1.
We, the participants from governmental, intergovernmental,
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the civil society
at large from 83 countries present at the International
Conference on Environment and Society: Education and Public
Awareness for Sustainability, organized in Thessaloniki
by UNESCO and the Government of Greece, from 8 to 12 December
1997, unanimously adopt the following Declaration.
We take note that:
2. The recommendations and action plans of the
Belgrade Conference on Environmental Education (1975),
the Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental
Education (1977), the Moscow Conference on Environmental
Education and Training (1987), and the Toronto World Congress
for Education and Communication on Environment and Development
(1992) are still valid and not fully explored.
3. Insufficient progress has been made five years
after the Earth Summit in Rio as it has been recognized
by the international community.
4. The Thessaloniki Conference has benefited from
the numerous international, regional and national meetings
held during 1997 in India, Thailand, Canada, Mexico, Cuba,
Brazil, Greece and the Mediterranean region inter alia.
5. The vision of education and public awareness
has been further developed, enriched and reinforced by
the major UN Conferences: on Environment and Development
(Rio, 1992); Human Rights (Vienna, 1993); Population and
Development (Cairo, 1994); Social Development (Copenhagen,
1995); Women (Beijing, 1995) and Human Settlements (Istanbul,
1996), as well as the nineteenth special session of the
United Nations General Assembly (1997). The action plans
of these conferences, as well as the special work programme
of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development adopted
in 1996, are to be implemented by national governments,
civil society (including non-governmental organizations,
youth, enterprises and the educational community), the
United Nations system and other international organizations.
We reaffirm that:
6. In order to achieve sustainability, an enormous
co-ordination and integration of efforts is required in
a number of crucial sectors and rapid and radical change
of behaviours and lifestyles, including changing consumption
and production patterns. For this, appropriate education
and public awareness should be recognised as one of the
pillars of sustainability together with legislation, economy
and technology.
7. Poverty makes the delivery of education and
other social services more difficult and leads to population
growth and environmental degradation. Poverty reduction
is thus an essential goal and indispensable condition
for sustainability.
8. A collective learning process, partnerships,
equal participation and continuous dialogue are required
among governments, local authorities, academia, enterprises,
consumers, NGOs, media and other actors in order to raise
awareness, search for alternatives and change behaviours
and lifestyles, including consumption and production patterns,
towards sustainability.
9. Education is an indispensable means to give
to all women and men in the world the capacity to own
their own lives, to exercise personal choice and responsibility,
to learn throughout life without frontiers, be they geographical,
political, cultural, religious, linguistic or gender.
10. The reorientation of education as a whole towards
sustainability involves all levels of formal, non-formal
and informal education in all countries. The concept of
sustainability encompasses not only environment but also
poverty, population, health, food security, democracy,
human rights and peace. Sustainability is, in the final
analysis, a moral and ethical imperative in which cultural
diversity and traditional knowledge need to be respected.
11. Environmental education, as developed within
the framework of the Tbilisi recommendations and as it
has evolved since then, addressing the entire range of
global issues included in Agenda 21 and the major UN Conferences,
has also been dealt with as education for sustainability.
This allows that it may also be referred to as education
for environment and sustainability.
12. All subject areas, including the humanities
and the social sciences, need to address issues related
to environment and sustainable development. Addressing
sustainability requires a holistic, interdisciplinary
approach which brings together the different disciplines
and institutions while retaining their distinct identities.
13. While the basic content and action framework
for environment and sustainability is largely in place,
the translation of these parameters into action for education
will need to take into account particular local, regional
or national contexts. The reorientation of education as
a whole called for in chapter 36 of Agenda 21 must involve
not only the educational community, but also governments,
financial institutions, and all other actors.
We recommend that:
14. Governments and leaders around the world honour
the commitments already made during the series of United
Nations conferences, and give to education the necessary
means to fulfil its role in achieving a sustainable future.
15. Action plans for formal education for environment
and sustainability with concrete targets and strategies
for non-formal and informal education should be elaborated
at national and local levels. Education should be an integral
part of local Agenda 21 initiatives.
16. National councils for sustainable development
and other relevant bodies give education, public awareness
and training a central role for action including better
coordination among the relevant national ministries and
other entities, including major groups.
17. Governments and international, regional and
national financial institutions, as well as the productive
sector, be encouraged to mobilize additional resources
and increase investments in education and public awareness.
The establishment of special funds for education for sustainable
development should be considered as a specific way to
increase support and visibility.
18. All actors reinvest a portion of the savings
from the greening process into strengthening of environmental
education, information, public awareness and training
programmes.
19. The scientific community play an active role
in ensuring that the content of education and public awareness
programmes is based on accurate, up-to-date information.
20. The media be sensitized and invited to mobilize
its know-how and distribution channels to diffuse the
key messages, while helping to translate the complexity
of the issues into meaningful and understandable information
to the public. The full potential of new information systems
should be used properly for this purpose.
21. Schools be encouraged and supported to adjust
their curricula to meet the needs for a sustainable future.
22. Non-governmental organizations be given adequate
institutional and financial support in order to further
mobilize people on issues of environment and sustainability,
within communities and at national, regional and international
levels.
23. All actors – governments, major groups,
the education community, the United Nations system and
other international organizations, the international financial
institutions, inter alia – contribute to the implementation
of chapter 36 of Agenda, and in particular to the work
programme on education, public awareness and training
of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.
24. Special emphasis should be given to the strengthening
and eventual reorientation of teacher training programmes
and identification and sharing of innovative practices.
Support should be given to research in interdisciplinary
teaching methodologies and in assessing the impact of
relevant educational programmes.
25. The United Nations system, including UNESCO
and UNEP, in cooperation with international NGOs, major
groups and all other actors, continue to give priority
to education, public awareness and training for sustainability,
in particular at national and local level.
26. A Thessaloniki International Award under the
auspices of UNESCO be established to be given every second
year for exemplary educational projects for environment
and sustainability.
27. An international conference be held in 2007,
after ten years, in order to assess the implementation
and the progress of the suggested educational process.
We thank
28. The Government of Greece for having joined
with UNESCO to organize the International Conference in
Thessaloniki.
We request
29. the Government of Greece to transmit the outcome
of this Conference to the Commission on Sustainable Development
at the Sixth Session in April 1998.
