ISSN 1993-8616
2009 - Number 4
School for the future
© Tang Ming
A “lesson” in Baicao River, Sichuan (China)
Education for sustainable development… Launched in 2005, the concept is still in its early stages, but it is making progress. What it means is education designed to build our capacities for facing today’s major challenges – preserving the environment, respecting biodiversity, safeguarding human rights – and focused on the future.
The UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development held in Bonn (Germany) from 31 March to 2 April showed that many countries have already launched strategies to promote ESD. These are becoming reality through myriad initiatives, evoked in this month’s feature. Read the editorial
School for sustainability
Still a fledgling concept, Education for Sustainable Development is nonetheless making headway in Jordan. Raising awareness among young people about the importance of good water management is a crucial issue for Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, UNESCO goodwill ambassador and chair of the Arab Sustainability Leadership Group. More
Saving starfish
A dozen facilitators, a pile of copies of an educational newspaper and a bus…sometimes it doesn’t take much to make thousands of schoolchildren more aware of sustainable development. In Kenya, the organizers of the “Chanuka Express” programme are inspiring underprivileged young people to become agents for change. Their motto: “Our life, our world.” More
Water schools shed light on Yangtze pollution
The Yangtze river system produces 40 percent of China’s grain, a third of its cotton, 48 percent of its freshwater fish and 40 percent of the country’s total industrial output. It is also, alas, a depository for 60 percent of the country’s pollution. A plan to save the river was launched by schoolchildren in Sichuan province and has taken on national scope. More
Inside the Green Tents
Despite Bolivia’s extraordinary biodiversity, it has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. Meanwhile, massive migration towards the fertile lowlands is hampering sustainable development. Conservation International is using games to raise public awareness. More
Alphabet of development
Literacy is at the heart of our societies, says Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, who was named UNESCO’s Special Envoy on Literacy for Development last March. For more than 20 years, she has been fighting illiteracy in her homeland where the problem has been neglected. More
