Preview Issue - News and Notes

NAAEE 30th Annual Conference
EEASA 19th Annual Conference
SEJ 11th Annual Conference
IFEJ Congress 2001
GreenCOM
Investigate Biodiversity Web Site
Education for Nature Program
REUTERS–IUCN Media Awards
WEPIA Program
WWF Traveling Biodiversity Exhibition
Eco-Labeling: What Is It?

NAAEE 30th Annual Conference
Web site: http://www.naaee.org

The North American Association for Environmental Education will hold its 30th annual conference, “2001: An EE Odyssey—Exploring Capacity, Community, Complexity, and Culture,” October 11–15, 2001, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The conference will provide a framework upon which those committed to sound principles regarding education about the environment can discover our rich environmental education (EE) heritage, the many current EE successes, and the exhilarating journeys ahead. The conference will be built around four strands:

1. Capacity focuses on tribal/federal/state/provincial/local efforts to create sustainable EE organizations, develop EE leaders, and achieve comprehensive EE programs.
2. Community looks at how EE can work cooperatively with communitybased programs to increase environmental educators’ and community constituents’ capacity to understand environmental factors and use information to develop partnerships, ecologically sound and culturally appropriate projects, and skills to maintain a healthy local environment.
3. Complexity seeks to understand the intricate ties that bind together the living systems of the globe. Biocomplexity refers to phenomena that arise when dynamic interactions occur within biological systems, including human systems, and between these systems and the environment.
4. Culture focuses on processes and building/strengthening skills within organizations and among individuals as they strive to work within the cultural context of different communities.

EEASA 19th Annual Conference
Web site: http://www.info-net.net/eeasa

The 19th Annual International Conference of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa is scheduled for October 5–10, 2001. The conference will provide a forum for critically reflecting on the extent to which EE is contributing to sustainable development. Many people of Africa and other parts of the world continue to experience declining quality of life, poverty, disease (especially HIV-AIDS), loss of biodiversity, and over-reliance on “developed” countries. These problems occur in the context of rich natural resources and of attempts by governments and nongovernmental organizations to promote sustainable livelihoods. At the same time, indigenous knowledge systems, which have been noted to have a key contribution in sustainable development at international fora, continue to be given little attention at institutions of learning. By critically examining the contexts we live in, the work we do, and by learning from success cases in Africa and elsewhere, environmental education can be improved to promote sustainable livelihoods. Subthemes:

• Environmental education for poverty alleviation
• Environmental education for better health and HIV-AIDS prevention
• Environmental education for appropriate utilization of natural resources
• Policy formulation for effective environmental education
• Environmental information networking
• Environmental education for biodiversity conservation
• Environmental education and traditional knowledge systems

SEJ 11th Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon
Web site: http://www.sej.org

SEJ’s 11th annual conference will take place October 17–21, 2001, in Portland, Oregon. Highlights of the conference will be the tours Thursday and Saturday that deal with salmon management, old growth forests, urban sprawl, and dams. Portland State University, which is located downtown, is hosting the conference with hotels just a 10- minute walk away.

Dozens of concurrent panel discussions are set for Friday, October 19, and Saturday, October 20. Topics include: the emerging U.S. energy crunch, environmental issues unique to the Pacific Rim, including Canada and Hawaii, speeches by top Bush Administration officials, and Native American tribal issues. The conference will conclude Sunday, October 21, at noon at a magnificent lodge for a brunch and panel on environmental writing with a special focus on the journey of Lewis and Clark. A two-day post-conference trip up the Columbia River to tour the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and nearby dams is also planned.


IFEJ Congress 2001, Lage-Hoerste, Germany
Web site: http://www.ifej.org

The International Environmental Journalists’ Congress 2001: Environmental Journalism and the Media in the E-Society will be held September 30–October 4, 2001, in Lage-Hoerste, Germany. Among the topics slated to be covered at this meeting is “Fears that Keep the Media Running,” such as mad cow disease, genetically modified organisms, etc. There will be training workshops on Internet networking, science writing, environmental journalism 10 years after the Rio Summit, and international environmental laws. Contact: Michael Schweres and Louisette Gouverne, IFEJ-Headoffice / F-26400 Beaufort sur Gervanne, Grande Rue, FRANCE. E-mail: ifej@comlink.org


GreenCOM
Web site: http://www.greencom.org/greencom/books.asp

Environmental Education & Communication for a Sustainable World: Handbook for International Practitioners, edited by Brian A. Day and Martha C. Monroe.

This book is a collection of the strategies, methods, and tools developed by GreenCOM (the Environmental Education and Communication Project of USAID). The book is meant to share the tools developed from work done over seven years and in 30 countries. Limited quantities are available in English and in Spanish. Contact greencom@aed.org or download the book for free by chapter, section, or in its entirety from http://www.greencom.org/greencom/books/eec_handbook.asp


Investigate Biodiversity Web Site
Web site: http://www.conservation.org/investigate/

Through a unique collaboration, Conservation International and Intel Corporation are proud to bring you Investigate Biodiversity— joining conservation science with Internet technology to create an educational tool for science students. The Investigate Biodiversity Web site provides students and educators the unique opportunity to:

• learn research methods from the pros
• interact with field scientists
• access real world data from endangered ecosystems
• link to articles, Web sites, student science fair projects, and other resources.
• See Web site for all rules, forms, and resources

Education for Nature Program, World Wildlife Fund
Web site: http://www.wwf-efn.org/

Russell E. Train Conservation Leadership Awards

Russell E. Train Conservation Leadership Awards are the heart of EFN. These highly competitive awards support interdisciplinary and specialized education and training for conservation at the diploma, undergraduate, and graduate levels. All applications must include clear training goals, venue, methodology, and official acceptance at the proposed training institution.

Mid-Career Training Grants

Building a critical mass of skilled conservationists requires training at all levels including high-level decision makers, mid-level professionals, and community conservationists—such as park guards, community leaders, farmers, and fishers. EFN provides opportunities for innovative, non-degree training that will help this broad spectrum of conservationists develop skills and expertise. A Web site with all the specifics on these programs and a searchable database of other forms of financial assistance can be found at: http://www.wwf-efn.org/


REUTERS–IUCN Media Awards

The Reuters Foundation-IUCN Media Awards were established in 1998 to raise global awareness of environmental and sustainable development issues by encouraging excellence in environmental reporting worldwide. The awards are open to print and Internet journalists from six regions: Latin America; North America (including the Caribbean and Oceania); Europe; Asia; English-speaking Africa (including the Middle East); and French-speaking Africa. All submissions must have been published between August 30, 2000, and July 31, 2001. One winner from each region will be invited to attend the Global Awards Ceremony in Berlin during the ECOmove Film Festival, held the first week of December 2001. The global winner will receive a $5,000 US prize. Candidates may submit one article only, accompanied by an entry form that can be found at either http://www.foundation.reuters.com or http://iucn.org/reuters. Articles that are not in English, French, or Spanish must be accompanied by a translation. For more on a broader set of environmental and biodiversity events, go to the IUCN Web site: http://indaba.iucn.org/susana/calendar3/index.cfm


WEPIA Program, Jordan

Jordan, a country with seven million people and an average water use of 60 liters per person, per day, has created an environmental communication campaign to address:

1. Demand Management: policy, codes, standards, etc.
2. Education: focusing both on formal education and outreach to the public on water audits and water-saving devices.
3. Capacity Development: teaching women to be entrepreneurs by selling water-saving devices, showing college students how to be water auditors, and training suppliers to market devices nationally.

Jordan is just over the 50 liters-per-day minimum of fresh water consumption suggested by the World Health Organization. It is dealing with a five-year drought. Some of its aquifers are being pumped out at a rate of 160 percent of the recharge rate. It has one of the lowest rates of water use on the globe. (By comparison, the United States uses 360 liters per person per day.) But for Jordan, water and even communication about it remain important security issues.

A multitude of strategies are being used to overcome a natural resistance to further cutting of water use. Most Jordanians only get water from the public system once a week. Messages have to be put in terms of cost to the consumer and supply and quality of the water. For example, if a person runs out of water from the once-a-week flow in the pipes, he must buy additional water at very expensive rates from a tanker.

For more information on this campaign, contact sbender@aed.org


WWF Traveling Biodiversity Exhibition
Web site: http://www.wwf.org

Biodiversity 911: Saving Life on Earth, a new innovative, hands-on traveling exhibition from Windows on the Wild (WOW), an environmental education program of World Wildlife Fund U.S. (WWF), tells the complex story of biodiversity. The exhibition’s centerpiece, The Biodiversity Theater, features a film produced by Aardman Animations, the award-winning UK claymation artists who created the short-film characters Wallace and Gromit and the feature-length film Chicken Run. The film’s characters include a live-action doctor who examines animated “patients” affected by biodiversity issues such as habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. Additionally, six interactive exhibit areas, based on characters from the film, allow visitors to learn more about old-growth forests, marine diversity, and changes they can make in their own behaviors to help protect the earth’s diversity on both local and global scales. Developed by World Wildlife Fund and designed by Jeff Kennedy Associates Inc., the exhibition runs through April 2004.

For more information and to find out when the exhibition will be in your town, go to www.worldwildlife.org/windows.

WWF U.S. is part of a global network active in more than 100 countries, with 4.7 million supporters. For more information about WOW, see www.worldwildlife.org/windows.. For links to WWF education programs in your area, go to www.wwf.org, and go to www.panda.org for the WWF International Secretariat’s site.


Eco-Labeling: What Is It?
Web site: http://www.eco-labels.org

Eco-labeling? What is it, and how do you know whether producers are telling the whole truth? Today, everything you want to buy can be purchased with a seal of approval saying that it is environmentally sound. But is it? To help you with this question, the Web site Eco-labels The Consumers Union Guide to Environmental Labels explains what the labels mean on the products you buy. The guide is set up to search by a specific label (The Food Alliance, for example), a product (such as coffee), or a certifier (USDA, for instance). Through this educational guide on ecolabeling you will be able to know which labels are helping the environment and which are solely marketing tools.

An example of how this eco-labels guide may be helpful to you is knowing that, for example, General Mills makes a donation to The Nature Conservancy to use its leaf logo on Nature Valley Granola Bars, but General Mills is not required to meet any standards to use this logo. By contrast, Green Seal Inc. is a certifier. A certifier evaluates a company wishing to put a particular logo on its products to ensure that the company conforms to the standards required for using a certain logo. This verifies that a product with a logo backed by Green Seal Inc. has been evaluated and is environmentally sound.

To learn more about the products you buy and whether they are ecofriendly products, visit the Consumers Union Guide at http://www.eco-labels.org or go through the Consumer Reports Web site at http://www.ConsumerReports.org.