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NGO
Statements |
"The
Thessaloniki NGO Declaration on Environmental Education for a Sustainable
Future"
Porto Carras, Sithonia, 7
December 1997 |
We, the representatives of
NGOs from 20 Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean countries, gathered in
Porto Carras, Greece, on 6 and 7 December 1997, at the invitation of the
Mediterranean Information for Environment, Culture and Sustainable
Development (MIO-ECSDE), in the framework of the International Conference
on Environment and Society: Education and Public Awareness for
Sustainability, organised by Unesco and the Greek Government,
Thessaloniki, 8-12 December 1997, have unanimously adopted the following
Declaration:
- RECALLING the Declaration and Recommendations of
the Stockholm Conference (1972), the Belgrade Conference on
Environmental Education (1975), the Tbilisi Intergovernmental
Conference on Environmental Education (1977), the results of the
Moscow Conference on Environmental Education (1987) and the relevant
recommendations of Agenda 21, particularly its Article 36, adopted in
Rio (1992) and the recommendations of numerous international meetings
organised since (the meeting of Toronto ECO-ED Conference 1992, the
UNESCO/UNEP/MIO-ECSDE Inter-regional Workshop on Reorienting
Environmental Education for Sustainable Development, Athens 1995),
- RECALLING the recognition of the importance of
public awareness and appropriate education appearing in the
Declarations and recommendations of all major intergovernmental UN
conferences organised as a follow up of Rio, such as the one on
Population (Cairo 1992), on Human Rights (Vienna 1993), on Social
Development (Copenhagen 1995), on Women (Beijing 1995), on Human
Settlements (Istanbul 1996), on Desertification (Rome 1997),
- RECALLING the results of the preparatory national
meetings orgasnised in the Mediterranean in the view of the
International Conference on Environment and Society: Education and
Public Awareness for Sustainability.
- TAKING NOTICE of the considerable evolution EE
has witnessed since then,
- RECALLING that sustainable development to be
achieved requires an enormous coordination and integration of efforts
in a number of crucial sectors and rapid and radical change of
behaviors, lifestyles and modes that are not conducive to sustainable
production and consumption,
- THANKING UNESCO and the Government of Greece for
their important initiative to convene in Thessaloniki, the Cultural
Capital of Europe 1997 the International Conference on Environment and
Society: Education and Public Awareness for Sustainability.
- CONSIDER that Education and Public Awareness for
Environment and Sustainable Development should be recognised as one of
the pillars of sustainability, together with legislation and
regulations that should be applied and enforced, an economy and
production process based on respect of its natural and cultural
resources capital, innovation and shared clean(er) and appropriate
technologies
- CONSIDER the principles of Tbilisi and Rio still
valid and not fully explored yet,
- RECOGNISING that Environmental Education for
Sustainable Development (EE/SD) is instrumental in better
understanding the functioning of the natural bio-geo-chemical
mechanisms and the impacts of socio-economic choices on them,
- RECOGNISING that formal and informal education
for EE/SD along with civic education is fundamental in developing
respect for nature and the understanding of multi-cultural values,
- RECOGNISING that EE/SD could contribute to a more
equitable, just, democratic and peaceful world,
- BELIEVING that what people learn should lead to
knowledge and know-how relevant to the prospects of job opportunities.
- URGE all the Governments and Inter-Governmental
Organisations to place EE/SD in the center of the International
Agenda, prepare an action plan and allocate adequate resources for the
implementation of efficient EE/SD programmes.
- URGE all Governments to prepare action plans and
allocate the necessary resources for the implementation of national
EE/SD strategy.
- RECOMMEND that EE/SD should reach the youth from
an early stage, women-mothers and managers of households-, decision
makers and particularly those who take decisions either at local or at
global level, and the public in general, by using all possible formal,
non-formal and informal channels and means including all available
instruments from traditional tools to advanced multimedia.
- RECOMMEND the parallel introduction and/or
strengthening of specific EE/SD classes in basic curricula and the
diffusion of the concept of sustainability into the entire educational
system.
- RECOMMEND that emphasis and resources should be
put in training properly the teachers and those who could influence
directly public opinion leaders and opinion makers including
journalists and advertisers.
- RECOMMEND that EE/SD is approached as a
participatory instrument reflecting the aspirations and needs of civil
society
- RECOGNISE that environmental NGOs and the civil
society, at large, should be real partners in this process from the
design and strategy choosing phase to that of the assessment of the
results because of their direct contact with grassroots, their
expertise in successful projects and their long record of credibility
in the fields of EE and public awareness.
- REAFIRM that EE could be used as the central
vehicle for the Education required for a sustainable future in
approaching the 21st century, by properly integrating in it economic
and social factors
- RECOGNISE that high quality information in
essential for promoting an EE/SD
- WE PROPOSE to the plenary of the International
Conference the adoption of a Declaration for EE/SD along the
aforementioned principles.
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