The
Electronic version of the
9th
Conference of the International Environment Forum
Education
for Sustainable Development (ESD):
The
Spiritual Dimension
in
support of the
UN
Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014)
by e-mail
18
November- 4 December 2005
REPORT 
HIGHLIGHTS CASE STUDIES
REPORT
Every year, the IEF holds an electronic
conference (prior to or parallel with the physical annual conference),
which is a free, virtual conference, where people share their thoughts
through emails, distributed by a moderator. It is for the participants,
by the participants. This means that everyone registering for the electronic
conference can enjoy each others' contributions as well
as write contributions.
The format of
the electronic conference was different this year since the 9th IEF Conference in Orlando, Florida, USA, on 14-16 December 2005 consisted
entirely of interactive sessions, and there were no presented papers
that could be discussed in advance. The e-conference therefore had two
aims: to collect success stories or case studies to be shared with the
main conference, and to consider the themes on the agenda of the UN
Commission on Sustainable Development, for which the IEF would like to
develop statements. 15 people participated in the e-conference, all
sharing a joint interest in the subject of cultivating sustainable
lifestyles, either due to their chosen profession, their studies, or
their aim to lead a more sustainable life. They included a doctor, a
businessman, students, a biologist, a farmer, consultants, a computer
scientist, teachers, an architect and a trustee. The participants
worked at the local, national and global levels, and represented 7
countries: Barbados, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Japan,
South Africa, Swaziland, United Kingdom, and the U.S.A. Each member
introduced him or herself, usually providing some background on their
specific field of work and service or their specific studies or
interests. Some interesting projects were mentioned in these personal
introductions. Then there was a discussion of the themes. All the contributions were shared by e-mail, and later
compiled and distributed to all the participants.
This year there were two themes for
the electronic conference which both relate to the theme of the 2005 IEF
conference in Orlando: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): The
Spiritual Dimension.
Theme
1. ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: YOUR SUCCESS STORIES.
Participants who were professionally or
voluntarily active in the field of sustainable development, specifically
environment, and who were involved in or heard of developments
which addressed our spiritual nature, shared these to provide inspiration and practical ideas.
Theme
2. THE ROLE OF EDUCATION FOR ADDRESSING ENERGY, INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT,
AIR POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE.
In the years 2006 and 2007 the Commission
on Sustainable Development, the primary institution in the United Nations
which addresses the implementation of the Rio and Johannesburg Summits, will
consider these themes: energy for sustainable development, industrial
development, air pollution and climate change.
The IEF hopes to be
present at these meetings with a delegation and be able to present
statements
with our contribution to the issues. It also works with other
organizations who are focusing on the role of education.
Participants were asked for comments or success stories related to these topics.
The exchange of
stories, ideas and studies was sent to the Board of the International
Environment Forum, and selected success stories were shared with the
participants in the Orlando Conference, where they were greatly
appreciated.
A snap shot collection of some of the comments is presented below:
“I can
tell you that I consider it a success whenever I see a child's eyes
light up or her face become suffused with a sense of wonder when she
encounters an interesting or bizarre feature of nature “
“Treading
Lightly - an environmental education and conservation project -
developing a puppet show for the Barbados Green Expo in March. We will
seek, through scripts that highlight the teachings of various Faith
communities, to educate the public as to why it has a spiritual
responsibility for the environment. Participants will be asked to make
a commitment to address at least one environmental issue in their own
lives”
“The world
must have a "special regard" for agriculture; a recognition of the
interactions of the life of the soil and the life of plants; the
creation of gardens for special needs - even on concrete: production of
a safe source of food: wise water use; utilization of problem waste
products; raising questions about land-loss; providing outlets for
youth and those with disabilities.”
“The task
at hand is to find better means of communicating and sharing the wealth
of technology and knowledge at our disposal, and arise unitedly to turn
them into practicable and efficacious solutions, based on shared moral
values, responsibilities, and spiritual ideals which are the
cornerstones of civilization.”
“Among the
models developing educational actions in these villages, one of the
most important is the initiative of Bayan Organization ..... thus a
programme of alternative education is starting using a flexible
methodology through the Tutorial Learning System, SAT, which by
developing contents relevant to the aspirations and real needs of the
rural population, has shown itself to be adapted to the special
conditions of rural people.”
“The
Chinese culture is intrinsically spiritual and they have very close
relationship with nature. With values deeply entrenched in their
traditions - have long held such views, ethics and moral values
even under communist rule. Their advocating 'Spiritual Civilization' as
the ethos for is a testament of this - despite the threat of increasing
materialism and the evil of its excesses. There is an astounding
opportunity, therefore, for training and education projects for
environmental sustainability and awareness.”
“EBBF promotes "stewardship of the earth's resources". To do this we collaborate closely with IEF”
“To paraphrase Einstein, Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”
“True
development, which would improve the ability of individuals to take
responsibility for the development of their societies and their world,
will come about through our ability to use a level of thinking above
that which created the problem, a level of thinking which incorporates
the spiritual dimension of man in finding solutions, a level of
thinking which we have only to read the Writings to have access
to”
“How
excellent, how honourable is man if he arises to fulfil his
responsibilities; how wretched and contemptible, if he shuts his eyes
to the welfare of society and wastes his precious life in pursuing his
own selfish interests and personal advantages. Supreme happiness is
man’s, and he beholds the signs of God in the world and in the
human soul, if he urges on the steed of high endeavour in the arena of
civilization and justice. - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá”
“Since the
international protocols of global warming regulation have a legal
binding force (not only a declaration), the developed countries have to
do something which effectively improve the environment.”
Some success stories and case studies from the conference are presented in edited form below.
Environmental education in Barbados (Winnie and Oscar Merritt)
Barbados in the
eastern Caribbean is a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), only 14
miles by 21 miles with a population of around 265,000. The loss of land
to housing and industrial development and to erosion is increasing
daily. Dependence on petroleum is ever increasing in order to bring in
tourists, import food, run the power plants, pump water and much more.
With this in mind, food security, water conservation and preservation
and conservation of green space are vital interests. Treading Lightly -
an environmental education and conservation project - is developing a
puppet show for the Barbados Green Expo in March. It seeks, through
scripts that highlight the teachings of various Faith communities, to
educate the public as to why it has a spiritual responsibility for the
environment. Treading Lightly hopes to inspire Barbadians to take
responsibility for their environment - appealing to their minds through
science and their emotions through texts of their religions.
The plan is to
create an interactive, dramatic and artistic time line that gives the
scientific creation story of the universe. The science of the creation
story is inspired by "A Walk Through Time" which can be viewed at
http://www.globalcommunity.org/wtt/index.shtml. We will interlace the
visuals with texts of the creation story from various religions -
primarily Christian because that is the majority Barbadian religion. An
emphasis on the five previous extinctions on the planet will lead to a
supposition that we may be involved in a sixth unless we drastically
change human behavior. The puppet plays which accompany the exhibit
will illuminate the issues in a humorous way.
Participants
will be asked to make a commitment to address at least one
environmental issue in their own lives - for example, to take the bus
and leave the car at home when practical. This is no easy sell.
Barbadians have recently become more affluent. For instance, there are
125,000 cars on this small island. The polluted air hangs in the school
classrooms near the highways to the extent that one school was recently
shut down for a few days by a teacher protest. Traffic jams are
frazzling the public nerve which nevertheless does not want to give up
the car for the bus. The number of asthma cases is soaring,
especially among children. We hope to find statistics which will
tie the health issues to the transportation issues.
If this exhibit
is successful, it will be enlarged into a "roadshow" which will travel
to schools, festivals and such. It is already successful in
unifying the diversity of religious opinions toward a common goal.
Additionally,
the All-Terrain Gardens program will be holding workshops on growing
food organically in stacks of tires. This project aims toward several
outcomes: a recognition of Baha'u'llah's teaching that the world must
have a "special regard" for agriculture; a recognition of the
interactions of the life of the soil and the life of plants; the
creation of gardens for special needs - even on concrete: production of
a safe source of food; wise water use; utilization of problem waste
products; raising questions about land-loss; providing outlets for
youth and those with disabilities.
Rural education in Honduras (Michael Richards)
The
Bahá’í Agency of Social and Economic Development
(BASED-UK) is particularly supporting rural education projects, mainly
in Honduras and India. One of those projects is the Bayan Association
for Indigenous Socio-Economic Development in Honduras. The System of
Tutorial Learning (SAT), developed by FUNDAEC in Colombia, is now being
mainstreamed in the form of a gradual expansion into a national
programme by the Government of Honduras with funding from the Inter
American Development Bank, Ford Foundation, Canadian CIDA and
Pestalozzi Foundation, Switzerland. There are currently about 3,600 SAT
students studying. This is due to increase to 6,000 next year and
17,000 by 2009. SAT currently operates in 7 of Honduras' 19
Departments, with collaboration of 7 other NGOs as well as the Ministry
of Education. SAT is getting increasing recognition, for example: a
2005 Ministry of Education report on the development of alternative
education models in Honduras notes that: "among the models developing
educational actions in these villages, one of the most important is the
initiative of Bayan Organization ..... thus a programme of alternative
education is starting using a flexible methodology through the Tutorial
Learning System, SAT, which by developing contents relevant to the
aspirations and real needs of the rural population, has shown itself to
be adapted to the special conditions of rural people." The SAT
curriculum materials are now available in English from FUNDAEC,
Colombia: go to http://www.fundaec.org (click on English version), and Bayan's
website now has an English description of SAT: http://www.bayan_hn.org.
Cemeteries in London (Judith Fienieg)
A sustainable development project that you probably have not thought about is the development of a cemetery.
In the big
metropolis called London, population growth and land price increases
have gone hand in hand. The city continues to grow unsustainably,
putting pressure to develop every piece of vacant land, in particular
for moneymaking uses such as housing and office buildings. Luckily,
governmental and non-governmental pressure groups made sure some of the
land was also developed into, for example, parkland and sports
facilities.
Unfortunately,
the need of those people whose voice was no longer heard was neglected,
i.e. the voices of the dead. London is rapidly running out of burial
space. Some areas no longer accept burials, and other areas have no
plan whatsoever to assign new sites as cemeteries, with grave space
running out in a few years time. We seem to live in a time where
– when space is in short supply - improving our personal living
conditions is preferred over some of our more spiritual needs such as
respecting the wishes of the person that has died.
Many people will
not flag this issue as being important, assuming that burials are a
thing of the past. We all should opt for much cheaper and more
efficient cremations. However, this viewpoint does not take into
considerations that many cultures and religions such as the
Bahá’ís prefer burials very strongly. A
cemetery outside of London is not an option for those who wish to bury
their loved ones in the same area where they grew up or lived for a
long time. Neither is it an option for Bahá’ís, who
believe that the dead should be buried no longer than one hour’s
travel from the place where they died (please note, it takes a full
hour to drive to the perimeters of London alone from some parts).
In 2001, a
Cemeteries Strategy was commissioned, following a pan-London report
prepared by the London Planning Advisory Committee (LPAC) on the
diminishing burial space in London. One local authority of East London
set up a Cemetery Strategy, outlining the options open to the Council.
It put forward a series of proposals, which included consulting with
residents as to whether a new cemetery/cemetery extension was something
they wanted their council to spend its money on. The overwhelming
majority of those residents consulted requested additional space for
the deceased.
The site chosen
was a derelict piece of land which at some time was used for gravel
extraction, and was later contaminated with landfill debris, most of
which came from World War II bomb-damaged buildings from elsewhere in
the London area. The landfill site was then declared unsuitable for
redevelopment, due to contamination and due to unstable conditions for
buildings.
The local
authority is now in the process of cleaning up the site. The
development will include a detailed remediation scheme of excavation,
partial landfilling and partial recycling of soil by sorting and
cleaning on-site. After this inspection and clean-up process is
complete, a new cover layer of soil will be placed in order to complete
the process of "making the site suitable for use" and therefore safe
for grave diggers, cemetery visitors and park visitors. After the
earthworks are complete, the site will be landscaped with grass, trees
and hedges, interspersed with an access road and footpaths. The
estimated completion date of the Cemetery Extension project is late
summer/early autumn 2006 and will cost £1.7 million. The cemetery
will satisfy the local burial demand for the next 50 years.
As part of the
development, an impressive amount of 1,400 trees and 300 m of hedges
are being planted. This new woodland will absorb carbon dioxide
counteracting the emissions of a modest order of magnitude of 800 cars
(using calculations from www.carbonneutral.com). This area of East
London is therefore the only area that immediately meets its target of
fighting climate change by increasing its inner city woodlands. This
target would not have been achievable without the cemetery development.
The cemetery development helped address several sustainability objectives:
- Combating climate change through intensive tree planting;
- Enlarging ecological habitats within the urban environment;
- Increasing biodiversity;
- Encouraging cultural and religious expression in a multicultural society.
Bahá’í schools in Swaziland (Roxanne Lalonde)
The
Bahá’í schools in Mbabane, Swaziland, (the capital
city) are involved in many aspects of moral, spiritual, environmental
and social education. I consider it a success whenever I see a child's
eyes light up or her face become suffused with a sense of wonder when
she encounters an interesting or bizarre feature of nature. If there
aren't opportunities to take kids outside, the next best thing is
watching Animal Planet or any nature programs on TV, especially those
about interesting animals. Some of the children I know would rather
watch those programs than cartoons and are growing up with a deeper
appreciation of nature than many adults.
Sustainable living in Virginia (Robert Rogers)
An architectural
firm in southwestern Virginia has a strong interest in "green building"
of various types, with work including community revitalization
planning, lots of renovation projects, and a co-housing project. The
firm is involved in a volunteer effort called SLEC (Sustainable Living
Education Center) in Floyd, Virginia. SLEC is an evolving model of
education focusing on the multiple aspects of "sustainable living".
Hands-on exhibits are being developed, such as straw bale construction,
wind power, solar power, etc.
Catastrophes or opportunities in China (Sam Sate-Askew)
Without a doubt
the Chinese (at all levels) are very proud of their fatherland, and
have a profound sense of responsibility. On local and individual levels
the environment is seen as subservient and as a limitless pool of
resources (or sink for waste). Appropriate education strategies are
therefore of absolute necessity - particularly since the great majority
of the inhabitants of China are peasants. On the other hand, the
Chinese philosophy is more integrative and holistic than traditional
western approaches (which we are beginning to address). What may be
damaging or may seem expedient now may present opportunities for later
input. The interesting aspect that presents itself (from our
perspective) is that the culture is intrinsically spiritual and they
have very close relationship with nature. With values deeply entrenched
in their traditions - have long held such views, ethics and moral
values even under communist rule. Their advocating 'Spiritual
Civilization' as the ethos for development (adopted years ago - but
remains to be seen to what extent this has been effective) is a
testament of this - despite the threat of increasing materialism and
the evil of its excesses. With the level of international interest in
China, such opportunities are coming faster than would otherwise have
been the case. There is an astounding opportunity, therefore, for
training and education projects for environmental sustainability and
awareness.
Sustainability and business (George Starcher)
The whole issue
of education for sustainability is one that is very relevant to the
work of the European Bahá’í Business Forum (EBBF)
(see http://www.ebbf.org) which relates it to corporate social responsibility,
business ethics, responsible entrepreneurship, values-based leadership,
etc. EBBF is a network of some 350 members (business executives,
entrepreneurs, consultants, and students) residing in 60 countries. Its
vision is to enhance the well-being and prosperity of humankind, and
its mission is to promote ethical values, personal virtues, and moral
leadership in business. Its activities include publications, an annual
conference, a monthly e-magazine, collaboration with like-minded
organizations, lecturing in business schools, and a very popular web
site at www.ebbf.org. One of the core values it promotes is
"stewardship of the earth's resources". To do this we collaborate
closely with IEF. Arthur Dahl, President of IEF, for example, is a
member of the Governing Board of EBBF.
Multi-stakeholder processes (Minu Hemmati)
Governments,
business, international bodies and local groups are turning to
multi-stakeholder processes to find practical ways forward. They
can help to get beyond adversarial politics and achieve positive
results in resolving complex issues and for sustainable development.
Three things that contributed to the concept are:
* Bahá’í principles of consultation;
* Social and organizational psychology and what we know about working in teams; and
* Sustainable development as a concept and goal that requires the diversity of stakeholders to collaborate.
A book on this can be looked at and downloaded from: http://www.minuhemmati.net/eng/msp/msp_book.htm.
CONTRIBUTION ON CSD THEME
Air pollution management (Kazushi Hatase)
After the second
world war, especially in the 1960's and 1970's, Japan experienced
serious air pollution problems. Some people even died from breathing
problems caused by air pollution. At that time, there was an
extraordinary rapid economic growth occurring, and environmental
regulation did not catch up with the economic growth. In general,
Japanese were much more interested in economic growth than air
pollution control (of course there were inequalities, for example, the
victims of air pollution were mainly low income people).
Air
pollution in Japan has improved significantly since the 1980's. But,
the point is that people have become affluent enough to have
environmental awareness or consciousness. Of course, many people
complained about air pollution before the 1970's, but the economy was
more important than the environment at that time.
Through the
history, air pollution management in Japan has heavily depended on
'environmental technology' and direct regulation by the local
government. Such environmental technology has come from technological
progress (Japanese manufacturers have become affluent enough to develop
environmental technology after the 1980's). A big problem is that
Japanese manufacturers have moved the majority of the factories to
developing countries where environmental regulations are loose (so they
produce cheaply, but environmentally less friendly).
Some
economists generalize the relationship between economic affluence and
environmental consciousness like above as 'environmental Kuznets
curve'. This theory can explain why the quality of air is much better
(cleaner) in developed countries than developing countries (on the
other hand, the environmental Kuznets curve does not agree with the
relationship between economic affluence and CO2 emission).
Our
question is that "Do we have to wait until the developing countries
become a developed country to settle air pollution problems as Japan
has experienced? Or, can we do something more than that?".
This
is, in my opinion, a very difficult question. When I look at serious
air pollution in developing countries, such as in Mexico and China, I
feel almost hopeless. I feel we can do almost nothing until they
ultimately become a developed country and the problem is automatically
settled. To give an example, the Japanese government has spent a lot of
money for air pollution reduction in China, but the effect is very
small.
The point is that even China is an optimistic example.
Since the GDP of China is developing at about 8% per year, there is a
good chance for China to be a developed country. But what about other
countries which experience serious air pollution problems but have
almost no hope of becoming a developed country? That the reason why I
sometimes feel almost hopeless.
One hope is the CDM (clean
development mechanism) in the Kyoto Protocol. CDM is to help the
development of developing countries with no/small CO2 emission increase
instead of the emission reduction in own country. I think this should
work also for reducing air pollution (the technical term is ancillary
benefit). Since the international protocols for global warming
regulation have a legal binding force (not only a declaration), the
developed countries have to do something which effectively improves the
environment.
As usual the outcome of the electronic
conference was shared with the IEF conference which took place
in Orlando, Florida, 14-15 December 2005 (see Conference Report).
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