YSDA Youth Sectoral Perspective on the Philippine National Environmental Education Action Plan (NEEAP)

YSDA-Pilipinas Inc. (Youth for Sustainable Development Assembly)

www.ysda.tk

YSDA-Pilipinas 2nd National Congress May 2002, Isla San Salvador, Masinloc Zambales

Youth Conference for Sustainable Development in the 21st Century February 8-9 1996

Kabalai (2

Local Chapters)

LYEM (11 Local Youth

Groups)

CYMI (5

Local Youth Groups)

4H R4 (100 + local chapters)

YSDA Membership Today!

Youth in Sustainable Development Research

Proposed Youth in SusDev Modeling Projects

NCR-Calabarzon (Marketing Community-Based Ecotours)Roxas City, Capiz (Children’s Rights Advocacy)Lanao Lake (Community-Based Sanitation & Livelihood Project)Region 4 (Promoting Organic Farming & Marketing)

Youth in SusDev

Capacity Bldg.

Youth Conservation

Volunteer Work

KabataanEco-Preneurship

Development

Youth in SD IEC Campaigns

Youth in SD Advocacy & Lobbying Campaigns

Field Impact Assessment

YSDA Youth in SudDev Research ProgramHow Green Are You?: A Benchmark Study on the Level of Awareness of Youth Leaders on Environmental and Sustainable Development Issues and Principles;Youth in Sustainable Consumption: A Study on the Involvement of Youth Leaders in Promoting Sustainable Production & Consumption PracticesYouth Participation in Community Sustainable Development: An Institutional Study on the Involvement of Youth Organizations in Sustainable Development Prospective Youth in SusDev Model Site Profiling: A Profiling of Youth in SusDev target sites. This benchmark study will determine the socio-economic and ecological parameters by which to gauge the impact of the program later on.

Youth Local Green Politics

Campaign

YSDA-Pilipinas Inc.5-Year Medium Term Strategic Plan (2002 –2006)

YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 YEAR 4 YEAR 5

YSDA Representation in the WSSD Global Youth Caucus

Youth Conference for Sustainable Development in the 21st Century February 8-9 1996

Round Table Discussions on the NEEAP

STATUS OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION INITIATIVES

Information, Education & Advocacy Programs for Policy Reforms

• Lobbying at the 2nd NYP Green Brigade EO (EO 52)

Trainings•Kamp Kalikasan (Youth Environmental Camps)

Research & Development

•Sourcebook of Youth Involvement in Community SusDev (un published)

a) NEEAP

Highlights on the DESD Section Items Comments

Section 1: Elaboration on the nature of education for sustainable development & its links to other international education processes & priorities

•That the DESD will be implemented within the context of the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which has provided targets for international action to bring the abstract concept of sustainable development into reality Such an education should provide life-long skills in the area of “learning to know”, “learning to live together”, “ learning to do” and “learning to be”

•That the four domains of education for sustainable development includes: a) Basic Education, b) Reorienting Existing Education Program towards teaching knowledge & skills on sustainability, b) Developing Public Awareness and Understanding of Sustainability and c) Training (particularly focused within the private profit sector)

•That the DESD will be implemented in complementation with existing international education processes & programs; particularly with the Education for All (EFA) and UN Literacy Decade (UNLD)

•That the Key Themes in Education for Sustainable Development includes: a) Overcoming Poverty, b) Gender Equality c) Health Promotions, d) Environmental Consevation & Protection, e) Rural Transformation f) Human Rights, g) Intercultural Understanding and Peace h) Sustainable Production & Consumption I) Cultural Diversity, j) Information & Communication Technologies

  

Training should not be limited to the business sector participation. Various civil society groups are also involved in viable trainings on sustainable development   DESD implementation should result to new and additional resources and not just a re-alignment of existing funds from EFA and UNLD.  Human Rights Education should be highlighted within the context of the right-based approach to sustainable development as articulated in the WSSD Plan of Implementation Additional themes on governance (national, local, international), corporate responsibility/accountability and the issues of multilateral trade, which are proving to have immense implications to sustainable development implementation, must be considered here.  

b) DESD

c) Updated Philippine Agenda 21

•Review of the MTYDP (particularly the Green Brigade Program)

•Actions to open up DENR programs & projects to youth involvement

•Actions to ensure that youth organizations are involve in various structures & processes of the PCSD

“While these are not directly on environmental education, we feel that increasing & improving the quality of engagement & participation of youth leaders & youth organizations in the policy-making & framework-setting on sustainable development in general (through the PA21) is crucial. This will raise the youth’s knowledge on the issues and improve their skills needed to UNDERSTAND and CONFRONT environmental problems.”

CURRENT ISSUES & GAPS

IDEAL OBJECTIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

CURRENT EXPERIENCE(Formal, Informal & Non-Formal Education)

EE should provide young people the needed knowledge & analytical skills in order to fully understand the complex issues of environmental destruction in their own localities 

         Environmental Education in many schools remains rather technical and focused more on biological/earth sciences. Despite many attempts to link the teaching of environmental issues & skills to other social-political & economic issues, there is a perceive lack of sufficient linkaging.

         There is a perceived lack of “champions” among teachers and school administrators on promoting environmental issues as a cause that students and other members of the school community can rally behind on.

         There is a lack of focused on presenting environmental issues as personal issues of students and youth that allow them to questions and review their own value systems and lifestyles

         Non-formal and informal environmental education has not always been consistently available to a large number of young people across various age range & batches. (e.g. conduct of youth environmental camps by various groups have not been consistent every year and articles on environmental issues have not found its way regularly on campus papers & other publications)

IDEAL OBJECTIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

CURRENT EXPERIENCE(Formal, Informal & Non-Formal Education)

EE should provide young people practical skills in order to substantially contribute in collective efforts to jointly confront specific local community problems resulting to and as a result of environmental destruction

         There is a severe lack of actual engagement of young people (particularly students) in ongoing collective community efforts to confront specific environmental issues as a way to further complement formal instruction in schools on environmental education.

         In relation to this, while serious efforts are being made by some schools to integrate environmental projects towards creating sustainable, “green” campuses; these have been more an exemption than a rule. In such cases, teaching environmental education through formal instruction has not been as effective since it lack the needed consistency in terms of actual practice & involvement of the students who are provided such instructions.

Knowledge Life Skills

Involvement of the

Successor Generations

Resolution of Actual Community Environment

& SusDev Issues

Reflections

“EE should empower young people to confront & resolve

“real” environmental issues of their communities”

Understanding of Community

Environmental & SusDev Issues

EE

Proposed Framework for EE

RECOMMENDATIONS & NEEDED ACTIONS

Issues & Problems Recommendations

& Needed ActionsEE remains technical & focus on biological/earth sciences

EE in schools & communities must be undertaken not merely as academic exercises but focused on responding to specific community environmental & susdev issues

There is a perceived lack of linkaging between EE & other socio-political & economic issues

There is a perceived lack of actual engagement of the youth to confront specific environmental issues in their immediate communities

There is a perceived lack of “champions” among teachers & administrators on promoting environmental actions to resolve environmental issues

Support to ensure that every campus will have an Environmental Student Org Setting of Faculty Environmental Groups School Extensions Services (e.g. NTSP) should focus on responding to environmental issues Require a Graduate of Environmental Studies/Science/Education to be part of every H.S. Science Teacher Teams

Issues & Problems Recommendations

& Needed ActionsMany students still do not perceived environmental issues as personal issues

Make Sustainable Consumption & Production Issues central to EE Green Lifestyle Options (e.g. Ecowaste, Organic Food/Food Safety, Green Transport Options) must be taught, supported & practiced (including institutionalization of appropriate policies & provision of infrastructure to support these lifestyle options such as bike racks, banning soft drinks in canteen & serious implementation of campus ecowaste)

Non-formal & Informal EE have not always been consistently available to young people (e.g. youth camp, articles on environment in campus papers)

Review & Strengthen the implementation of the SK Green Brigade Program & encourage the focus of this program on EE Implement & institutionalize the 2nd & 3rd NYP resolutions for the creation & institutionalization of a PHILIPPINE YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMP ON ENVIRONMENT & SUSDEV

Issues & Problems Recommendations

& Needed ActionsNon-formal & Informal EE have not always been consistently available to young people (continuation . . .)

Support the conduct of training on environmental & sustainable development issues for campus journalist complemented by appropriate linkage support to on campus and off-campus environmental groups and institutions to ensure more regular news and articles on environment in school papers

Lack of integration of best practices on susdev implementation from indigenous knowledge system (particularly from practices of Indigenous Peoples’ Community) to current EE programs

Inclusion of IP and Muslim Community Leaders to all national EE coordination structures and mechanisms. Institutionalize a Cultural Exchange Program focused on indigenous knowledge system and urban-rural sustainable development links with the active participation of IP and Muslim communities

Issues & Problems Recommendations

& Needed Actions

There is perceived lack of consistency between the EE that is being taught in schools and the actual practice & involvement within & outside the school in environment & susdev issues

Ensure coordinated action by ALL sectors to provide conducive opportunities for young people to learn about and be involve in resolving community environment & susdev issues complementing EE in school in a consistent manner Continue and develop stricter guidelines & standards on sustainable development practices of schools in the existing school accreditation by government and self-accreditation processes by the private sector (e.g. PAASCU)

Environmental Education

VS

SUSDEV Education?

RANDOM THOUGHTS . . .

• Environmental Issues are subsets of Sustainable Development Issues

• All environmental issues are necessarily sustainable development issues but not all sustainable development issues are environmental issues

• The resolution of environmental issues are dependent upon the prior and final resolution of other socio-political and economic problems. The new PA21 identifies these as the following: a) population, b) governance, c) trade & globalization, d) corporate accountability, e) poverty reduction and others

•IF the objectives of EE are both to inform and capacitate in order to allow for relevant participation in the resolution of community environmental issues; it MUST be able to tackle and provide the needed info and skills to resolve the other socio-economic and political problems

• CAN Environmental Education really provide the info & skills to resolve these other socio-political and economic issue?

• Will a broader framework for SUSDEV Education be better?