YSDA-Pilipinas Inc.

(Youth for Sustainable Development

Assembly)

YSDA Youth Sectoral

Perspective on the Philippine
National Environmental
Education Action Plan (NEEAP)
www.ysda.tk

YSDA-Pilipinas 2nd National Congress

May 2002, Isla San Salvador, Masinloc Zambales

YSDA Membership Today!

4H R4
Kabalai

(100 +
local chapters)

(2
Local Chapters)

Youth Conference for

Sustainable Development
in the 21st Century
February 8-9 1996

CYMI
Local Youth
Groups)

LYEM
(11 Local Youth
Groups)

(5

YEAR 1

YEAR 2

YEAR 3

Youth in SD IEC
Campaigns

Youth in SD Advocacy
& Lobbying Campaigns

YEAR 4

YEAR 5

Youth Local
Green Politics
Campaign

Proposed Youth in SusDev Modeling Projects

Youth in
Sustainable
Development
Research

NCR-Calabarzon (Marketing Community-Based Ecotours)

Roxas City, Capiz (Childrens Rights Advocacy)
Lanao Lake (Community-Based Sanitation & Livelihood Project)
Region 4 (Promoting Organic Farming & Marketing)

Youth in
SusDev
Capacity Bldg.

Youth
Conservation
Volunteer
Work

Kabataan
Eco-Preneurship
Development

YSDA Youth in SudDev Research Program

How Green Are You?: A Benchmark Study on the Level of Awareness of

Youth Leaders on Environmental and Sustainable Development Issues and
Principles;

YSDA-Pilipinas Inc.
5-Year
Medium Term
Strategic Plan
(2002 2006)

Youth in Sustainable Consumption: A Study on the Involvement of

Youth Leaders in Promoting Sustainable Production & Consumption
Practices
Youth Participation in Community Sustainable Development: An
Institutional Study on the Involvement of Youth Organizations in
Sustainable Development
Prospective Youth in SusDev Model Site Profiling: A Profiling of Youth
in SusDev target sites. This benchmark study will determine the socioeconomic and ecological parameters by which to gauge the impact of the
program later on.

Field Impact
Assessment

Youth Conference for

Sustainable Development
in the 21st Century
February 8-9 1996

YSDA Representation in the

WSSD Global Youth Caucus

Round Table Discussions on the NEEAP

STATUS OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION INITIATIVES

a) NEEAP
Information, Education & Advocacy Programs for Policy Reforms
Lobbying at the 2nd NYP Green Brigade EO (EO 52)

Trainings
Kamp Kalikasan (Youth Environmental Camps)

Research & Development

Sourcebook of Youth Involvement in Community SusDev (un published)

b) DESD
Highlights on the DESD Section Items

Comments

Section 1: Elaboration on the nature of education for

sustainable development & its links to other international
education processes & priorities
That the DESD will be implemented within the context of
the implementation of the UN Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) which has provided targets for international
action to bring the abstract concept of sustainable
development into reality Such an education should provide
life-long skills in the area of learning to know, learning to
live together, learning to do and learning to be
That the four domains of education for sustainable
development includes: a) Basic Education, b) Reorienting
Existing Education Program towards teaching knowledge &
skills on sustainability, b) Developing Public Awareness and
Understanding of Sustainability and c) Training (particularly
focused within the private profit sector)
That the DESD will be implemented in complementation
with existing international education processes & programs;
particularly with the Education for All (EFA) and UN Literacy
Decade (UNLD)
That the Key Themes in Education for Sustainable
Development includes: a) Overcoming Poverty, b) Gender
Equality c) Health Promotions, d) Environmental
Consevation & Protection, e) Rural Transformation f)
Human Rights, g) Intercultural Understanding and Peace h)
Sustainable Production & Consumption I) Cultural Diversity,
j) Information & Communication Technologies

Training should not be limited to the business sector

participation. Various civil society groups are also involved in
viable trainings on sustainable development

DESD implementation should result to new and additional

resources and not just a re-alignment of existing funds from EFA
and UNLD.
Human Rights Education should be highlighted within the
context of the right-based approach to sustainable development
as articulated in the WSSD Plan of Implementation
Additional themes on governance (national, local, international),
corporate responsibility/accountability and the issues of
multilateral trade, which are proving to have immense
implications to sustainable development implementation, must
be considered here.

c) Updated Philippine Agenda 21

Review of the MTYDP (particularly the Green Brigade Program)
Actions to open up DENR programs & projects to youth
involvement
Actions to ensure that youth organizations are involve in various
structures & processes of the PCSD
While these are not directly on environmental education, we feel
that increasing & improving the quality of engagement &
participation of youth leaders & youth organizations in the policymaking & framework-setting on sustainable development in
general (through the PA21) is crucial. This will raise the youths
knowledge on the issues and improve their skills needed to
UNDERSTAND and CONFRONT environmental problems.

CURRENT ISSUES & GAPS

IDEAL OBJECTIVES OF
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

CURRENT EXPERIENCE
(Formal, Informal & Non-Formal Education)

EE should provide young people

the needed knowledge &
analytical skills in order to fully
understand the complex issues of
environmental destruction in their
own localities

Environmental Education in many schools remains rather

technical and focused more on biological/earth sciences.
Despite many attempts to link the teaching of environmental
issues & skills to other social-political & economic issues,
there is a perceive lack of sufficient linkaging.
There is a perceived lack of champions among
teachers and school administrators on promoting
environmental issues as a cause that students and other
members of the school community can rally behind on.
There is a lack of focused on presenting environmental
issues as personal issues of students and youth that allow
them to questions and review their own value systems and
lifestyles
Non-formal and informal environmental education has
not always been consistently available to a large number of
young people across various age range & batches. (e.g.
conduct of youth environmental camps by various groups

IDEAL OBJECTIVES OF
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

EE should provide young people

practical skills in order to
substantially contribute in
collective efforts to jointly confront
specific local community
problems resulting to and as a
result of environmental
destruction

CURRENT EXPERIENCE
(Formal, Informal & Non-Formal Education)

There is a severe lack of actual engagement of young

people (particularly students) in ongoing collective community
efforts to confront specific environmental issues as a way to
further complement formal instruction in schools on
environmental education.
In relation to this, while serious efforts are being made
by some schools to integrate environmental projects towards
creating sustainable, green campuses; these have been
more an exemption than a rule. In such cases, teaching
environmental education through formal instruction has not
been as effective since it lack the needed consistency in
terms of actual practice & involvement of the students who
are provided such instructions.

EE
Knowledge

Understanding of
Community
Environmental &
SusDev Issues
EE should empower young
people to confront & resolve
real environmental issues of
their communities

Reflections

Resolution of Actual
Community Environment
& SusDev Issues
Proposed Framework for EE

Life Skills

Involvement
of the
Successor
Generations

RECOMMENDATIONS & NEEDED ACTIONS

Issues & Problems
EE remains technical & focus on
biological/earth sciences
There is a perceived lack of linkaging
between EE & other socio-political &
economic issues
There is a perceived lack of actual
engagement of the youth to confront
specific environmental issues in their
immediate communities
There is a perceived lack of
champions among teachers &
administrators on promoting
environmental actions to resolve
environmental issues

Recommendations
& Needed Actions
EE in schools & communities must be
undertaken not merely as academic
exercises but focused on responding to
specific community environmental &
susdev issues

Support to ensure that every campus will

have an Environmental Student Org
Setting of Faculty Environmental Groups
School Extensions Services (e.g. NTSP)
should focus on responding to
environmental issues
Require a Graduate of Environmental
Studies/Science/Education to be part of
every H.S. Science Teacher Teams

Issues & Problems

Recommendations
& Needed Actions

Many students still do not perceived

environmental issues as personal
issues

Make Sustainable Consumption &

Production Issues central to EE
Green Lifestyle Options (e.g. Ecowaste,
Organic Food/Food Safety, Green
Transport Options) must be taught,
supported & practiced (including
institutionalization of appropriate policies &
provision of infrastructure to support these
lifestyle options such as bike racks,
banning soft drinks in canteen & serious
implementation of campus ecowaste)

Non-formal & Informal EE have not

always been consistently available to
young people (e.g. youth camp, articles
on environment in campus papers)

Review & Strengthen the implementation

of the SK Green Brigade Program &
encourage the focus of this program on EE
Implement & institutionalize the 2nd & 3rd
NYP resolutions for the creation &
institutionalization of a PHILIPPINE
YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMP ON
ENVIRONMENT & SUSDEV

Issues & Problems

Recommendations
& Needed Actions

Non-formal & Informal EE have not

always been consistently available to
young people (continuation . . .)

Support the conduct of training on

environmental & sustainable development
issues for campus journalist complemented
by appropriate linkage support to on
campus and off-campus environmental
groups and institutions to ensure more
regular news and articles on environment
in school papers

Lack of integration of best practices on

susdev implementation from indigenous
knowledge system (particularly from
practices of Indigenous Peoples
Community) to current EE programs

Inclusion of IP and Muslim Community

Leaders to all national EE coordination
structures and mechanisms.
Institutionalize a Cultural Exchange
Program focused on indigenous knowledge
system and urban-rural sustainable
development links with the active
participation of IP and Muslim communities

Issues & Problems

There is perceived lack of consistency
between the EE that is being taught in
schools and the actual practice &
involvement within & outside the school
in environment & susdev issues

Recommendations
& Needed Actions
Ensure coordinated action by ALL sectors
to provide conducive opportunities for
young people to learn about and be involve
in resolving community environment &
susdev issues complementing EE in school
in a consistent manner
Continue and develop stricter guidelines
& standards on sustainable development
practices of schools in the existing school
accreditation by government and selfaccreditation processes by the private
sector (e.g. PAASCU)

Environmental Education
VS
SUSDEV Education?

RANDOM THOUGHTS . . .
Environmental Issues are subsets of Sustainable Development
Issues
All environmental issues are necessarily sustainable development
issues but not all sustainable development issues are environmental
issues
The resolution of environmental issues are dependent upon the
prior and final resolution of other socio-political and economic
problems. The new PA21 identifies these as the following: a)
population, b) governance, c) trade & globalization, d) corporate
accountability, e) poverty reduction and others

IF the objectives of EE are both to inform and capacitate in

order to allow for relevant participation in the resolution of
community environmental issues; it MUST be able to tackle
and provide the needed info and skills to resolve the other
socio-economic and political problems
CAN Environmental Education really provide the info &
skills to resolve these other socio-political and economic issue?
Will a broader framework for SUSDEV Education be better?