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Education
for Sustainable Development Background
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Tools
for Education for Sustainable Island Living
There are
a number of outreach initiatives, some in progress for several
years now, that seek to empower citizens, and especially youth,
to act for positive environmental and social change. Among the
successful tools that promote education for sustainable island
living, particularly in small islands, are ones that focus on
a practical approach to the measurement of environmental change
by schools and communities, who then identify issues and problems
and implement projects to address the identified issues. Such
initiatives include the Sandwatch project (UNESCO-sponsored) that
focuses on beaches, the River Care project (sponsored by Live
and Learn Environmental Education Inc.) that focuses on rivers,
and the Chemistry Outreach to Schools (COTS), University of the
South Pacific initiative that focuses on weather and waste. Each
of these initiatives has had successes in their local area, ranging
from persuading a sugar factory to reduce the contaminants dumped
in a river (River Care in Fiji) to involving a coastal community
in the clearance of a blocked drain and beautification of a coastal
area (Sandwatch in St. Vincent and the Grenadines) and to encouraging
school science clubs to monitor weather and village communities
to embark on a 'Clean X" project (COTS Program, USP, Fiji).
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"Sandwatch
takes you places you never dreamed of going and knowledge
that will not be acquired on ordinary occasions. I have
been able to impart new ideas into my classroom sessions.
Sandwatch has encouraged participation from the community.
Overall Sandwatch is an experience you will never want to
forget." Marsha Gregg, Teacher, Bequia Community High
School, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
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It is through
the development and expansion of tools such as these that Small
Islands Voice is contributing directly to education for sustainable
island living:
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