A healthy, natural environment is the fundamental pre-requisite for sustainable human development – and human survival. This must become a basic understanding among Jamaican citizens of all ages and stages, and their counterparts across today’s heavily populated, increasingly industrialized, consumption oriented, globalized world.

The process of empowering Jamaicans towards this awareness, and preparing for the next step – action in support of this understanding – is termed Environmental Education for Sustainable Development, and is the subject of this National Plan.

Environmental Education for Sustainable Development embodies the elements of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and an orientation which encourages action to achieve improved environmental health in the cause of sustainable human development.

The term, Environmental Education for Sustainable Development, is unwieldly, but reflects current thinking, which has moved beyond education on protecting and conserving the environment for its own sake, virtually as a laboratory exercise; to embrace the context of sustainable development – society, economy and environment inextricably interwoven.

Jamaican society, and the economy which is an integral part, continues to rely on the bounties of the natural environment. But this Land of Wood & Water, reverenced by Taino predecessors and rapsodized by European adventurers, is increasingly seared by drought and mired in pollution. The path signposted ‘development’ along which Jamaicans have eagerly walked, has been paved with environmental degradation based on the conspicuous, unconsidered and unsustainable consumption of our natural resources. Jamaicans have impacted on the environment and, increasingly, the environment is impacting on our society.

To be sustainable – to have long-term viability – development must harmonize the needs and wants of human society and economy with the health and regenerative capacity of the natural environment. All Jamaicans – policy and decision makers at the national, community and individual levels, must come to know this; to believe that this knowledge is the key to a worthwhile future; and to act on this certainty.

Some Jamaicans, individually and groups, have already arrived at this conviction and begun to take action in support of it. The development of this Plan, through the inputs of stakeholders from government and non-government bodies, is an indication that the conviction is spreading.

Jamaica’s National Environmental Education Action Plan for Sustainable Development, establishes a point of reference regarding where we stand; what has been done; the key actors; the major target groups. It goes further: In identifying programme areas, priority themes and potential partners, it creates a strategic framework within which to place and relate future action.

The expected results identified for each of the programme areas contribute directly to the achievement of the Plan’s overall result, which is based on a broadly-shared vision of a desired quality of life for a 21^st Century Jamaica.

Not least, by the very action of coming into existence, the Plan provides a degree of national recognition and legitimacy for those efforts at Environmental Education for Sustainable Development which have been on-going, in the formal education sector and in the broader national and local contexts, over time.

The Process of Developing the Plan

The National Environmental Education Action Plan for Sustainable Development is the outcome of a process of consultation with a range of stakeholders representing community and national interests. These stakeholders were identified wherever education, awareness or training opportunities have intersected with a focus on the environment or sustainable development.

The process has been guided by the National Environmental Education Committee (NEEC), which was established in 1993 by the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA), the Jamaican government’s lead environmental agency.

Initial consultations were held with the education and non-government sectors in 1994, and the NEEC subsequently revived the process of developing a National Plan in 1997, through a collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency/Government of Jamaica Environmental Action (ENACT) Programme. A discussion paper formed the basis for inputs from a range of stakeholders during two workshops, one in Kingston, the other in Montego Bay. On this basis, a Vision Framework was developed, which was accepted by the multi-stakeholder NEEC. This Vision forms Chapter Two of the Plan. Thematic areas of concern identified in the discussion paper and in the workshops, as well as the key actors and target groups, are set out in Chapter Three.

Subsequent baseline research on the Formal Education sector, on Non-Formal Learning, and on existing and potential Resources & Practices – findings of which are outlined in Chapter Four - were the basis on which programme elements and action areas are identified in Chapter Five. Chapter Six speaks to implementation of the Plan, recognizing always that its success will rest with the partnerships which can be forged between those already involved, and those who must become convinced that Environmental Education for Sustainable Development is critical to their lives and livelihoods.

The International Context

Jamaica’s initiative on Environmental Education for Sustainable Development is taking place within a global context. Environmental Education has been on the agenda since 1972, when it emerged as an issue at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm, Sweden. It took centre-stage, five years later, at the UNESCO-UNEP Inter-governmental Conference on Environmental Education at Tbilisi.

More recently, it played a central part in discussions at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment & Development at Rio de Janiero, Brazil, which galvanized debate and action on the environment. Agenda 21, the international agreement emerging from that conference, has become the touchstone against which national, regional and international action is judged.

Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 recognizes education as the major vehicle for arriving at a sustainable, democratic, globalized future: "Education, including formal education, public awareness and training, should be recognized as a process by which human beings and societies can reach their fullest potential. Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environment and development issues."

Education was also recognized as a vital component in the sustainable development of small island states, which are usually heavily dependent on natural resources, and specially vulnerable to global environmental pressures. The UN Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), held in Barbados in 1994, recognized the vital importance of environmental education, information and training, which are the focus of Chapter 36.

Reporting in 1997 on the implementation of Chapter 36, the Secretary General of the UN Department for Policy Coordination & Sustainable Development notes: "The challenge is to integrate the concepts of human development; social development and economic development with environmental protection in a holistic, interdisciplinary conceptual framework."

Education is therefore envisioned as a means to:

"(a) change values, behaviours and lifestyles that are needed to achieve sustainable development, and ultimately, democracy, human security and peace;

(b) disseminate the knowledge, know-how and skills that are needed to bring about sustainable production and consumption patterns and to improve the management of natural resources, agriculture, energy and industrial production;

(c) ensure an informed public that is prepared to support changes towards sustainability emerging from different sectors."

Within the international arena, the focus of environmental education has shifted, over the years from being an end in itself, to being a contributory factor in achieving sustainable development.

The focus of education, itself, has also shifted:

"Traditionally" the Secretary General’s report notes, "education has been designed largely to pass on existing knowledge, skills and values. Today, education is being redesigned in terms of how to prepare people for life; for job security; for the demands of a rapidly changing society; for technological changes that now directly or indirectly affect every part of life; and ultimately for the quest for happiness, well-being and quality of life."

The UN’s Rio + Five meeting, held in 1997 to access progress on Agenda 21, re-emphasized the importance of environmental education and of this dynamic approach.

And UNESCO’s International Commission on Education for the 21^st Century , a major focal point for implementing Chapter 36, identifies three global trends which influence national agendas for educational renewal and action. They are: the transition from unsustainable to sustainable economic growth which considers both environmental and social objectives; the devolution of power and governance to a local level requiring increased democratic participation; and the globalization of local economies and societies.

UNESCO contends that the capacity of nations to prepare their people for the future, relies on the education and training of citizens in ways consistent with these realities.

Jamaican Context

Report of 1994 National Environmental Education Committee (NEEC) Consultations

Jamaica’s National Environmental Education Action Plan for Sustainable Development has been developed at a time when the world is still evolving tools to embrace the shift from a pure concern with the protection of the natural environment, to an integration of environmental and developmental agendas.

The integrative view is consistent with local concerns.

Environmental concerns with the carrying capacity of specific ecosystems cannot be separated from human settlement and land use considerations, which themselves are linked with infrastructure and services. Urban blight, water pollution, denudation of the hillsides cannot be separated from poverty. Air and water pollution, human health hazards, cannot be separated from industry. Litter cannot be separated from a lack of national pride and from a feeling, among many Jamaicans, that they have no personal stake in the society.

To be meaningful in a Jamaican context, environmental education must integrate the concepts of human development – social and economic – with sustainable natural resource use and environmental protection, in a holistic, inter-disciplinary conceptual framework.

The National Environmental Education Action Plan for Sustainable Development, therefore, focuses on identifying education, awareness and training activities which enhance knowledge, values, skills and action on broad issues relating to human interaction with the environment; within a context of efforts to achieve sustainable development and develop citizens prepared to participate in a sustainable society.

In embracing both environment and development, the Plan simultaneously identifies strategic environmental and developmental priorities for immediate attention; while creating room to set long-term goals, and develop co-lateral approaches with other economic and social initiatives seeking to move Jamaican society towards a sustainable future.

Jamaica’s journey towards awareness of the need to act on environmental issues, to integrate the idea of sustainable development, and to focus on Environmental Education for Sustainable Development has been going on for some time. The following are some of the milestones along the way:

Consultations in 1994 stressed the all-embracing nature of the environment, harmonizing the biological, physical, economic, socio-cultural, and spiritual. Environmental education would embrace long-term attitudinal change, supported by environmental awareness and knowledge, to produce individuals committed to social action, as necessary, to protect the environment.

Speaking then, Minister of the Environment, Hon Easton Douglas, said: "...Notwithstanding the fact that we must have development - it is a part of the whole progress of nations - we must, at the same time, have development carried out so that some of the progress that we make today which meets the majority of our needs will not leave the country in a position where other generations will have fewer resources than we are now enjoying."

The government, through policy documents and reports, has set out a direction which acknowledges the vital role of the environment and which begins to speak of the importance of sustainable development. The National Industrial Policy (1996), the National Plan of Action on Population & Development, Jamaica 1995 – 2015, the Jamaica National Environmental Action Plan and the National Plan of Action for the Survival, Protection & Development of Children are among the relevant documents.

"The Government recognizes the essential complementarity between environmental policy and industrial policy…" states the National Industrial Policy. "Most of the economic activities in Jamaica depend on the use of the country’s natural resources. It is therefore important to develop mechanisms for sustainable management of the country’s natural resources and reduce the negative impact of industrial activities on the environment. In this regard, the key goal of Government policy in all areas is sustainable economic development."-