerned people must be motivated toparticipate in the analysis of their environment, in the expression of theirneeds, and in the choice of environmental priorities. Regular contactsbetween the organization and population are vital to reinforce confidenceand motivation.The approach and methodology must be adapted to local human andmaterial resources, and the dynamics of the human environmentalsituation.• Following an intervention on a major problem, the organizationtakes this opportunity to address an environmental issue that itconsiders important, but which may not seem so to the people atthe time.An organization may agree to respond to a request for support in order tobuild acceptance and confidence in a population so that it can later workon an issue of importance to it. For example, the Malian Red Cross’support was sought to help develop market gardening. The Red Cross tookthis opportunity to also address family planning issues.When formal education services agree to undertake aspects ofenvironmental education the school can become a support or a relay tothe community. The approach does not yet imply acquisition ofknowledge in view of school exams, but rather in view of bettercontrolling environmental problems and of field actions.In the example of PFIE-CILSS (PFIE: Programme de Formation etd’Information pour l’Environment and CILSS: le Comité Inter-Etats deLutte Contre la Sécheresse au Sahel - Inter-States Committee for DroughtControl in the Sahel), the president of CILSS proposed that membercountries of this organization take on an environmental education pilotproject and evaluate it.The approach involves nine Sahel countries. It is necessarily less flexibleon both project managers’ and actors’ part and must be spread out over alonger period of time.26