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An ineffective strategy
Although there are notable exceptions, as a general rule most of the environmental initiatives
organised by governmental and non-governmental bodies tend to be sporadic, isolated with
short-term goals ... that improve the chances of getting funding. A lot of effort is spent on the
organisation of an initiative, but this momentum gradually grinds to a halt once the activity is
launched and the necessary media coverage is ensured. Serious monitoring and evaluation of
the implementation to establish whether the original objectives were met or not in order to
learn from the experience are usually lacking. As a result, progress in the environmental
education field is characterised by a series of jump-starts and hiccups. A classical example is
the host of cleanup campaigns that are organised throughout the year. Yes, these campaigns
are surely an effective way of rapidly clearing areas from unsightly rubbish, but are we aware
that we are cleaning up the very same areas year in year out? How effective is this campaign
in generating a nation wide concern against waste tipping?
Another strategy to safeguard the environment has been the institution of environmental laws
and ways to enforce them. Legislation may be an important component in ensuring
environmental protection, however promoting it as the sole component is definitely
counterproductive as it reinforces the wrong concept that environmental issues are a
government's concern. Moreover, experience has shown that such a strategy inevitably leads
to an endless legal chase to track down and close loopholes in the legislation. Legalisms seem
to encourage people who profit from environmental degradation to discover ways of
circumventing the law and continue unabated with their plans ... as long as they can get away
with it.
The provision of scientific information and data on the environment and its related problems
has been considered as an important step in boosting public environmental awareness.
Although it is imperative that up-to-date scientific information on the state of our
environment is available we must be on the lookout to avoid two major related pitfalls of this
strategy.
Providing more information is NOT enough. The development of environmental values is not
an automatic natural consequence of an increased environmental awareness. In today's world
of information transfer most of the people are already aware of the environmental impact of
their actions ... otherwise why do certain "developers" seek to white wash their projects as
environmentally enhancing or try to put other values on top of environmental ones? Cases in
point are the proposals tabled during the Millennium Project Craze that hit our islands some
time ago.
In order to be of any use environmental information has to be presented in a way that can be
consumed by the public. Technical terminology, complicated tables and fancy charts may
serve to provide valuable information for researchers, but useless in informing citizens whose
day-to day decisions determine the state of our environment. Moreover, if this issue is not
addressed, it might generate (or rather nurture) a two tiered society comprised of the experts
who know it all, and the commoners who are expected to accept the dictates of the former.
Unfortunately a large part of local environmental initiatives, including environmental
legislation, follow this type of implementation strategy resulting either in the imposition of
patterns of behaviour on an uninformed and hence uncooperative public, or in conflicts over
infringed rights or in both (Pace 1996).
A possible solution
Environmental education is frequently cited as a necessary measure to counter the wave of
environmental degradation (Foundation for International Studies, 1991). There was a time,
particularly during the 60s, when the target of environmental education was that of achieving
environmental awareness (Pace, 1997). However, the goal of environmental education has
evolved to that of fostering environmental responsibility, enabling people to adopt sustainable
lifestyles based on day-to-day decisions aimed at promoting a balance between quality of life
and quality of the environment. Sustainable living involves devolution of decision taking in
environmental matters from the traditional policy making bodies to the grassroots. Collective
environmental responsibility is the ultimate goal and bedrock of the current "Act to protect
the Environment" (Act No. V, 1991). The string of events leading to the turndown of the
development plans for a cement plant at Sqaq il-Baghal is a very good case study of how
effective environmental education can empower grassroots movements to responsibly decide
on their future.
All this implies the development of pro-environmental values ... the development of an
environmental ethic that would enable citizens to critically evaluate their beliefs, attitudes
and values. An environmental ethic capacitates individuals to prioritise values and use them
to determine whether their behaviour and lifestyles are compatible with their principles.
Harmony between our beliefs and our actions is an essential feature if our pro-environmental
actions are to be credible. This has not always been the case: statements condemning
sustainable development as "a dangerous concept to the tourism industry", educational (sic)
visits to circuses and entertainment sites that carve out their profits on animal suffering,
environmental (sic) campaigns sponsored by companies with tainted environmental
records ... are just some of the examples in the endless list of incongruencies.
How can we proceed?
No one, in her/his right sense of mind, would dare say that environmental education is not the
most effective way of ensuring environmental protection. However, the problem with
environmental education is that it has long-term goals that, although having lasting effects,
take a long time to be achieved. This might explain why environmental education does not
feature in the priority lists of certain policy makers who seem to be more concerned with
short-term goals that serve to pump up their "good deeds portfolios". These last few years
witnessed a series of environmental education projects that have been denied implementation:
(a) Concrete suggestions made during the first "National Training Workshop on
Environmental Education in Malta" to provide an infrastructure within the formal education
sector for environmental education were published in the event's proceedings (IDEA,
1987) ... shelved and forgotten.
(b) A UNESCO funded project run by the Faculty of Education consisting of a teacher's
manual with practical suggestions on how to infuse environmental education into the primary
school subjects as a cross-curricular theme (University of Malta, 1991) was never
disseminated in local schools ... although it was acclaimed in foreign ones.
(c) The national environmental education strategy (NEES) set up to " ... focus its action on
the formal and informal sectors of education with the goal of directing educational processes
towards the development of a new environmental ethic - education for sustainability." (NEES
Action Group, 1995) has, for these last five years, trudged along desperately seeking financial
support to achieve its aims.
(d) The decision to set up a centre for the promotion of environmental education and research
in the Euro-Med region was announced in the media in June 1999 and to date is still awaiting
the green light from the relevant governmental bodies.
Needless to say, besides resulting in a waste of human resources, this shelving of long-term
environmental education initiatives is having the adverse effect of rendering Malta's level of
environmental responsibility well below the accepted standards. This claim has been verified
by the feedback we got from the EU, which highlighted the environment as an area that needs
some serious amends.
What is required is a serious unequivocal commitment toward environmental education by
the relevant authorities. This commitment would enable the implementation of environmental
education programmes aimed at developing an environmental ethic that would render our
society more environmentally responsible. This needs to be done urgently, not just to
facilitate our accession in the EU, but because our society deserves the best deal when it
comes to quality of life and quality of the environment.
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ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION: CHOOSING BETW
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Dr Paul Pace
Rujukan
Undang-undang Nombor V (1991) Sebuah undang-undang untuk melindungi
alam sekitar. Dalam Tambahan Lembaran Negara Malta. No.15, 399, February
26, 1991. Jabatan Penerangan, Malta.
Foundation for International Studies (1991) Laporan Akhir seminar Latihan
Antarabangsa tentang Pendirian Persekitaran Kurikulum Pendidikan di Sekolah
Dasar. University of Malta.
IDEA (Institute of Design Aksi Persekitaran) (1987) Workshop Latihan Nasional
Pendidikan Lingkungan Hidup di Malta (April 6-10,1987). Beltissebh, Malta.
Nees Action Group (1995) Rencana Strategi Nasional Pendidikan Persekitaran
Perniagaan. Mimeo
Pace, P. (1996) Pendidikan Lingkungan: jalan di depan. Dalam Pace, P. (ed.)
Dalam Pendidikan Hari ... Besok Persekitaran. Malta.
Pace, P. (1997) Pendidikan lingkungan di Malta: trend dan cabaran. Pendidikan
Lingkungan Hidup Penyelidikan, 3 (1), hal 69-82.
University of Malta (1991) Pendidikan Persekitaran Masukkan ke dalam
Kurikulum Sekolah Dasar: Sebuah Guru Manual. Fakulti Sains Pendidikan,
Universiti Malta.
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