Strategies for Sustainable Future
Espinho (Portugal), 20-24 May 2003

 

The first World Environmental Education Congress was held in Espinho (Portugal), under the sponsorship of UNEP and UNESCO; it was the first of what would be a series of global events and gathered together 300 participants from 40 countries, offering an international platform for educators, scientific experts, researchers, scholars, politicians, technicians, activists, the media and teachers to discuss worldwide key issues in Environmental Education (EE) in an integrated perspective.

In view of the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) promoted by UNESCO, the first WEEC was the initial stage of a civil society movement to promote a new vision of EE in the face of scientific, socio-cultural, political, economic and technological global change.

Organizing Committe: Open University of Aveiro; ASPEA (Associação Portuguesa de Educação Ambiental); Portuguese Order of Biologists.

During the four days of Congress 273 presentations were made, both oral communications (109) and posters (164), on the topics of:

• Environmental policies and education
• Media and communication
• Environmental activism and citizenship
• EE and local activities
• Sustainable agriculture and tourism
• EE and economics and sustainability
• Teachers training

In addition, five related workshops were held involving a total of 150 participants. The workshops, based on case studies, were led by different international experts, having various backgroundsand covered the following themes:

• Waste management
• The role of learning support materials in enhancing environmental learning
• Health
• Evaluation of EE programmes
• Implementing effective environmental educational and information programmes: how can we improve our chances for success?

 

General Conclusions:

The 1st WEEC was designed to have an open profile that would help to promote contact between the several stakeholders that emerged in the past decades in EE and related fields, thereby contributing to better understanding and communication between them. At the first edition of WEEC there emerged the need for a new EE paradigm, presumably more multi and interdisciplinary, capable of dealing with the complexity and uncertainty of the natural world but also  of the cultural and human world as well. During the 1st WEEC there was some evidence of the need to discuss, clarify, update and reach a broader base of consensus on some of these key concepts and practices, in order to make the work and communication in this field more accurate and improve its overall quality.

< Prev