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The concept of "Sustainable Development" was born with the 'Brundtland
Report' and agreed upon at the Rio Summit in 1992 as a common agenda for the world.
It was introduced as a broad concept and it was quickly adopted as a key word.
No country and no organisation has not incorporated the term "sustainable"
in their vocabulary.
However, it turned out to be much more difficult to find ways of implementing
"sustainable development", than it had been to agree on the term.
At the Rio+5 Summit in New York in 1997 it became clear that there had been very
little progress and that in fact 'the environment' was worse off in 1997 than
in 1992.
The development, that should confirm the hope, that it is possible to create better
living conditions for humans without doing it at the expence of the global environment
and the fundamental conditions of life and biodiversity, has not yet changed.
In other words, we are in a situation, in which we have a defined aim, that
we are (still) not capabable of fulfilling. That states the need for an immense
educational effort on all levels. One of the problems in moving towards sustainability
is that we are still not able to translate the general concept of sustainability
into new approaches and practices. Most people are educated as specialists to
work in a specific sector and often their education has not dealt with the concepts
of sustainability. Nor has it dealt with ecology and environmental understanding,
which arebasic to sustainable development.
Actually it seems as if we have become ecological illiterates. Thus our greatest
challenge is to develop an eco-literacy education process which rethinks and
defines what kind of education is appropriate for a species whose standards of
success threaten its ecological foundations.
This process calls for dialogue and exchange of experience between educators
and people in general concerned and engaged in finding sustainable solutions for
life on Earth.
In Denmark we have tried to facilitate that dialog through "Network for Ecological
Education and Practice" since 1993.
We now want to extend the dialogue and network to an international foundation.
We know that many people are working along the same lines all over the world,
and that a lot of knowledge and valuable experiences are being generated. But
also that it is often individuals that struggles in not very responsive surroundings.
Through the Internet it has now become possible to connect with likeminded, despite
of distance.
We offer a website to support an international dialogue on
these issues. Our aim is to invite schools, organisations, projects and individuals
working with ecological sustainability, environmental education and eco-literacy
to network and dialogue with their experiences, ideas, thoughts and wishes for
an ecological sound education for life.
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