Accelerating Environmental Education Towards Sustainable Development

The Philippines is in full-gear as it climbs a step up the ladder of education for the environment towards sustainable development. Through the initiative of the government, and the headstrong coordination of the academe, the media, the non-government organizations, environmentalists, private organizations, and the civil society, the Filipinos would be taking up the challenges, with a vision to keep pushing a national movement towards the betterment of the Philippine environment, through education.

Education is and has always been a crucial component towards environmental conservation, protection, and management. However, all men have all been made aware of the constraints and problems at hand concerning the natural resources - problems brought about by factors varying from technology to population, from lack of discipline and values, to mal-education. There is an urgent need to sustain the precious resources worldwide so that lives would be sustained, and so, emerged a universal program of action, the Agenda 21.

Agenda 21 is a universal campaign to bring the Earth into a sustainable future, and the Philippines, being among the countries participating in it, has created its local version, the Philippine Agenda 21. It is a vision for a better quality of life for all, with five goal elements to keep in mind: Ecological Integrity, Poverty Reduction, Social Equity, Empowerment and Good Governance, and Peace and Solidarity.

Last July 4, 2006, the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) hosted a forum on Accelerating Environmental Education Towards Sustainable Development, attended by no less than Ambassador Madam Preciosa Soliven of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and by DENR officials, noted environmentalists and academes, the media, the church, and the business sector.

The Forum, which has become a venue for educators and environmentalists, focused on one goal element: Ecological Integrity. This is to highlight the urgent need to push for resource conservation, and endlessly lobby for programs on environmental restoration and enhancement.

Let us all be key players who would make sustainable development in the Philippines possible, even through small contributions through environmental education. Let us play the eternal role in making more and more people aware of, and convincing them to take responsibility in, the management of the Philippine environment. Together, let us work towards a vision of an environmentally-literate and proactive citizenry, who would care for and protect the environment.

No government project would succeed without the support of the people. Education is key towards progress. Let us all take the challenge and work together to accelerate environmental education towards sustainable development.