Both ENDS
Getting in touch with Both ENDS is
a good way to get connected with many
NGOs around the world that focus on
conservation and development. Reviving
Links is a good source of inspiration if
you are planning on starting up an
environmental education project. /GJM
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Both
ENDS aims to strengthen NGOs that
work on environment and social
justice issues, especially in
developing countries. It works
with hundreds of fellow NGOs
throughout the world, providing
them with a range of services. It
organizes seminars and
conferences, publishes and
disseminates reports, provides
the secretariat for a number of
working groups, and provides
information and contacts to
colleagues. Both ENDS carries
out its work through four
programs. The service program
analyzes and provides
information. Topics include donor
agencies, NGOs, politicians and
policy makers, the media, and
current issues and debates
related to the environment and
development.
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The outreach program assesses
and stimulates cooperation between the
various organizations involved in
environmental and development issues,
including NGOs, scientific institutions,
development agencies and the private
sector. The capacity building program
facilitates the exchange of knowledge and
experiences. This focuses on a number of
areas, including fund-raising strategies,
networking and advocacy, the use of
impact assessments and project monitoring
and evaluation. Finally, the awareness
program seeks to raise the profile of
NGOs through disseminating their visions
and ideas, and promoting their
involvement in national and international
policy discussions.
The recent publication Reviving Links
reviews the experiences of various NGOs
in environmental education. Using a wide
range of case studies from different
parts of the world, the authors have
identified the elements that contribute
to the success or failure of such
activities. These have been used to draw
up guidelines to help others in planning
and implementing environmental education
activities. A selection of resource
centers and important publications are
included.
‘Education is
communication in an organised and
sustained manner, to bring about
changes in attitudes, values,
practices or knowledge. Education
cannot take place without good
communication, and communication
involves listening as much as
talking. Communication thus is a
two-way process. People have definite
perspectives concerning their own
reality. They know their own local
situation well, and their values and
aspirations must be an integral part
of any [environmental education]
programme. Dialogue is an essential
precondition for success.’
van
Hemert, M., W. Wiertsema and M. van
Yperen. 1995. Reviving Links. NGO
Experiences in Environmental
Education and Peoples’
Participation in Environmental
Policies. Amsterdam,Both ENDS, SME
MilieuAdviseurs and IUCN.
CONTACTS
- Both ENDS
,Damrak 28-30,1012LJ
Amsterdam,The Netherlands;
Tel,+31.20.6230823,
Fax+31.20.6208049,
e-mail bothends@gn.apc.org
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GREENCOM
The diversity of GreenCOM’s
projects means that it has a wealth of
experience to draw on. This is reflected
in its publications which are full of
useful advice, suggestions and contacts.
/ALH
GreenCOM seeks to increase the success
of environmental projects around the
world through the use of environmental
education and communication. By bringing
local people into the process of project
design and implementation, the goal is to
increase people’s awareness of
environmental issues, and to bring about
a change in their behavior. Approaches
include curriculum development, social
marketing, gender analysis, development
communication, participatory
methodologies and applied research.
GreenCOM’s work is wide-ranging:
improving farmers’ livelihoods in a
buffer-zone community to protect an
ecological reserve in Ecuador; developing
a curriculum on water conservation for
Jordan’s eco-clubs; analyzing the
constraints to recycling in urban
neighborhoods in Ecuador; training
teachers and developing educational
materials in El Salvador; developing
interpretive programs and training park
guards in Nicaragua; developing a
national environmental awards program in
The Gambia; and helping to protect
forests and coastal resources in The
Philippines.
GreenCOM regularly publishes project
reports and discussion papers. Human
Nature, a newsletter produced in English,
French and Spanish, reports on the
experiences of educators and
communicators from around the world,
gives details of new educational
resources and discusses the implications
of political, scientific, social and
cultural events. To further improve the
sharing of information between
colleagues, GreenCOM has established an
Information Exchange Center, which has a
collection of curricula, activity guides,
literature on gender and participation,
and information about current
environmental and communication projects
from around the world. GreenCOM is a
project of the US Agency for
International Development (USAID) and is
managed by a consortium of partners led
by the Academy for Educational
Development in Washington, DC.
‘In El Salvador, the
national newspaper El Diario de Hoy
publishes a supplement for children,
entitled El Guanaquín, that once
monthly covers the environment.
Through graphics and articles, the
supplement has covered such topics as
biodiversity, reforestation, and
solid waste. An evaluation of El
Guanaquín conducted by GreenCOM
showed that 62 percent of the
teachers surveyed use the supplement
in their classrooms. As in many
countries, a high percentage of El
Salvador’s population is under
age 15. Getting them, their parents,
and their teachers involved in
environmental action is crucial to
developing a population that supports
environmentally sustainable
development.’
Anonymous.
1996. Using environmental education
and communication to promote change.
Listening to People, an insert in
Human Nature.
CONTACTS
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Centre for
Environment Education
Given the growing urbanization in
India, CEE has chosen to educate city
dwellers on waste collection, composting
and recycling in addition to carrying out
projects for rural communities. /GJM
The Centre for Environment Education
(CEE) has been working since 1984 to
increase environmental awareness among
young people, decision-makers and the
general community. To achieve this, CEE
develops innovative programs and
educational materials. The aim is to
provide models that can be used widely by
adapting them to suit local conditions.
CEE has developed programs for a wide
range of target groups, including schools
and colleges, visitors to national parks,
local populations living around protected
areas and urban dwellers. It is also
producing a world-wide directory of
training resources on biodiversity
management.
The secretariat of the South and
Southeast Asia Network for Environmental
Education (SASEANEE), jointly run by CEE
and the IUCN Commission on Education and
Communication, is located at the Centre.
SASEANEE aims to facilitate greater
cooperation and exchange of methods,
resource materials and experiences in
environmental education, enhancing the
quality and impact of environmental
education programs in the region. It
produces The SASEANEE Newsletter which
comes out twice a year. Other activities
include running a three-month course in
environmental education for professionals
from the region, organizing meetings and
developing materials.
‘Fifteen kilometers from
Jasdan there is a patch of forest. It
has the distinction of being one of
the smallest sanctuaries in India.
But it also presents almost all the
problems of protection that many very
large sanctuaries and national parks
are facing in the country.What are
these problems?In a nutshell, people
living in nearby villages want to use
the forest and the Forest Department
tries to stop them. The resulting
conflict is neither helping the
people, nor the Forest Department,
nor the forest itself. And the
problem compounds itself every
year.The small patch of forest,
barely 7 sq. km., goes by the name of
the Hingolgadh Nature Education Park
and contains grass and small trees
– green from June to October,
brown the rest of the year ... Birds
are aplenty and numerous jackals and
hares are thriving in the forest.Also
there are people. More than 1500
families in six villages surrounding
the park. With barren village grazing
lands and subsistence farming, they
have nowhere to take their cattle to
graze, nowhere to go get firewood.
Hingolgadh forest, of course, is the
last resort.But Hingolgadh forest is
not for them. At least, that is what
the people have been told.’
From
a brochure on the Hingolgadh
Ecodevelopment Programme produced by
CEE.
CONTACTS
- Meena
Raghunathan, Programme Officer,
Centre for Environment Education,
Nehru Foundation for Development,
Thaltej Tekra, Ahmedabad 380 054,
India; Tel. +91.79.442642 or
442651, Fax +91.79.6420242,
e-mail root@cee.ernet.in
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International
Centre for Conservation Education
The International Centre for
Conservation Education (ICCE),
established in 1984, aims to promote a
greater understanding of conservation and
the environment, through the promotion of
education in this field. Together with
its trading subsidiary, ICCE Services,
the ICCE promotes a range of activities,
including training courses and workshops
for conservation educators and natural
resource managers. Participatory rural
appraisal, computer-aided production of
educational materials, and women in
environmental management are some of the
topics which have been taught, in
addition to a conservation education
foundation course. The ICCE has a
photographic library, and produces
audiovisual and printed educational
materials for which it has an extensive
distribution network. The ICCE catalog of
education resources, with details of
books, games and education packs, can be
accessed through its World Wide Web site.
The ICCE offers advisory services on
communication techniques, materials
production and the management of
education programs. Education and
Communication for Sustainability in
Africa (ECoSA) is a program coordinated
by ICCE and funded by the European Union,
in which environmental education needs in
Africa are being assessed. The results of
an extensive survey of activities in
Africa have been compiled in a database
available free to African NGOs. The ICCE
produces a newsletter, Communicating
Conservation, with environmental
education news from around the world as
well as details of its own activities. In
1996 the ICCE, with support from the
Darwin Initiative, published How the
World Works, An Introduction to Ecology
for Environment and for Development
Educators, which introduces basic
principles of ecology on which resource
management and progress towards
sustainable development are based.
‘We are not alone. Human
beings share the planet with millions
of different kinds - or species - of
animals, plants and other organisms.
This great variety of life on Earth -
the outcome of 3000 million years of
evolution - is known as
biodiversity.Biodiversity can be
viewed in several different ways. The
term can include variation within a
species; the number of species
themselves, and the incredible
complexity of interactions and
interrelationships between species
within ecosystems.In terms of
species, scientists have described
and named over one and a half million
of them. No one knows how many
species are left to be
“discovered”. The total
could be as few as 5 million or as
many as 100 million.’
Whitehead, M.
and P. Steele. 1996. How the World
Works, An Introduction to Ecology for
Environment and for Development
Educators. Cheltenham, ICCE.
CONTACTS
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EcoLink
Environment Education Centre
EcoLink are key players in
environmental education in the Mpumalanga
area, who provide a wide variety of
courses and skills training on topics
ranging from permaculture to sanitation.
EcoLink has grown rapidly, and with their
new resource center, are able to provide
an increased variety of courses on
environmental issues. /ABC
The EcoLink Environment Education
Centre is situated in Mpumalanga
Province, formerly called the Eastern
Transvaal, of South Africa. The program
was initiated in 1985 in response to the
severe shortage of education and training
opportunities in the country, and to
widespread poverty. EcoLink is engaged in
a wide range of environmental initiatives
including environmental education, health
and water management. The main mission of
EcoLink is to enhance the quality of life
for people in their own environment. It
is committed to assisting disadvantaged
people through self-help projects, while
creating a better quality of life in an
environmentally sensitive and sustainable
manner. Within all of its projects, it
seeks to enable and empower rural
communities to take command of their
lives and resources.
EcoLink’s environmental education
project, Grow for Life, aims to stimulate
interest, understanding and a sense of
responsibility for the environment. It
offers knowledge, skills and equipment to
help in developing an understanding of
the relationship between people and their
natural resources. An Information
Resource Center has been established,
which provides up-to-date environmental
information and teacher training.
‘In order to start your
Earthcare Garden, you will need to
collect the following: eggshells,
mielie cobs, garden waste like
leaves, old sticks, branches, cut
grass, weeds and bark, decayed
vegetables and fruit ... You can also
collect and use shredded paper, bits
of cardboard, scraps of materials
(not nylon), a few tins, sawdust,
wood ash, and chicken, horse, sheep,
goat and cattle manure.’
Anonymous.
1993. The Earthcare Garden. White
River, EcoLink.
CONTACTS
- Mandy
Hodgkinson, Manager Resource and
Information, Ecolink, P.O. Box
727, White River 1240, South
Africa; Tel. +27.13.7512120, Fax
+27.13.7513287
 The
506,186 hectare Extractive
Reserve of the Upper Juruá River
was created by Presidential
Decree in 1990. The population of
this area is estimated at 8000
people, including Indians,
rubber-tappers and riverine
communities. |
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Indian
Research Center
The IRC is another of the valuable
projects in Latin America supported by
the Gaia Foundation (see PPH 2:15). As it
reaches the stage of disseminating the
results of its various research projects,
the IRC is making important decisions
about what information to share with the
general public and what to maintain
within indigenous cultures. /GJM
In 1989 the Nucleus of Indian Culture
(Núcleo de Cultura Indígena) set up its
Program for Education and Research in
Indigenous Communities. This program was
initiated to respond to and keep pace
with the rapidly changing realities for
Indian societies. Out of this program,
the Indian Research Center (Centro de
Pesquisa Indígena) was founded. The
Center aims to consolidate indigenous
territories and to search for viable
economic and cultural alternatives. Among
its first activities was the setting up
of an educational centre in Goiânia to
bring together young students from
different indigenous communities. In 1992
its activities expanded with the
establishment of pilot projects in three
regions: Juruá River Region, Acre;
Xavante Reservation of Rio das Mortes,
Mato Grosso; and Krenak Reservation,
Minas Gerais. These projects all seek to
find economic alternatives that will
allow the indigenous peoples to remain in
their territories, protecting and
preserving their land, birthright and
culture.
In the Krenak Reservation, the Center
has been involved with a project to breed
wild animals. The project was set up by
two young Krenak who had participated in
the IRC’s education program in
Goiânia, working together with a
biologist from IRC. This has been of
value both for providing an alternative
source of income, and as a way of
affirming the Krenak cultural identity
and traditional way of life. In the Rio
das Mortes Reservation, IRC has been
working in partnership with the Xavante
to document their natural resources and
undertake a survey of their needs and
priorities. In 1988 the community began
an inventory of the fauna in order to
formulate a management plan which would
allow them to continue their traditions
as a hunting people. The project
conducted a survey of the flora and
edible fruits of the cerrado vegetation
to help improve the Xavante’s diet
and explore the possibilities for
commercialization of any surplus.Similar
work has been conducted in the Breu
indigenous area (Juruá Region), home to
the Kaxinawá and Ashaninka. Here,
research into the useful species of the
region has resulted in community
gathering and marketing of seeds from
sixteen different native tree species. A
new commercial product has also been
successfully developed, based on couro
vegetal (vegetable leather), used locally
by Indians and rubber tappers to make
waterproof bags. Today, this product is
marketed under the name of Tree Tap by
the Couro Vegetal da Amazonia S.A.
company, and is used to make rucksacks,
brief-cases, caps and clothes.
To provide further support for its
work in these three areas, the Center has
been producing maps. Based on satellite
images, the maps plot information
concerning water courses, relief, soil
types and vegetation of the indigenous
areas. After several years of activities,
an important goal for the Center is to
disseminate the results of this work and
report on its experiences in bringing
together traditional knowledge and
scientific research. A range of
publications, educational kits, radio and
audiovisual programs are in preparation.
‘The Xavante Indians of
the Pimentel Barbosa Indian
Reservation were the first Indian
community to begin to make a regular
inventory of natural resources, wild
plants and animal life in their
territory, as well as to survey their
needs and define priorities for a
program developed jointly with
technicians and researchers from the
Center.Beginning in 1988 the Pimentel
Barbosa community has been
discussing, within the tribal
council, ways of recuperating and
occupying their 300,000 hectare
reservation effectively. The Jaburu
Project, as it is known, includes the
survey of all native plants of the
region and the survey of the
territory to define areas for
reforestation. The project also
includes the collection of seeds, the
preparation of nursery beds, and the
harvesting of fruit for processing,
in which techniques of drying,
preservation and pre-freezing pulp
extraction are employed.’
Pappoani, A.M.
1992. Centro de Pesquisa Indígena:
Indian Research Centre. São Paulo,
Núcleo de Cultura Indígena.
CONTACTS
- Ailton
Krenak, President, The Indian
Research Center, Caixa Postal
25945 - CEP 05599-970, São Paulo
- Brazil;
Tel./Fax +55.11.8131754 or
2119996, e-mail nci@ax.apc.org
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