IV INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION "PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION"-PRESS-RELEASE

IV INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

"PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION"

Puschino, Moscow region, Russia, June 22 26, 1998

PRESS-RELEASE

The federal program "Environmental Education of the Russian Population till 2000" was adopted by Ministry of Ecology of RF jointly with Interdepartmental Commission on Environmental Education at the end of 1995. Non-governmental organizations were deeply involved in its discussion. Its basis formed a concept of environmental education as a continuos process targeting at formation of qualitatively new comprehending of environment and awareness increase for qualified actions to preserve the biosphere. This program includes all levels of the system of formal and non-formal environmental education and training.

Annual international conferences held by Green Cross Russia are aiming at discussing and improving methods of ecology teaching in Russia. The previous conferences discussed pre-school, school and university education. Many teachers, educators and representatives of NGOs from Czech republic, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, Belorus republic, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan took part in them.

The last conference was discussing the public environmental education. The participants consider that each adult needs a minimum knowledge, skills and relationships which promote the formation of simple habits "do not make harm". In particular, these habits are instilling by mass media, which mostly are concentrated on the formation of the integral concept in the field of environmental education and propaganda of the harmony between man and environment.

The fundamental changes in Russian environmental education are going on slowly enough by the quite natural reasons. For example, Central House of Scientists of Russian Academy of Sciences is working on the coordination of an ideological part of science with its practical one. Efforts of NGOs are directed to popularization of major principles of science for mass consciousness. Environmentalists are sure that it is not possible to change the attitude of man to nature at will. New environmental culture formation should lean, from one side, upon the accumulation of values in society, and on the other hand, upon realization of the fact that dominion of technocratic thinking inevitably will lead the world society to global environmental disaster. That is why environmentalists sound the alarm and talk about the QUALITY of man's behavior and actions.

"Our objective as an NGO, - academician N. Moiseev, the chairman of the organizing committee of the conference says, - to specify the term "environmental literacy", to try to provide its realization using both governmental and non-governmental means. Now, we are in the process of search, fundamentals of which is a Hypocrite principle: do not make harm to future generation."

The work done by Green Cross Russia on environmental education (international students and schoolchildren exchange, seminars for teachers, annual conferences, etc.) showed: there is a wide circle of like-minded persons who are ready to teach and to be tough, to put forward problems and to look for the ways of their solution. There are no contradictions between the policy of the government and NGOs in the area of environmental education, there is a difference in the level of understanding and the funds source of governmental and public organizations. Traditionally, after the conference is finished the Resolution is adopted and disseminated among governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The information was prepared by press service of Green Cross Russia +7 (095) 923 48 66.

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