Education For The Conservation of Our Natural Capital
Identifying how people position themselves in the natural environment and their value to the natural resources provides a glimpse into how people use and manage them. For some, humans are essentially a part of nature because we depend on it for survival – to get clean air and water, food, raw materials, and space to build a home. The natural environment also influences the local communities' activities - their food, economic activities, and culture. On the other hand, some perceive humans as a separate entity from the natural environment as we are the ultimate users. Hence, human is dominant over nature. We live in an era where urbanization and economic developments have fuzzed our human-nature relationship – somewhat breaking our direct interactions with our natural environment. The lack of knowledge and understanding of how nature works and how it affects us; and the broken relationship and dependence of human-nature have brought about many environmental issues we face today.
Natural resources are important asset or capital for ecological stability and human sustenance. Unfortunately, our approach to managing them has often focused on managing resources rather than its people. Many strategies used to manage our natural resources have been grounded on hard-science disciplines such as ecology, biology, and technology, or even laws and policies. These strategies are often deemed technical to the larger communities, resulting in them taking the back seat and depending on the authorities for the solution. However, there is an increasing call for stakeholders and local communities' inclusion in the management of our natural capital. Their involvement is critical to ensuring wise use and management of our natural capital at every level of the communities.
Education is an important management tool for the ultimate aim of environmental education and education for sustainable development is to change behaviour (Hungerford & Volk, 1990; UNESCO, 2021). Quality education is an integral element in education for sustainable development and is a key enabler to all other SDGs (UNESCO, 2021). The question is, how do we put forth education for the conservation of the natural capital effectively across all sectors of communities?
(a) Education must be an organized effort. Education must be well planned and organized which simply means:
• Education should be institutionalized from the young whether through the curriculum or co-curriculum, integrated at all levels, beginning from pre-school, primary, secondary school, and tertiary education. The depth of knowledge and experiences must progress through the different levels of education with clear and achievable goals and objectives parallel to the national and international policy.
• Education must be made relevant. Being relevant means the issues in focus must be important to the communities. However, it does not mean that less important issues are sidelined but rather the issues are linked and inter twined with the major issue discussed. It is pertinent to understand that the issues faced by communities may differ between locations. Similarly, their beliefs, attitude, and behaviour; their needs and expectation also differ between communities. Hence, understanding these issues and factors are essential to developing a program that is well received and supported. Hence, using a one size fits all program may backfire and end up being 'just another program, with no clear impact.
• Aside the teaching of our natural environment through institutionalized settings, there are many education programs that are organized to teach 'about', 'in' and 'for' nature by other sectors such as government agencies, private and corporate sectors, individuals and non-governmental organizations. The organizations of these programs are indeed lauded but it needs to be coordinated to ensure it is parallel to the goals and objectives of the national and international policy. Failure to consolidate these programs at the national/ state/ organizations may result in redundancy.
• Martin Luther King Jr. (1947) stated the function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
Education is not all about information. It is about the process of learning that enriches the experiences and empowers learners with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to address the interconnected environmental issues and seek solutions to counter the challenges we face today and the future. Hence, the processes of learning is made meaningful when the information provided is important and relevant to the issue, and communities. More importantly, the information and experience must stimulate their cognitive, emotional and psychomotor processes. These stimuli are esential to enable them make informed decisions and take action.
(b) Education is a life-long process.
Since education is a transformative process, it entails a lifelong learning process as its impact can only be observed many years on. Hence, education
• must start at a young age;
• whether through the formal or non-formal settings, the initiatives must be organized and continue throughout one's life. Ad-hoc or one-off programs should be avoided.
• is not only for the young but must involve communities of all ages;
• must be interdisciplinary in nature and infused across all sectors in their lives (e.g., economic, social and culture) so that the relationship between humans and nature is firmly established and embraced.
(c) Capacity-building and empowering its people
Whether education is provided in the informal or non-formal settings; to students, professionals, politicians, and the senior generation, education is a process of capacity-building its community. Capacity-building people must be accompanied by empowerment of its people. They must be empowered so that they can make decisions and initiate or lead conservation initiatives on-site. This is pertinent as local communities are the first to experience and respond to any form of conflict and issues at hand. One of the failures to our local community programs is the lack of local communities' empowerment. The employment of the top-down approach and their lack of consultation and participation in the planning, implementation, and evaluation stages have hindered the progress and sustainability of these community-based conservation programs. This is because pertinent issues on-site were not wholistically looked at, and the sustainability of programs was also cut short when funding ceased. The community is unable to follow through and sustain the conservation initiatives because it does not meet their needs and expectation, or they do not have the know-how and the power to make decisions.
Hence, managing people and our natural capital must go hand-in-hand. The overexploitation of natural capital and the emphasis on short-term gains will disrupt and degrade nature's self-sustaining and self-regulating capabilities. These in turn depletes our natural capital. Ultimately, we are the receivers to our doings - we will find it difficult to sustain ourselves, particularly in an already stressed ecosystem that would potentially lead to more severe issues such as climate change, conflict for resource use, and displacement of populations. Is this what we wish to inherit to our children? It is up to us to decide and take action.
Natural resources are important asset or capital for ecological stability and human sustenance. Unfortunately, our approach to managing them has often focused on managing resources rather than its people. Many strategies used to manage our natural resources have been grounded on hard-science disciplines such as ecology, biology, and technology, or even laws and policies. These strategies are often deemed technical to the larger communities, resulting in them taking the back seat and depending on the authorities for the solution. However, there is an increasing call for stakeholders and local communities' inclusion in the management of our natural capital. Their involvement is critical to ensuring wise use and management of our natural capital at every level of the communities.
Education is an important management tool for the ultimate aim of environmental education and education for sustainable development is to change behaviour (Hungerford & Volk, 1990; UNESCO, 2021). Quality education is an integral element in education for sustainable development and is a key enabler to all other SDGs (UNESCO, 2021). The question is, how do we put forth education for the conservation of the natural capital effectively across all sectors of communities?
(a) Education must be an organized effort. Education must be well planned and organized which simply means:
• Education should be institutionalized from the young whether through the curriculum or co-curriculum, integrated at all levels, beginning from pre-school, primary, secondary school, and tertiary education. The depth of knowledge and experiences must progress through the different levels of education with clear and achievable goals and objectives parallel to the national and international policy.
• Education must be made relevant. Being relevant means the issues in focus must be important to the communities. However, it does not mean that less important issues are sidelined but rather the issues are linked and inter twined with the major issue discussed. It is pertinent to understand that the issues faced by communities may differ between locations. Similarly, their beliefs, attitude, and behaviour; their needs and expectation also differ between communities. Hence, understanding these issues and factors are essential to developing a program that is well received and supported. Hence, using a one size fits all program may backfire and end up being 'just another program, with no clear impact.
• Aside the teaching of our natural environment through institutionalized settings, there are many education programs that are organized to teach 'about', 'in' and 'for' nature by other sectors such as government agencies, private and corporate sectors, individuals and non-governmental organizations. The organizations of these programs are indeed lauded but it needs to be coordinated to ensure it is parallel to the goals and objectives of the national and international policy. Failure to consolidate these programs at the national/ state/ organizations may result in redundancy.
• Martin Luther King Jr. (1947) stated the function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
Education is not all about information. It is about the process of learning that enriches the experiences and empowers learners with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to address the interconnected environmental issues and seek solutions to counter the challenges we face today and the future. Hence, the processes of learning is made meaningful when the information provided is important and relevant to the issue, and communities. More importantly, the information and experience must stimulate their cognitive, emotional and psychomotor processes. These stimuli are esential to enable them make informed decisions and take action.
(b) Education is a life-long process.
Since education is a transformative process, it entails a lifelong learning process as its impact can only be observed many years on. Hence, education
• must start at a young age;
• whether through the formal or non-formal settings, the initiatives must be organized and continue throughout one's life. Ad-hoc or one-off programs should be avoided.
• is not only for the young but must involve communities of all ages;
• must be interdisciplinary in nature and infused across all sectors in their lives (e.g., economic, social and culture) so that the relationship between humans and nature is firmly established and embraced.
(c) Capacity-building and empowering its people
Whether education is provided in the informal or non-formal settings; to students, professionals, politicians, and the senior generation, education is a process of capacity-building its community. Capacity-building people must be accompanied by empowerment of its people. They must be empowered so that they can make decisions and initiate or lead conservation initiatives on-site. This is pertinent as local communities are the first to experience and respond to any form of conflict and issues at hand. One of the failures to our local community programs is the lack of local communities' empowerment. The employment of the top-down approach and their lack of consultation and participation in the planning, implementation, and evaluation stages have hindered the progress and sustainability of these community-based conservation programs. This is because pertinent issues on-site were not wholistically looked at, and the sustainability of programs was also cut short when funding ceased. The community is unable to follow through and sustain the conservation initiatives because it does not meet their needs and expectation, or they do not have the know-how and the power to make decisions.
Hence, managing people and our natural capital must go hand-in-hand. The overexploitation of natural capital and the emphasis on short-term gains will disrupt and degrade nature's self-sustaining and self-regulating capabilities. These in turn depletes our natural capital. Ultimately, we are the receivers to our doings - we will find it difficult to sustain ourselves, particularly in an already stressed ecosystem that would potentially lead to more severe issues such as climate change, conflict for resource use, and displacement of populations. Is this what we wish to inherit to our children? It is up to us to decide and take action.
References
Hungerford, H.R. & Volk, T.L. (1990). Changing Learner Behavior through
Environmental Education. Journal of Environmental Education. 21(3): 8-22.
King, M.L. Jr. (1947). The Purpose of Education: Political and Social Views. In. Carson, C., Luker, R. & Russell, P.A. (Eds). The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume 1: Called to Serve (January 1929-June 1951). Atlanta, GA.
UNESCO (2021). Education for Sustainable Development.
https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-sustainable-development
Environmental Education. Journal of Environmental Education. 21(3): 8-22.
King, M.L. Jr. (1947). The Purpose of Education: Political and Social Views. In. Carson, C., Luker, R. & Russell, P.A. (Eds). The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume 1: Called to Serve (January 1929-June 1951). Atlanta, GA.
UNESCO (2021). Education for Sustainable Development.
https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-sustainable-development
