KNOW Biodiversity

Environmental education is a process that
inculcates Awareness and Sensitivity about the
environment; Knowledge and Understanding of
the environment and its multitude challenges.
The education aspect is about combining the
awareness, sensitivity, knowledge and
understanding about
the environment with the
dynamic and transformational objectives of
Agenda 2030 which are about ensuring Attitudes
of concern, Skills that help to identify the
challenges and solutions and thereafter
the active Participation of all concerned through
decision-making and actions that lead to
resolving the environmental challenges of our
time, and what UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres so aptly terms “Making Peace with
nature” as “the defining task of the 21st
century.”
Rethinking education for Sustainability in an era
of uncertainty says everything about the
Opportunities and Challenges that we have on
hand: the opportunity for action and the
challenge to accelerate action research and
preparedness for resilience and sustainability.
There is no other way.
The Berlin Declaration at the World Conference
for Education for Sustainable Development
(ESD)
committed to “Ensure that ESD is a foundational
element of our education systems at all levels,
with environmental and climate action as a core
curriculum component, while maintaining a
holistic perspective on ESD that recognizes the
interrelatedness of all dimensions of sustainable
development;” while the UN SecretaryGeneral
fears the ‘growing force and fury” with which
nature is striking back at the war humanity has
waged on nature, making 2020 one of the three
warmest years on record globally.
Environmental education today also means using
science, technology and ICTs for innovative
solutions such as learning the use of Early
Warning systems, developing a climate-resilient
infrastructure, improved dry land agriculture and
mangrove protection among other imperatives.
Making ESD and environmental education
mandatory from early-childhood to higher
learning is a great place to start
in ensuring an ‘alert and educated population’,
which works together for humanity and the
survival of all living things.
As a UN agency with a mandate in science and
education, UNESCO is highly committed to
Environmental education. Some of our
interventions on Environmental education
involves the development of edutainment mobile
applications to generate simple, creative and
engaging ways of connecting and
communicating with school children on water,
climate change and disaster risk reduction.
Together with the African Union and sister UN
agencies, we developed the ‘Know Water’,
‘Know Climate Change’ and ‘Know Disaster risk
reduction’ to foster education on water, climate
change and disaster risk reduction.
With the emergence of the internet and mobile
apps, edutainment and gamification is becoming
increasingly important in the educational sector.
With the rapid development of mobile
technologies
and applications, games are now entering a new
era where their purpose is no longer for
entertaining
only but also for educating and informing.