Asia-Pacific Environmental Education Experts Promote Sustainability in Online Workshop

Blog

Asia-Pacific Environmental Education Experts Promote Sustainability in Online Workshop

To respond to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and build environmental education cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (Taiwan EPA) and the Global Environmental Education Partnership Asia-Pacific Regional Center (GEEP APRC) co-organized the 2021 “Let’s Learn from Each Other for a Sustainable World” Workshop from September 3–4, 2021. Speakers from the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Bhutan, and Taiwan showed up at the event or online to share their local experiences with audiences all over the world. 


Speakers sharing the legislative process of the Taiwan Environmental Education Act.

Speakers sharing the legislative process of the Taiwan Environmental Education Act.

Diverse content was presented during the two-day workshop with four major themes: regulations and policy communication, community environmental education, environmental education teaching materials, and environmental education staff training. Domestic experts, scholars, and practitioners in the field of environmental education were invited to share case studies on various topics so that the world could see Taiwan’s excellent experiences in environmental education.

The Philippines and Taiwan are among the few countries in the world that have adopted legislation to promote environmental education. Elenida Del Rosario-Basug, Director of the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources, shared the implementation experiences of her country’s National Environmental Awareness and Education Act. Nguyễn Việt Dũn, Director General at Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, and Kumi Tashiro, Deputy Director at Japan’s Ministry of Environment, focused on cases in their countries that involved environmental policy communication. Professor Fuangarun Preededilok from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand shared cases of promoting community environmental education. On the second day, Thiaga Nadeson, Chief of WWF-Malaysia, and Ugyen Tshomo from the National Environment Commission of Bhutan shared with workshop participants environmental education teaching materials.


Live online participation was available for the Environmental Education Workshop.

Live online participation was available for the Environmental Education Workshop.

The finale of the workshop was the course on environmental education staff training led by Deputy Director Kumi Tashiro and Kato Tatsuhiro, Secretary General of the Japan Environmental Education Forum. They demonstrated facilitation techniques remotely online based on the content in the tool book “Creating a Co-learning Environment – Learning 10 Facilitation Skills from Environmental Education”, and led participants in communication with each other. Together they accomplished a rare international cooperative teaching demonstration to enhance the practical abilities of environmental educators. 


The Environmental Education Workshop included outdoor experiences.

The Environmental Education Workshop included outdoor experiences.

In the pursuit of economic development, the Asia-Pacific region has caused much environmental pollution in the air, water, waste, and soil, and at the same time, it is suffering from environmental threats from global climate change. Facing the ever-changing external environment, it urgently needs to learn to co-exist with the environment through environmental education and the concept of sustainability. In the future, APRC will continue to be a hub for promoting environmental education in the region and will seek more international participation. By inspiring people through education and turning knowledge into actions, the region can change as a whole and make the world more sustainable.