environmental guides
Environmental education is born from the need to rebuild that relationship between man and environment in recent decades with the advent and development of an industrial society first and then technology has been significantly degraded.
World War II, as a result of radical economic change, the people of middle and high mountains have begun to move towards the plain where were developing large industrial sites, giving rise to a process of depopulation and abandonment that triggered an environmental change increasingly evident. The normal ecological balance in which the man had entered for centuries, they have rapidly mod ified and the reaction environment to rebuild it from scratch is gradual. In contrast, the production processes ind ustriali, more developed and efficient, leading to an increased use of natural resources as if they were inexhaustible, producing and pouring waste into the production of synthetic and toxic waste, difficult degradable than with long lead times.
These are some of the causes that led to the decline of many forest stands, which have contributed to epidemic diseases such as chestnut blight and climate change trends with the most warm and dry.
Awareness and " awareness of the limits of natural and environmental resources, and then taking the concept of vulnerability and risk that they may become critical to the threshold of irreversible degradation, has necessitated the adoption of new strategies for protecting the environment and the promotion of a new collective sensibility ". ( About ... Environmental Education by ARPAV)
Environmental education has the goal to provide the tools to read and understand the environment and its ecological value, for the recovery of natural resources exist and to ensure their proper use by man, in order to preserve the existence and integrity.
To address the problem, number dare international and national meetings have produced several official documents, including the so-called "paper", signed by participants to the various initiatives and subsequently signed locally and internationally, are the basis for coordinating and regulating the work in this area is done or, unfortunately, you should do.
The Tuscany has its own "Charter Tuscan Environmental Education for Sustainability " whose principles can be summarized in several points:
- culture of respect towards the world (natural and built), to the relations that characterize it and to others, in full awareness of biological and cultural diversity, and to future generations who have the right to receive the that present generations have received;
- mica economic sustainability, social and environmental impacts related to each other and interacting through a cross-cultural awareness, to improve the quality of life of present and future ( Our Common Future - Report of World Commission on Environment and Development , 1987 ("Brundtland Report"); International Implementation Scheme for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development , UNESCO, 2005) ;
- active citizenship finalized participation and empowerment of individuals and local communities in relation to their lifestyles and their own development processes, in line with the principle of eco-efficiency;
- Tuscan System Environmental Education based on the principles of integration, subsidiarity, participation and sustainability (of the Tuscany Region Statute, Art. 3 and 4), which constitutes grounds for comparison and synergy between the educational and environmental policies and is part of the regional system for the right to learn throughout life, lifelong learning ;
- recipients and actors represented by all citizens, young people and adults in any context of formal and informal learning;
- sense of identity and belonging to the territory, to grow through knowledge and experience that will result in a practical condition , care and development;
- systemic approach that emphasizes the interdependence and relatedness of all existing ecosystems (natural, social, economic and cultural), in close connection with one another, placing the man within this system of relations. Environmental Education involves a variety of disciplines and integrates with the education health, peace and intercultural;
- complexity and uncertainty that characterize the environment and learning, leading to the development of the precautionary principle, guide the choices in the environmental field, which focuses on possible risks and consequences of our actions, based on how much is unknown about the various alternatives;
- global realities and local complementary and interdependent;
- critical thinking and ability to change processes and knowledge learning and reading keys with which we interpret the world, to develop the capacity to imagine a different future;
- Information and communications within a communication process in which they encouraged the possibility of response and participation and in which environmental education is proposed as a promoter and facilitator of the process of shared construction of knowledge (in keeping with the Aarhus Convention and the EU Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental )
- search for quality and continuous improvement of its educational effectiveness and continuous evaluation of action in education;
- methods educational approaches and consistent with its vision of education and sustainability, based on the construction of pathways in which to practice participation and democratic dialogue, acknowledging the learner the main architect of his own knowledge. Environmental Education is at the center of the educational process and learning, the reciprocal relationship between the educator, educating and context and proposes the development of critical skills and responsible action;
- integration, participation, governance in comparison with the territory, in the process of involvement and participatory research, through processes of connection and cooperation between all actors in different roles and different responsibilities, dealing with environmental education.
Environmental Education thus becomes an instrument of profound change in society, epistemological assumptions, methods of thinking, reporting and informed and responsible choice among alternatives and " essential tool for good governance, the processes conscious decision-making and the promotion of democracy . ( UNECE Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development , UNECE, March 2005).
