UNESCO Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education organlied by Unesco in co-operation with UNEP Tbilisi (USSR) 74 - 26 October 1977 FINAL REPORT ED/MD/49 PARIS, April 1978. LIST OF OFFICERS OF THE CONFERENCE AND COMMISSION President Rapporteur-General Dr. D.M. Gvishiani Dr. George Francis (Canada) Vice-Chairman of the State Committee for Professor Science and Technology of the Council of Faculty of Environmental Studies Ministers of the USSR University of Waterloo Ontario Vice-Presidents COMMISSION Mr. Iris Fays (Belgium) Inspecteur de l’enseignement primaire Chairman Mr. 0. Leon Sacramento (Benin) Mrs. Madhuri R. Shah (India) PrCsident de la commission nationale Vice-Chancellor pour l’environnnement SNDT Women’s University Bombay Mr. Alfonso Lopez Reina (Colombia) Jefe National de Planamiento y Vice-Chairmen Evaluacidn Curricular Instituto Colombiano de Foment0 de la Mr. Stoian Shikov (Bulgaria) Enseiianza Superior Secretaire general du comite de l’environnement aupres du conseil Mr. Premysl Jagos (Czechoslovakia) des ministres Deputy Minister Ministry of Education of the Czech Mr. S.T. Sundram (Malaysia) Socialist Republic Deputy Secretary-General Prague Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment Mr. Mahmoud Sami Abd-El-Salam (Egypt) Head Mr. Norman H. Ayodele Cole (Sierra Leone) Environmental Research Division Professor of Botany National Research Centre University of Sierra Leone Mrs. Kirsti Wartiovaara (Finland) Dr. William Stapp (United States of America) Secretary for Cultural Affairs University of Michigan Department of International Relations Ann Arbor Ministry of Education Michigan Dr. Khashi Iyada Al-Ma’athidi (Iraq) Mrs. Maria Hortensia HernLndez Luna Dean of the Faculty of Education (Venezuela) Baghdad University Funcionario de1 Ministerio de1 Ambiente y de 10s Recursos Naturales Renovables Mr. Archie W. Mbogho (Kenya) Deputy Director of Education Rapporteur Principal of Kenya Science Teachers College Nairobi Mr. Nadir Hamada (Tunisia) Sous-Directeur de l’environnem.ent Mr. Sergio Garcia-Ramirez (Mexico) Ministere de l’interieur Vice-Ministro de EducacMn Pdblica Dr. Nart Tuntawiroon (Thailand) Director Environmental Education and Research Project Mahidol University Bangkok 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION. ................................ 5 I. GENERALREPORT ............................. II Environmental problems ........................... 11 The role of education ............................ 12 Current efforts and achievements in environmental education ........... 12 Regional and international co-operation .................... 13 Statements by the Director-General ...................... 16 II. REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 18 Strategies for the development of environmental education at the national level . 18 III. DECLARATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CONFERENCE . 24 ANNEXES I. Agenda ................................. 55 II. Opening speeches ............................ 57 III. Closing speeches ............................ 73 IV. List of documents ............................ 81 V. List of participants ........................... 83 4 INTRODUCTION Organization and scope of the Conference 5. The Director-General of Unesco, Mr. Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, opened the Con- 1. The first Intergovernmental Conference ference and gave the floor to H.E. Academician on Environmental Education convened by Unesco V.A. Kirillin who read a message of greeting to was held in Tbilisi (the Georgian SSR, USSR) the Conference from H.E. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, from 14 to 26 October 1977. The Conferencewas Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the organized by Unesco in co-operation with the USSR and Chairman of the Presidium of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Supreme Soviet of the USSR.(l) In his message, in accordance with resolution 1.161 adopted by the L.I. Brezhnev stressed that further progress in General Conference of Unesco at its nineteenth the economic, scientific and cultural fields must session and at the kind invitation of the Govern- take into account the consequences of human ment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. activity on nature; and it was clear that inculca- 2. The Conference had the following main tion of a considerate and careful attitude to the points on its agenda: major environmental prob- environment, together with dissemination of lems in contemporary society; role of education knowledge and skills necessary for its protection in facing the challenges of environmental prob- and improvement, should become an integral part lems; current efforts at the national and inter- of the general system of education and training. national levels for the development of environ- In the USSR, protection of nature and improve- mental education; strategies for the development ment of the environment were regarded as highly of environmental education at the national level; important, nation-wide tasks of the national regional and international co-operation for the economy. This approach was enshrined in the development of environmental education: needs new Fundamental Law recently adopted, the Con- and modalities. stitution of the USSR, which took stock of the de- 3. Delegates from 66 Unesco Member States velopment of the Soviet State founded by V.I. Lenin, and observers from two non-Member States par- in the 60 years since October 1917. The message ticipated in the Conference as well as representa- further stressed that the Soviet Union gave its tives and observers from eight organizations and active support to international action aimed at programmes of the United Nations system, three solving environmental problems and problems other intergovernmental organizations, and 20 concerning the rational use of the natural re- international non-governmental organizations. sources, since the Soviet people were convinced Altogether 265 delegates and 65 representatives that such action was conducive to the achieve- and observers took part in the Conference. ment of the aims set forth in the Charter of the United Nations and reasserted in the Final Act Opening of the Conference of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. L.I. Brezhnev wished the Conference 4. The opening ceremony took place on full success in carrying out the noble tasks 14 October at 11 a.m. in the Conference Hall of before it. the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR in the 6. The Conference was welcomed by H.E. presence of Their Excellencies Academician Mr. Z.A. Pataridze, Chairman of the Councilof V.A. Kirillin, Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Georgian Soviet lSocialist Re- Ministers of the USSR and Chairman of the State public. Understanding and solution of the eternal Committee for Science and Technology of the problem of the relationship between nature and Council of Ministers of the USSR, Mr. E.A. humanity, he said in his speech, had become a Shevardnadze, First Secretary of the Central topical issue for all nations. This global problem Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia, Mr. P.G. Gilashvili, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR, Mr. Z.A. Pataridze, Chairman of the Council of (1) See annexes for full texts of the opening Ministers of the Georgian SSR. messages and speeches. 5 Introduction could not be resolved within the limits of individ- The Director-General paid tribute to the ual countries and regions; it was a matter of Soviet Union and to the spectacular results world importance. That was why the purpose for achieved since the October Revolution in all areas which the participants of the Conference came to of economic, social and cultural life, particularly Tbilisi was not only very important but also a in education and science, and, more especially, noble one, and the recommendations of the Con- in environmental education. ference should contribute to the solution of the The Director-General then thanked Dr. M. environmental problems which the whole of hu- Tolba, the Executive Director of the United manity faces. He referred also to a number of Nations Environment Programme, for the con- specific measures and activities undertaken in tribution that UNEP had made to Unesco in the the Georgian SSR in relation to the preservation development of environmental education and train- of the environment and to environmental education. ing and, particularly, in the organization of the 7. In his address to the Conference the Execu- Conference, the first of its kind on a world-wide tive Director of the United Nations Environment scale. Programme, Dr. Mostafa K. Tolba, stressed the Unesco had, at a very early stage, begun to importance of environmental education as a means concern itself with certain environmental prob- of creating awareness of the complex and urgent lems, but the concept of environment had evolved: problems of environment as a basis for their sol- initially confined to its physical and biological ution. Environmental education was essential for aspects, it now also covered the social, economic integrating the knowledge generated by important and technological environment. The protection of recent conferences of the United Nations system the environment was, then, a many-sided task and was also important for development issues which could not be carried out without taking and the establishment of a new international order. account of those socio-economic factors which Dr. Tolba recalled the three major inseparable were the cause of environmental problems. Those components of UNEP’s activities: environmental problems, moreover,