Higher education in urban environmental management: a new programme at the Asian Institute of Technology,Bangkok

Environmental management and planning is now considered as a new field of professional expertise. There are even professional associations for interested professionals. To date, urban environmental management has been regarded as a subdiscipline of environmental management, but since the Rio Conference in 1992, with the new focus of urban management on environmental problems, it can itself be considered as a professional field. This paper traces the emergence of the field and tries to identify the new skills required for it. The question of formal training, in higher education, for a new type of professional is raised and discussed. It refers at length to an initiative taken by the Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok) to propose and offer a new graduate programme in this discipline, and draws on the author's experience of an Asian workshop (Bangkok, May 1993) aimed at defining the need for such a new profession in Asia.     

Environmental education,community mobilization and sustainable development in Hong Kong: a comparative perspective

SUMMARY

This paper focuses on efforts to promote environmental education and community mobilization around environmental issues in Hong Kong. It is primarily concerned with efforts directed at the broader community (i.e. the population as a whole) rather than with environmental education through formal school and college curricula. The paper draws on a recently completed study commissioned by the Environmental Campaign Committee, the principal source of financial support for such efforts undertaken by environmental NGOs, community groups and educational institutions in Hong Kong. The study examined how and to what effect the Committee had used its financial resources between 1994–1999. It also examined international experience with a view to recommending changes in the overall approach to environmental education and community mobilization initiatives and their funding in Hong Kong.

The paper suggests that the existing approach to community-wide environmental education and its funding in Hong Kong have suffered from various weaknesses, most notably the absence of an integrated and goal-oriented strategy, an over-reliance on a ‘top-down’ campaign-based approach, a failure to establish explicit linkages with the concept of sustainable development and to ground initiatives at the local neighbourhood and community levels, and a preoccupation with the financial inputs provided to support this work at the expense of effective monitoring and auditing of project outputs and benefits.     

Planning and implementing sustainability in higher education institutions: an overview of the difficulties and potentials

Planning in sustainable development is believed to be an important element in allowing higher education institutions to set their goals and to commit themselves towards undertaking concrete actions and measures at all levels in order to implement sustainability. Yet, there is a paucity of research that has looked at the extent to which planning can support institutions of higher education to assess their performances and to determine whether the set aims have been met. This research gap needs to be met to allow a better understanding of how planning can help to promote the integration of the three components of sustainable development – economic development, social development and environmental protection in higher education. This paper explores the challenges for planning the sustainable development in higher education, also outlining the potentials lessons learned that could assist in improving Education for Sustainable Development efforts in Higher Education Institutions. Among its main results are the fact that many universities wish to pursue sustainable development, but their efforts are hindered by lack of institutional support and planning and limited emphasis on approaches, such as problem-based learning. The universities that are engaged in the field have to face many problems, varying from limited resources to lack of trained staff. As a result, integrated approaches to sustainability become difficult to implement. Finally, the paper has identified the fact that many opportunities offered mainstream developments, such as the UN Declaration ‘The World we Want’ or the UN Sustainable Development Goals are not being put to full use.     

Monitoring and reporting attacks on education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia

The United Nations' Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism is charged with documenting six grave violations against children in a time of conflict, including attacks on schools. Many of these incidents, however, remain unreported across the globe. This study explores whether or not a local knowledge base of education and child protection actors in North and South Kivu Provinces, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in Mogadishu, Somalia, could contribute to a more complete record of attacks on education in those areas. Hundreds of semi‐structured interviews were conducted with key informants across the three settings, and in total 432 attacks on education were documented. Purposive samples of these reports were verified and a large majority was confirmed. Local non‐governmental organisations and education institutions were most knowledgeable about these incidents, but most never reported them to a monitoring authority. The study concludes that attack surveillance and response were largely insufficient, and recommends investing in mechanisms that utilise local knowledge to address these shortcomings.     

海口市湿地保护修复经验

本文从海口湿地资源现状及特点、湿地面临威胁与问题、湿地保护修复经验等几个方面深入分析,总结了近年来海口市湿地保护修复工作的主要经验与启示,总结出"海口经验",即高位推动、顶层规划、示范带动、全民参与、合理利用,并对海口未来需要重点关注的内容提出了建议。在当今生态文明建设战略背景下,保护好人类发展的绿色基础设施——湿地,将产生巨大的生态、社会和经济效益。因此,将"海口经验"推向全国,并在全国形成示范作用,对落实湿地保护与合理利用的相关政策与制度、提高全民湿地保护意识、推动我国湿地保护管理进程具有重要意义。     

CDIO工程教育模式在高职创业教育中的应用研究——以中国环境管理干部学院为例

创业教育现在已成为我国高等职业教育中的重要一环。高职院校往往开设一门创业教育课程,试图通过该课程达到创业教育的目的,课程过分迷信＂说教、讲授＂的力量,而毕业生创业能力并没有得到预期的培养。通过借鉴CDIO工程教育模式,提出了创业教育应该以创业能力为培养目标,参照CDIO模式的12项标准进行模块化课程开发,通过CDIO循环提高学生的创业综合能力。     

环保职业教育中环保行指委的角色期待

在分析目前环保职业教育存在问题的基础上,提出为进一步发挥环保行指委的作用,推动环保职业教育的发展与创新,环保职业院校对环保行指委的角色期待。环保行指委在环境保护职业教育中应该扮演专家、组织者、指导者、支持者、平台和桥梁以及监督者的角色。     

家庭危险废物管理探讨

家庭产生的危险废物因产生量少、分布广泛、难以管理等原因,尚未纳入危险废物管理体系。家庭危险废物混同生活垃圾进行管理、处置,对地下水、大气、地表水、土壤产生污染。文章对美国及欧洲的家庭危险废物管理方法进行了系统分析,其管理措施为:在法律管理体系下,以分类收集为主,宣传教育为辅,采取无害化处置方式。我国目前对于家庭危险废物的管理尚处于起步阶段,相关的法律法规不健全,处理处置设施也不完善。文章基于对国外管理特点的分析,针对我国国情对家庭危险废物管理提出以下建议:建立相关的法律法规;进一步完善收集、运输和处置系统;通过教育宣传等方法提高全民对家庭危险废物的认识。     

澳大利亚地方政府开展环保教育的做法及特点

以获得2004年澳大利亚国家奖励的地方政府有关项目为典型,对澳大利亚地方政府如何进行环保宣传教育进行分析。澳大利亚地方政府重视并积极开展环保教育,教育对象有儿童、学生、政府机构和社区以及企业各行各业的人群,内容有环保知识、技能和情报信息等,教育宣传方式、渠道及组织形式多样,并发动多方参与、广泛合作,为推进环保和可持续发展奠定了基础。     

提升高校环境教育效果的对策

本文论证了高校开展环境教育的必要性,总结了高校环境教育的现状,在分析导致高校环境教育效果差强人意的原因后,为提升高校环境教育效果,提出包括立法在内的一系列对策.