]]
Publications
Griffith University and the Department of the Environment, Sport & Territories, 1997
Hilary Macleod
Queensland Department of Education
Australia
Hum B. Gurung
Annapurna Conservation Area Project
Nepal
This module provides an introduction to the culture and religion of indigenous people as a basis for sustainable living in traditional societies.
For thousands of years, indigenous people throughout the world have lived closely with nature for their survival and used natural resources in a sustainable manner. These people called the 'ecosystem' people have managed the resource base and used their surrounding environment to maintain their life support system.
Ecosystem people (traditional people) are the members of indigenous cultures who live within a single ecosystem, or at most two or three adjacent and closely related ecosystems. Hunting and gathering societies that exploit only their local area, primitive fishing societies that harvest nearby reefs, and subsistence agricultural societies that till local fields would all be considered examples of traditional societies practicing traditional systems of resource management (Dasman, 1974, cited in Klee, 1980).
Traditional cultures and religions contain vast stores of knowledge and wisdom, accumulated over centuries, about the potential and actual usefulness to human welfare of natural resources unique to their own environment. For example, the religious and cultural parameters developed on the basis of Hinduism and Buddhism have profound implications for caring for our environment which underpin the principles of ecology and contain a long history of mutual relationships with the natural world. Sustainable use of the environment and respect for the environment by the indigenous people have demonstrated that a traditional society is more co-existent with nature, and practice of their cultural and religious values could become a basis for sustainable living.
This workshop seeks to enable participants to:
This outlines the structure of the workshop.
The activity involves participants sharing personal reflections on cultural-environmental links.
Participants work in groups to construct a table which summarises how major religions and traditions influence environmental beliefs and identify common themes about sustainable living in the world's religions.
Discussion of the link between culture, religion and the environment.
This activity provides a case study of the culture-religion-environment relationship in the Annapurna region of Nepal.
Participants will design a curriculum programme around an issue linking culture, religion and the environment.
Overhead Transparency Master
OHT 1: Workshop Outline
Resources
Resource 1: A Universal Environmental Ethic: The Ultimate Goal of Environmental Education
Resource 2: World Religions and the Environment
Resource 3: Defining Culture
Resource 4: Defining Religion
Resource 5: ACAP Case Study 1: The Annapurna Region of Nepal
Resource 6: ACAP Case Study 2: The Annapurna Conservation Area Project
Resource 7: ACAP Case Study 3: Personal Perspectives 1 and 2
Resource 8: Following the Principles of Sustainable Living
Reading
Reading 1: Culture and Religion: A Mechanism for Breaking Down the Barriers to Environmental Education
Burger, J. (1990) The Gaia Atlas of First Peoples: A Future for the Indigenous World, Anchor Books, Doubleday, New York.
Gurung, C.P. (1990) People's Participation in Conservation: Annapurna Conservation Area Project: A Case Study from Nepal, Proceedings of the International Conference on Tropical Biodiversity 'In Harmony with Nature', 12-16 June 1990, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, pp. 74-85.
Haigh, M.(1984) The Chipko Movement, Links 19, Third World First.
Knudson, P. and Suzuki, D. (1992) Wisdom of the Elders, Allen and Unwin, Toronto.
Palmer, M. and Bissett, E. (1989) Worlds of Difference, WWF in association with Thomas Nelson and Son, London.
Palmer, S. (1988) Environmental Education in Religious Education, in A Common Purpose: EE and the School Curriculum, WWF, London.
Pie-Smith, C. (1994) Nepal: Annapurna Conservation Area Project, in The Wealth of Communities, Earthscan Publications, London.
Sterling, S.R. (1985) Culture, Ethics and Environment - Towards the Next Synthesis, The Environmentalist, 5(3).
West, P. and Brechin, S. (eds.) (1991) Resident Peoples and National Parks: Social Dilemmas and Strategies in International Conservation, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
WWF (1992) World Religions and Ecology Series, WWF in association with Cassell.
Additional resources and information for the ACAP case study may be obtained from:
Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP)
ACAP Headquarters
Ghandruk Village
Kaski District
Nepal.
King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation
PO Box 3712
Kathmandu
Nepal.
Tel: 977-1-526571/573
Fax: 977-1-526570
Group participants in clusters of 4-5 people. Ask each participant to share a proverb, myth, legend, saying or issue from their culture that indicates the significance of the environment.
Debriefing: Select one or two examples and briefly discuss the relationship between the example and the culture
Discuss how, in different parts of the world, religious beliefs and/or indigenous cultural perspectives influence beliefs about the environment and result in implications for sustainable living.
Distribute copies of Resources 1 and 2. In this activity, participants work in their groups to summarise information about religious beliefs and the environment from Resource 1 onto the table in Resource 2.
Explain to the participants that the table will attempt to do an almost impossible task; to summarise such complex concepts in one table is certain to lead to oversimplification, and that the intention of the activity is to provide a snapshot only.
Allocate one of the religions in Resource 1 to each group and give instructions to read about that religion and summarise the information onto the table in Resource2.
Compile a whole group version of Resource 2 by asking all groups to report their summaries, especially of Columns 2 and 3 on the various religion's beliefs about the environment and the implications for sustainable living. The group reports might be pinned to the walls or a notice board for all groups to read.
After assisting participants to understand the information in their completed tables in Resource 2, ask them to consider Column 3: Implications for Sustainable Living.
Ask participants to identify three common themes/practices that most religions believe about sustainable living.
Use Resources 3 and 4 as handouts (or OHTs) to explain the concepts of 'culture' and 'religion' to a depth appropriate to the objectives of the workshop.
This activity uses Resources 5, 6 and 7 to provide a case study of the relationship between culture, religion and the environment in one part of the world, the Annapurna region. Facilitators may choose to use this case study or to use it as a model to develop a local or more relevant case study.
The case study material is broken up into three sections. At the end of each section there are discussion questions that can be used to debrief and check for understanding.
The three sections are:
Resource 5: ACAP Case Study 1: The Annapurna Region of Nepal.
Resource 6: ACAP Case Study 2: The Annapurna Conservation Area Project.
Resource 7: ACAP Case Study 3: Personal Perspectives.
Use Resource 5 as the basis of a mini-lecture or as a group reading to introduce the geography and culture of the Annapurna region.
Divide participants into two groups and allocate Resource 6 or 7 to each group. Their tasks are to read the material and to answer the questions at the end.
Each group reports its answers in a debriefing session. This will allow all participants to obtain information on the two topics. Allow 40-50 minutes for the group work.
In these activities, participants critically analyse selected principles of sustainable living in terms of their own cultural context, design an appropriate activity to motivate their community, use principles of sustainable living to develop implications for their personal lifestyle, and design a curriculum programme around a focus issue linking culture, religion and the environment.
A. Principles of Sustainable Living
Distribute Resource 8 which examines ACAP's programme in the light of a selected list of principles of sustainable living from the module on Teaching for Ecologically Sustainable Development. Ask the participants to complete Column 3 in pairs.
B. Community Motivation
Ask participants to select one action from Column 3 and devise a motivational activity for their community.
C. Personal Lifestyle Implications
This activity begins with an examination of the elements of each participant's educational context. The participants will discuss in a group their background, the educational context and the implications for planning a workshop.
D. Designing a Curriculum Programme
Allow the participants time to prepare a brief outline of the approach they would use to deliver a workshop that examines the link between culture, religion and the environment. The outline should address:
Ask participants to share their plans with others. Depending on the size of the group this could be done in small groups or with selected participants in a large group. Encourage comments from other participants.
There are places in the world, for example, where people have never heard of environmental education, but where many of its prime goals are already widely practised as a result of certain long-held religious and cultural beliefs that place high value on the wise custodianship of the natural world. Allen Schmider (1977)
1. Introduction: The Structure of the Workshop.
2. Ice Breaker: Personal Reflections on Cultural-Environmental Links.
3. Overview of Major World Religions
4. Mini-lecture: The Link between Culture, Religion and the Environment.
5. Case Study: The Annapurna Region of Nepal.
6. Putting it into Practice: Planning an Educational Programme.
Source: Connect, XVI (2), 1991, 1-5.
An ethic may be thought of as an ideal of human behaviour and an environmental ethic as ideal human behaviour with respect to the environment, natural and built.One senses a newly emergent environmental ethic in the growing concern about the environment, in swelling movements to save the Earth, indeed in current and encouraging national and international environmental laws and regulations. Yet, we know that, as in the more familiar context of social interaction, strict obedience to the letter of the law must be complemented and supplemented by individual moral sensibility and conscience, by environmentally-ideal human behaviour, an ultimate goal of environmental education.
The examples are simple and homely. Many countries, a vast number of towns and communities, have enacted laws and established rules to prevent the littering of public roads, lands, and gardens. Such laws and regulations reflect an often newly acquired collective moral sensitivity to the environment.However, we know, even guiltily, that one may legally litter one's own home and one's back yard, if one owns one. An environmental ethic, created or reinforced, would discourage one from doing so, even if one were alone. We may never perfectly achieve harmony with nature, but the existence of an environmental ethic, partly encoded in laws, but largely a matter of sensibility and conscience, can draw individuals in the direction of that ultimate goal of environmental education, namely, environmentally-ideal personal behaviour.
Think globally; act locally has become the universal slogan of the environmentally concerned. It implies a universal environmental ethic towards which, one feels, we are massively moving. What are the principles in common in that movement and its varieties, how can they be educationally strengthened, developed, universalised? The beginning may lie in a comparative study of environmental cultures and ethics across the borders of time and space.
Hinduism
Chronologically one might commence with Hinduism, whose origins reach into the dim historical past and resist facile doctrinal definition. Roughly contemporary with the Greek epics of Homer and Hesiod are the Vedas, composed by Aryans who brought them to India and in which we find a pagan polytheism of the Greeks, who were from the same Indo-European linguistic, cultural, and racial stock. The gods, identified with and manifested by features, forces and processes of nature (Sky, Earth, Thunder, and so on) were propitiated with animal sacrifice, entreated with prayer, and commanded by magical incantation.
Hindu thought gravitated toward belief in an inner, unseen, abstract reality, underlying the manifest world disclosed to the senses. For people (and other living things) it was Atman, the spirit of inner self, in contrast to the body. More expansively and abstractly still, all things in the divided, articulate world disclosed to the senses are manifestations of inner Being, Brahman. Atman and Brahman, in turn, came to be conceptually united so that the inner Being or essence of all things is soul, spiritual being, or consciousness. Objective knowledge and subjective knowledge thus coalesce. To know ones' self, not one's personality or empirical self, but one's transcendental self, is to know the nature of all things.
The empirical world is both unimportant, because ultimately unreal, and contemptible, since it seduces the soul into illusion and bad karma. It distracts the soul from finding itself, attaining liberation, and merging with the one essential, transcendental self, i.e. from achieving nirvana. On the other hand, since the essential or transcendental self of each person is the same, 'same' in the strongest sense, literally identical with the Self of Being per se in everything else, one is led to empathy and compassion. Other forms of being, particularly other forms of life, are victims of the same deceit, frustration, and suffering as oneself and should be pitied. Indeed, there is no real distinction between self and other. One cannot, thus, profit at the expense of others, either other human beings or other natural, environmental beings since, ultimately, there are no 'others' - all are ephemeral manifestations of one indivisible Being.
Lastly, there is a correspondence between the ecological world view and the world view of Hindu thought. Ecology also represents the world as a unity, that is, holistically - the unity of oneself and one's surroundings. Thus, there are two major elements in Hinduism which contribute to the development of a universal environmental ethic: empathy and compassion regarding all living things and a sense of harmony with the environment, therefore its protection and enhancement.
Jainism
In Jainism, more than in Hinduism or Buddhism, one finds an explicit environmental ethic. Jainism, in contrast to the core philosophy of Hinduism as discussed, is dualistic rather than monistic. There is a fundamental dichotomy between soul and body, mind and matter. Each soul, moreover, maintains its own integrity. It is not a manifestation of the universal soul. Every living thing is endowed with such a soul. And, although in each living thing the soul is, as it were, crusted over with flesh and its consciousness dimmed and confused with sensory perceptions of various modes and degrees of clarity, all souls are equally pure and perfect in and of themselves.
At the moral core of Jainism is the doctrine of ahimsa, the determination not to kill or harm any living thing which contains a soul as perfect or complete as one's own and which is as liable to suffering as oneself. The Jains are famous for the extreme lengths to which they go to honour this doctrine. Of course, the eating of meat especially is prohibited since animal empirical consciousness is more acute than plant consciousness. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, himself, only ate leftover food, prepared for someone else, so as not to have personally caused injury even to the plants, or their seed, from which it was made. Moreover, food must be inspected before eating to assure that insect eggs or mites are not consumed inadvertently. Similarly, water must be strained, not to protect one's health, but to avoid consuming any organisms in the water. One ought even to sweep one's path before walking so that one's footfall does not injure or kill any living thing. Ahimsa is a doctrine of extreme concern for other living things. It is in this respect a kind of environmental ethic contributing to the universal environmental ethic aimed at.
Buddhism
Buddhism stems from the teachings of Siddharta Gautama, who lived in India during the sixth century BC. Buddhism, however, today flourishes less in India than in countries to the south and east of India, namely, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Kampuchea, Laos, Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and Mongolia.
Core moral values in Buddhism are to be found in the five precepts: abstention from killing living creatures, abstention from stealing, abstention from lying and abstention from taking intoxicants. While these precepts embody the basic requirements for the living of a good life and the establishment of a good community, some of these are relevant to a conservationist ethic. The respect for life and property, the rejection of hedonistic life styles and the notion of truthfulness emphasising consistency in thought and action are all ethical premises relevant for the development of environmental ethics.
The Buddhist precept concerning abstention from killing living creatures focuses attention on the ethical premise concerning the value of life. The Buddha asked people to abstain from destroying the life of human beings and animals and also condemned the infliction of suffering and pain on living creatures. He was also critical of the pleasures of hunting. The kings were expected to provide protected territory not only for human beings but also for the beasts of the forests and birds of the air. The principle of ahimsa, non-harming and non-injury to life, was a concept found in the Jains and other Indian sects and the Buddha (though he did not go to the extremes of the Jains) was alive to the concept and preached against taking life. All this shows great feeling of sympathy for living creatures.
What can be inferred from the philosophy of Buddhism is a pro-conservationist (sound management) conception towards nature, which is critical of an aggressive attempt to exploit the environment for short-term benefits and generate gigantism, and a life style based on limitless consumerism. In short, a non-violent and gentle attitude towards nature, animals and fellow people provides the essence of the environmental stance - the environmental ethic - of Buddhism.
Zen Buddhism
Zen Buddhism provides an especially fitting philosophical and experiential basis for an environmental ethic: the phenomenal world is affirmed as the delightful expression, the artifice and play of the benign and loving common essence in all things. There is, moreover, a very strong tradition, evident in Zen poetry and art, of a nature aesthetic. The contemplation of the fleeting yet eternal moment of satori are all elements of an aesthetic attitude towards the environment. And the aesthetic value of nature has long served as a powerful human motive for its conservation.
Taoism
Zen Buddhism has certain affinities with Taoism, since Zen is a version of Buddhism which evolved in China, where Taoism is native. The tao literally means a way, or a road. It is the way of the universe, the orderly and harmonious unfolding of phenomena, the developmental tendency of things. If allowed to take its course, it results in natural fulfilment and perfection.
Taoism stresses the perfection of harmony between humanity and nature. It also provides the basis for a philosophy of technological development. The traditional Western forms of 'high' and 'hard' technology should be abandoned from the Taoist point of view, for forms of 'low' and 'soft' technology or what is sometimes called 'appropriate' technology. An appropriate technology is essentially adaptive and cooperative. It does not attempt to command or control nature; rather, its approach is to bend natural processes to human advantage and adapt human ways of life to the environment.
Like Zen Buddhism, Taoism conceives the environment as an articulate unity, a unity among natural things and these things with humanity. This picture of nature as an autonomous and dynamic whole, in which humanity has its fitting and appropriate place, fits well the world view of ecology which has been described.
Confucianism
Confucius also accepted the Tao, but focussed on the order of human society. Just as nature is an orderly and harmonious realm so ought human society to be equally orderly and harmonious. Confucianism supports an anthropocentric environmental ethic. Environmental destruction, degradation and defilement would in most cases impose deleterious effects on other people and thus violate the first two Confucian virtues, regard for others and justice. A third virtue being wisdom, it would also be plainly unwise, because imprudent or profligate, and violate a fourth virtue, namely, faithfulness to one's children or one's children's children or to one's more remote posterity. The contribution to a universal environmental ethic is clear.
Judaism and Christianity
During the past fifteen years of heightened environmental consciousness there has been intense controversy about the environmental attitudes of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Most of the controversy has centred on the relationship between God, People and Nature in the book of Genesis in the Bible.
Environmentalist critics of Genesis have claimed that since, according to Genesis, humanity is created in the image of God and given dominion over nature and commanded to subdue the Earth, Genesis clearly awards people a God-given right to exploit the Earth without moral restraint (except insofar as environmental exploitation may adversely affect people). Humanity's unique essence among creatures, constituted in the image of God, confers upon humans unique rights and privileges among creatures. Further, God seems to have intended humans to be God's viceroy upon the Earth. People are to the rest of creation as God is to people. Thus if God is the lord and master of humans, so humans are lords and masters of Nature. This may be called the mastery interpretation of Genesis.
Judeo-Christian apologists have contested both this interpretation of Genesis and the untoward environmental ethical implications drawn from it. The unique essence of humans to have been created in the image of God confers, it is argued, not only special rights and privileges but also special duties and responsibilities. Paramount among these responsibilities is the responsibility to rule the dominion of Earth wisely and benignly. To abuse, degrade, or destroy the Earth is to violate the trust the regent (God) placed upon human viceroys. This interpretation may be called the stewardship interpretation of Genesis.
There are two separate creation myths in Genesis: The first account which begins (rather than ends) with the creation of the Garden of Eden and humans in a single day is centuries older than the second account which begins with the creation of light and the division of waters on the first day and ends with the creation of humans on the sixth. The older, even more ambiguous, belief also is subject to two conflicting interpretations about the proper role of people in relation to Nature. It is in this belief that one finds that the role assigned to humans by God is to dress the Garden of Eden (which might be interpreted to mean Nature as a whole) and keep it. This injunction together with naming the animals and thus establishing a kind of power over them and prerogative respecting them suggests the kind of responsible, benign vice-regency of the stewardship interpretation.
There are, as well, three possible environmental ethics consistent with the Judeo-Christian world-view, depending upon its interpretation: (1) an indirect anthropocentric, utilitarian environmental ethic associated with mastery; (2) a more direct biocentric environmental ethic associated with stewardship; and (3) a direct biocentric environmental ethic associated with citizenship. While both the environmental ethics associated with stewardship and citizenship are direct and biocentric, they differ in their practical implications. The former would permit benign management of Nature and wise use while the latter would imply a laissez faire, live-and-let-live approach, incompatible with the present more positive attitude toward environmental protection and improvement. The environmental ethic associated with stewardship is thus both the most practical and the most acceptable interpretation consistent with the Judeo-Christian tradition. Further, since it is a possible interpretation of the role intended for people by God in both the creation myths of Genesis, it seems the most plausible interpretation of the overall gist of the text as it has come down to us, and its most effective contribution to a universal environmental ethic.
Indeed, current teaching on the environment - as exemplified by Pope John Paul II's Encyclical on the Environment (1990) - stresses humanity's stewardship of nature. People are the guardians, the protectors, of the environment, not its owners. A way of loving one's fellow human beings as oneself, the Encyclical states, is to protect the environment and natural resources on which they depend.
Greek Mythology and Philosophy
The other primary source of Western culture and civilisation is Greek mythology and later, philosophy, which was disseminated throughout the Mediterranean basin by the Macedonian and Roman empires. A fairly rational account of the world, initiated early in the sixth century BC, is the living legacy, due to its revival during the European Renaissance, which was followed directly by the rapid development of Western science, and is thus essentially Greek in both origin and fundamental character.
The dominant strains were Pythagorean, Platonic and Democritean. Some see a nascent environmental ethic in Pythagoras' belief in the transmigration of souls from human beings to animals and from animals to human beings, extending ethics beyond the sphere of human relationships to non-human natural beings. However, the Pythagorean ethic has closer affinities to the contemporary animal liberation/animal rights ethic than to an ecological/environmental ethic. Moreover this concept of the soul as contaminated by its bodily and earthly prison or tomb and thus alienated from the natural environment is profoundly antithetical to an environmental ethic preaching the harmony of humanity and the environment.
This dualistic concept - a divine soul in an alien, mortal body - became a cornerstone of the later philosophy of Plato, and thanks to his enormous influence, became virtually institutionalised in Western culture and civilisation, both religious and secular. Meanwhile Greek philosophers were also occupied with the physical world, the nature of nature, one might say. It reached a culmination with Leucippus and especially Democritus, who developed the atomic theory of matter - atoms as indivisible, solid particles composing all material objects.
The resulting concept of nature as materialistic and mechanical, and of humans, because of the soul, as essentially divine and both separate from and superior to nature, has reinforced the notion of incompatibility rather than harmony with the environment. In this respect the Greek philosophical tradition of Pythagorean-Platonic dualism and Democritean atomism can be said to lie more heavily at the roots of present environmental problems than contribute to an environmental ethic. However, the other aspect, namely, the Greek stimulus to a scientific attitude, while resulting in a technology which has so often had negative environmental impacts, can also develop appropriate, environmentally conceived technology to prevent and correct the problems created by the former.
In this sense, too, Greek philosophical tradition can contribute an essential component of an environmental ethic - scientifically sound environmentalism, that is the rationale of a secular environmental ethics.
Islam
Although the culture and civilisation of the Middle East and North Africa are rooted in the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman traditions, there is a third major element which spread world-wide - Islam. During the European Dark Age, Greek science was preserved and developed by Islamic scholars and Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, regarded himself as a prophet of the same God and in the same prophetic tradition as Jesus, Moses, and Abraham before him. The Islamic cultural tradition, therefore, has been substantially influenced by Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman ideas, although it constitutes a distinctive historical and cultural context for environmental ethics.
The Koran is less ambiguous than Genesis about the relationship of human beings to nature. It makes explicit certain themes which are only suggested implicitly in the more ancient account in Genesis. According to the Koran, Allah created the first man and woman, Adam and his wife, from a clot, or clay, or dust, and breathed into His creation the breath of life. All other things are explicitly created by Allah for the sake of, the use of, and the benefit of people. Adam and his seed are explicitly made to be the viceroys of God on Earth. According to Islam, then, people are at the moral centre of creation and are, indeed, the very purpose of the creation. As in Genesis, so also in the Koran, it is a human right to have dominion over and to subdue the Earth and all its non-human denizens. Indeed, in the Koran, not only are animals and plants subjected to people, the rivers, the sea, even the sun and moon are subservient. Human dominion over the earth and the subordination of the creation to people is spelled out in no uncertain terms.
Humanity's role as viceroy or agent on earth should not, however, be confused with tyranny. Human dominion over the Earth should be benign, not wantonly destructive. The doctrines of Islam are equally explicit and emphatic that humanity's relation to nature should be one of stewardship not mastery.
The creation of Allah is, as it were, a divine work of art. The whole world and all of its parts are understood in Islam as 'signs' of the greatness, the goodness, the subtlety, the richness, and so on of the creator. To deface, defile or destroy nature would be an impious or even blasphemous act. Although humans are accorded the usufruct of the Earth, this does not include the right to abuse it with impunity.
The sanctions on environmental abuse (direct abuse of the natural environment, setting aside, for the moment, the indirect effects of people) are of two kinds. The Earth is a temporary abode and Allah, according to Islam, rewards and punishes deeds done on Earth in the next life. Persons, therefore, who blaspheme against God by defacing, defiling, or destroying His creation will be punished accordingly in the next life.
However, even though the Earth is only a temporary abode and meant to be at the service of humanity, people are very much at one with the Earth, at least while living on it. People are made of the stuff of the Earth, dust or clay, and, albeit exalted above all others, are creatures among creatures. There should thus be a kind of fellowship between people and other creatures, according to Islam. Islam, moreover, values scientific knowledge of the environment, whose study is encouraged and supported by the doctrine of signs. As we learn more about the natural world, through the geological and biological sciences, it has become abundantly clear that the natural environment is systemically integrated, a seamless whole. Hence, the destruction of one part of the environment will reverberate throughout the whole. Now as humans, according to Islam, are, after all, made of the stuff of the Earth, a creature among creatures, environmental destruction is necessarily self-destruction. This too is a kind of sanction against environmental abuse - a this-worldly, not other-worldly, type of sanction.
The Islamic tradition clearly supports, perhaps even more unequivocally than the Judeo-Christian tradition, a direct biocentric environmental ethic of the stewardship type. The environment, though given over to humans and subservient to humans, is the direct object of respect and care, because it is the handiwork of God and a sign of His power and majesty. The Islamic tradition also clearly supports an indirect anthropocentric environmental ethic.
According to Islam, all human beings are descended from Adam and Eve. Hence all human beings, regardless of race, colour, or national origin, are equally members of one extended family: no people are privileged or chosen; no one is inherently better than anyone else. In Islam, moreover, there is a strong emphasis on justice. Justice, indeed, is one of the cornerstones of the Moslem religion. Since environmental abuse and/or destruction are, more often than not, harmful to people, they are a form of injustice. To ruin or destroy the environment is tantamount to either bodily injury or the destruction or theft of property or both. Further, ignorance of the complex or delayed effects of action in the environmental arena is no excuse, since Islam stresses the moral importance of knowledge, no less than of justice. These are all truly elements of an environmental ethic with universal implications.
Conclusion
Reviewing the foregoing traditional cultures and religions to find what they have in common with regard to humanity's relationship and responsibility vis-a-vis the environment - in other words, the common ingredients of a universal environmental ethic - is the historic role of environmental education. An ethical attitude toward the environment, personally and professionally, individually and collectively, and universally valid, is both the assumption and the goal of this new great field of education, making environmental education the principal, indispensable instrument for its development.
Indeed the aim of this article has been to provide the cultural and religious background and elements for just such an environmental education programme activity. The nascent environmental ethics demonstrated in the various traditional beliefs may be developed in two complementary ways. Firstly, both inside and outside the formal school system, by contemporary cultural custodians - priests, rabbis, mullahs, scholars, and religious and secular educators generally, who are environmentally aware, who speak with authority for their respective intellectual traditions, and who realise that living bodies of belief change and evolve in response to the vital needs of the times.
Secondly, they may be developed through alliance with contemporary scientific concepts and research findings of the biological and environmental sciences. Some modern scientists even argue that they are often simply rediscovering concepts intuitively grasped in traditionally cultural world views. For example, Taoism appears to have understood the cyclical nature of biological processes, the American Indians' ideological interdependency, Hinduism and Jainism the continuity of life, Animist religions, as well, strongly emphasise the link between humanity and the environment. And so on. Traditional environmental attitudes, resting upon such intuitively grasped ideas, can frequently be reinforced, enriched and developed by means of the more detailed theories and findings of the contemporary life sciences.
In turn - and as a conclusion - environmental education and its ethical component not only find their roots in these world cultures and religions, but their sound development requires that they be solidly anchored in them - with due regard for the requirements of changing, evolving and differing civilisations.
Note: These descriptions of religions are simplified overviews. They do not represent authoritative positions and are meant only to initiate discussion.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: Bell, R. and Hall, R. (1991) Impacts: Contemporary Issues and Global Problems, Jacaranda Press, Brisbane; and Seymour-Smith, C. (1986) Macmillan Dictionary of Anthropology, Macmillan Press Ltd.
Culture can be defined in a variety of ways:
Culture as Meaning
Some definitions of culture emphasise its basis in meaning. All human activity involves meaning, and this is what distinguishes it from the activity of non-human animal species. Culture, then, arises exclusively from human activity and excludes other species. Meaning presupposes language; in other words language, which is a unique characteristic of humans, at the same time characterises culture.
Culture as Human Activity
In the most general sense of the term, culture refers to all human activity. No activity is excluded, not even the most mundane activities involved in satisfying one's basic needs. Work, leisure, eating and drinking, travelling and even thinking are cultural activities. This definition is so broad that special terms have been devised to describe particular aspects or categories of culture, for example, 'popular' culture, 'counter' culture, 'dominant' culture.
Culture as Norms and Values
A more restricted definition of culture defines it as the values held by a group and the norms governing behaviour. Values are ideal standards which are held up as 'good'
for members of a society to achieve, while norms are rules governing behaviour of a society. This approach to defining culture tends to have been adopted by social scientists engaged in comparing different cultures. To most analysts of culture, this approach is far too narrow to give a full account of culture.
Culture as Works of Art
A common view of culture is that it refers to works of art embodied in music, opera, ballet, painting, sculpture, literature, drama and other art forms. Culture incudes all of these, but is a much broader concept. Such works of art can only be understood in the context of the wider culture in which the artists live and work.
Culture as Leisure Activity
Sometimes culture is defined as what we do outside of our work. This is obviously quite a Western concept since 'leisure' and 'work' are blurred in many people's lives. Even western sportspeople may see their sporting activities as work.
The broadest definitions are therefore those which highlight human activity and meaning. Cultural activity is the means by which people makes sense of their world. It gives them as sense of identity.
Source: Bell, R. and Hall, R. (1991) Impacts: Contemporary Issues and Global Problems, Jacaranda Press, Brisbane; and New Internationalist, (1986, January).
Religion is also a difficult concept to define. One simple definition is that it is a 'set of personal and social beliefs which have two main characteristics: a deep concern with the ultimate meaning of human existence; and an identification with a supernatural power beyond the limits of the human and natural worlds.'
Religions generally have the following characteristics in common:
Generally religions can be categorised into three groups:
Monotheism: the belief in one supreme being or god, e.g. Christianity, Islam, Judaism
Polytheism: the belief in more than one god, e.g. Hinduism, Shinto
Animism: traditional tribal religions which believe that divine power is held in the physical aspects of the world such as topographical features, flora and fauna, and the elements. Some African, Native American, and Polynesian groups follow animist religions.
Source: Gurung, Chandra P. (1990).
The Kingdom of Nepal, with an area of 147,181km, is a land of ecological contrasts. Within a short span of 200km, the altitude varies from less than 100m at mean sea level to 8848m - Sagarmatha (Mt Everest), the highest peak in the world. Thus the tropical monsoon forest in the Tarai to the temperate evergreen forests in the midland region and the arid steppe of the Tibetan plateau have, no doubt, been excellent habitats for a variety of plants and animals. Furthermore, for centuries, the landscape has been carved by a large number of populations of Indo-Aryan and Mongoloid stocks with more than 45 ethnic and tribal groups. This peaceful land of unexcelled beauty and cultural heritage, generally known as 'Shangri-La', has been classified by the United Nations as one of the second least developed countries in the world. Yet with a population of 19 million and a staggering growth rate of 2.6% per annum, the environmental problems within this beautiful land have reached an alarming level.
More than 90% of the population are subsistence farmers and more than 40% live below the poverty line. These people depend on depleted forests for fuel, fodder and timber. Currently more than 87% of the entire country's energy requirement comes from fuelwood. The forest is being destroyed at a rate of nearly three percent annually. The dependence on firewood as a source of energy in the rural area is even more than 93%. This loss of forests, combined with overgrazing by livestock and cultivation of crops on marginal land, has triggered the processes of soil erosion and landslides during the monsoon season. This has caused devastating floods in the lowlands of the Tarai and India.
The ecological and cultural issues in the Annapurna Himal Region are not too different from those in other Himalayan regions - except that they are greater in magnitude. Within a short distance of about 120km, the altitude varies from less than 100m at mean sea level to 8091m - Annapurna 1, the eighth highest peak in the world. Due to its geographic features and terrain, it provides many micro-climates supporting sub-tropical lowlands and forests in the plains and the valleys and lush rhododendron and temperate evergreen forests in the south of the Annapurna, and finally alpine steppe and arid environments in the North of the Annapurna Himal. Thus it contains over 100 species of orchids and many of Nepal's 700 medicinal plants. This region serves as excellent habitats for rare and endangered species such as the snow-leopard, the musk deer, and the blue sheep. It is also the habitat of five of the six species of pheasants found in Nepal.
The Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) encircles the major peaks of the Annapurna Himal with an area of 2600km. Catchments of three major river systems are roughly bordered by the major trekking route. Politically, it includes two zones, five districts and about 80 village panchayats according to the previous political system. It is also home to over 40,000 inhabitants of different ethnic and tribal backgrounds with various religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Bon Po, Shamanism and Animism. Gurung, Magar, Thakali and Manangi are the dominant groups. Basically these people are subsistence farmers who depend on the forests for fuel, fodder and timber.
The Annapurna Conservation Area
The Annapurna region is also by far the most popular trekking destination in Nepal attracting over 36,000 overseas trekkers (over 60% of the total trekkers of Nepal) in 1989. Furthermore, an average of one porter per trekker is required in the mountains.
Due to the high population growth rate culminated by the influx of a large number of trekkers, over-grazing, intensive agriculture and poverty, the natural environment, resources and cultural integrity of this region is increasingly deteriorating. Because of these factors the social, cultural and natural environment of Nepal are in jeopardy. Rational forest management of a sustainable yield basis is non-existent.
In view of this environmental deterioration in one of the most spectacular regions of Nepal, His Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal issued directives in the spring of 1985 to investigate the possibility of giving protected status to the Annapurna region. The directive clearly required the preparation of a management plan that would help to strike a balance between the basic needs of the local inhabitants, tourism development and nature conservation. The King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), a non-governmental, autonomous and non-profit organisation, is chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah who took the initiative of the royal directives. A management plan was prepared by a team of experts and approved by the cabinet of His Majesty's Government.
The Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) is a pilot project implemented in 1986 that addresses the problem of maintaining a crucial link between economic development and environmental conservation. It recognises that protection of critical habitats and maintenance of species diversity cannot be achieved without improving the economic conditions of poor villagers who inhabit the mountains. Unlike national parks and wildlife reserves, it regards humans, and not any particular species of wild animals or plants, as the focal point of every conservation effort.
Discussion Questions:
1. What are the main environmental issues facing Nepal and the Annapurna region?
2. What is the difference between the philosophy of the establishment of the Annapurna Conservation Area and other Nepalese National Parks?
3. Why was the Annapurna region selected for the conservation programme known as ACAP?
'What is conservation - if not for the people? It must be viewed only as a means, the end being the improvement of the quality of our very existence.'
His Royal Highness Prince Gyanendra Bir Bikran Shah, Chair of the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation
The Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) operates under the guidance of the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal's leading non-profit, non-governmental environmental organisation. It is self-sustained by entry user fees but receives additional support from the World Wide Fund for Nature (USA) and the German Alpine Club.
The project was set up in 1986 and has undertaken an innovative and successful approach to natural resource and tourism management in the Annapurna region. ACAP practices a multiple land use method of resource management, combining environmental protection with sustainable community development and tourism management. Income from tourism is used to integrate traditional subsistence activities into the framework of resource management and to develop small-scale conservation and alternative energy projects in order to raise the living standards of the local people.
ACAP has a grassroots philosophy and approach which involves local communities in all aspects of the conservation and development process. ACAP's role is that of lami, or 'matchmaker', between local communities and sources of appropriate skills, knowledge and technical and financial assistance which enables these communities to improve the quality of their lives.
Recognising that the breakdown of social structures contributes to environmental degradation, ACAP also strives to strengthen the cultural integrity of the area. At the heart of ACAP's programme is conservation education. ACAP believes that without increasing the level of awareness of both villagers and visitors, lasting environmental protection and cultural diversity cannot be achieved.
Objectives and Principles of ACAP
The overall goals and objectives of the project are to conserve both natural and cultural resources for the benefit of the local people of present and future generations by implementing rational management policies and programmes.
ACAP's long term objective is to benefit the 40,000 inhabitants living in the 2,600 km Annapurna Conservation Area by providing a viable means to help them maintain control over their environment. ACAP bases its activities on three principles:
Discussion Questions
1. What is ACAP's relationship with tourism?
2. Why is the concept of lamiso important to ACAP?
3. Why does Prince Gyandra Bir Bakran Shah say that conservation is for the people?
An interview with Min Bahadur Gurung, a respected local elder from Ghandruk and Chairman of the region's Conservation and Development Committee.
Interviewer (I): You have been involved for many years in the indigenous management of your region's forests and other natural resources. Is there any influence of culture and religion?
Traditional Leader (TL): Of course. In our village we practice Hinduism, Buddhism and Animism. Our ancestors or forefathers have managed their forest resources by themselves without the help of outsiders. They set aside a forest area for fuelwood and harvested it on a rotational basis.
I: Would you think there is a negative impact on the forest when you harvest for fuelwood?
TL: When you harvest the selected old trees of a particular area, and for a certain period of time, there will be no adverse impact on the environment. Our traditional rotational system makes the forest conservation sustainable in the long run. We also feel very familiar with our forest. We know what species of trees to harvest, when, where and for how long.
I: It seems that you and your people have a close relationship with the natural environment. How do you link culture, religion and environment?
TL: Our culture and religion provide education for nature conservation. In every village we have a forest sanctuary where we worship our forest god. The forest is prohibited from any use and is thus a home for many birds, deers, insects and many other living forms. We believe that if we cut such sacred forest we will be sick. The forest's resources, especially traditional medicinal plants, are also important. We use them to treat many common diseases. Our sacred forests are set aside above our village. We feel safe from landslides and our water source is kept in good condition. It also keeps our village green thus providing a high aesthetic value. Our forests shape our lifestyles and behaviours.
I: The way you protect your forest has high ecological value. Would you believe this system to be sustainable?
TL: The way we protect and conserve our forest is for our benefit. We harvest the fruits of our conservation efforts. Since our forefathers, we have followed this culture and religion. Thus sustainable management and use of the forest resources is our way of life. We are not relying on outsiders to manage our forest and wildlife and our conservation practices don't rely on money for its success. Everyone in the village looks after their forest. Our communal management system is working. Our children are also growing into this system, so I hope they learn the way we are managing our resources. Additionally, the arrival of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) was a blessing for us.
I: How is ACAP working in the village?
TL: We support ACAP's integrated conservation and development programme through people's participation. It has helped us to strengthen our traditional institution with the formation of the Conservation and Development Committees. ACAP emphasizes traditional resource management practices. This has allowed us to continue our traditional systems of fuelwood collection and rotational grazing in our alpine pastures. ACAP didn't drive the local people from the villages. Other protected areas such as national parks in the Himalayas have excluded local people totally which has created conflict between parks and people. ACAP has also enabled us to implement small-scale community development projects such as drinking water supply, medical facilities, irrigation, bridges and trail construction and repair. Additionally, we also now have a forest nursery... ACAP's Conservation Education and Extension Programme helped to mobilize our people in conservation and sustainable development activities. We are confident we can sustain our lifestyle.
I: What do you think about sustainable living and how do you interrelate your development works?
TL: We believe development should not be an agent for destruction to our environment. It rather should aim to meet the basic needs of the people, for example provide food, cotton and shelter. Most importantly, we are protecting our environment. If you have fresh air to breathe, fresh food to eat and a safe shelter in which to sleep, then you live in a sustaining society. Our lifestyles will be more sustainable if we learn to live in harmony with our environment. If we neglect the environment that is sustaining our lifestyle, then we will be destroying our future.
An interview with Om Bahadur Gurung, Buddhist Monk and Lama (Priest) from the Village of Ghandruk, Nepal.
Interviewer (I): As a Buddhist monk, how does religion play a part in your daily life?
Monk (M): Culture and religion are an important part of all of our lives. We have been practising them since our childhoods. Our parents have taught us the good things and to follow the Ramro Bato (Good Path). I have inherited my culture and religion from my father. I have learnt compassion, happiness and the good things in my life. Thus we respect our culture and religion.
I: It sounds like you have learnt a great deal of good things about the Ramro Bato in your life. Could you please elaborate a bit more?
M: Well, in our society, people do all sorts of things, both good and bad. I learnt that if you do a bad thing, you will have to face a disastrous consequences, 'pap', after your death. Cleanliness is important in our religion. Our three hundred years old monastery is in the forest, away from the dirty village. We respect the forest because it is the home of our god. We protect the forest and tell other villagers to do so. The forest provides valuable medicinal herbs which are important in our lives. Our mantra (prayers) and traditional medicinal herbs save the lives of our people when they are sick. We tell people not to cut down trees and not to kill animals.
I: Oh! Why do you tell this message to others?
M: The answer is simple. Do you kill your children? I am afraid not. You love your children, don't you? All creatures have life and they are born freely in the planet earth. I believe they have the right to survive.
As a human being, we should take care of all the living creatures and live in harmony with their environment without oppressing them.
I: It sounds good. How does your culture and religion reflect the notion of sustainable living?
M: All living creatures live and die. As for human beings, we believe they do not die, but change their spirit and form another life. We Lamas perform Arghau, for example, within 49 days of a person's death because that spirit will be in a hard life. We pray to our god to send them into heaven and to change their life into another living creature. That is our interpretation of sustainable living. Life is a cycle. If we don't do our karma, the cycle will be broken.
I: Finally, do you have any message to educators?
M: I have learnt many lessons from my Guru (mentor) over the years. To prove my worthiness as a Lama, I spent three years, three months and three days in a hostile place to learn the ways of the Buddhist culture and religion. When I went to the city to observe other monasteries and meet other monks, I have learnt that I still have to learn more. I hope educators have more access to learn about our culture and religion. From my experience, I would say that the Buddhist philosophy of culture and religion provides the wisdom to protect our environment and sustain our lifestyles.
Discussion Questions
1. Using knowledge from the rest of this module, discuss the sort of beliefs about the environment that the Ghandruk villagers might hold.
2. What are some of the principles of sustainable living outlined in these two accounts?
|
|
|
|
|
Qualitative Development |
ACAP used indicators such as health facilities, availability of drinking water, education and alternative energy as baseline data to evaluate the project. The project also focuses on community development programmes and uses 'basic needs for the people' as its mission statement. |
|
|
Adopting a Global Perspective |
ACAP's staff recognise that environmental and social problems are inseparable. ACAP's philosophy is one of 'conservation for the people'. Its ecotourism project utilises expertise from around the world. |
|
|
Ensuring Efficiency |
ACAP encourages the use of alternative energy such as back boilers, kerosene and gas fuels, micro-hydro electric and solar power schemes as well as improved efficient stoves for wood burning. |
|
|
Ensuring a Resilient Economy |
ACAP's philosophy of people participation in change means that the changes will be self-sustaining. Fees from trekkers ensure that the project will not require a constant injection of funds from other sources. |
|
|
Ensuring an Externally Balanced Economy |
ACAP focuses on education programmes for trekkers to encourage the use of local goods and services and so reduce dependence on imports. |
|
|
Community Participation |
ACAP's grassroots philosophy of people participation ensures empowerment of the local people to manage their own affairs. Success is noticeable with ACAP's introduction of a drinking taps scheme which was more successful than a previous government imposed one. Local people are encouraged to bring suggestions for improvement to locally developed committees. |
|
|
Ensuring Social Equity |
ACAP's Women's' Development Programme ensures that women have gained more involvement in decision-making on environmental issues. In addition, the Community Development Committees are representative of all castes. |
|
|
Ensuring Intergenerational Equity |
ACAP's forest conservation and regeneration programmes with the establishment of tree nurseries mean sustainable forest resources. Education and training programmes provide skills for conservation for future generations. |
|
|
Preserving Constant Natural Capital and Sustainable Income |
Forest nurseries allow local people to live off the interest of the forest. Micro-hydro electric schemes rather than large scale HEP provide a sustainable source of alternative energy. The use of trekkers' fees sustains ACAP's projects. |
|
|
Supporting an Anticipatory and Precautionary Policy Approach |
The traditional committee structure and people participation ensures long term and equitable planning. ACAP's methodology of dialogue with the people ensures a slow approach to projects but with more sustainable outcomes. |
|
|
Limiting Natural Resource Use |
ACAP has many programmes to focus on alternative energy and soil and water conservation. Educational programmes for trekkers reduce the use of open wood fires. ACAP has also promoted a change in traditional behaviours to reduce the use of fuelwood, e.g. smaller households and the use of warm clothes. |
|
|
Ensuring Cultural Equity |
ACAP's educational programmes encourage trekkers to respect cultural practices. ACAP also manages a number of projects to restore and promote cultural heritage, e.g. Upper Mustang cultural project and the maintenance and repair of Buddhist temples. ACAP's philosophy of 'conservation for development' also encourages the revival of traditional resource management practices. |
|
Culture and Environment
Local and indigenous cultures throughout history have developed traditions and practices which help them to live in harmony with the environment. They have sustainably managed natural resources for centuries and maintained the delicate balance of nature through the practice of their cultural and religious values. Cultural and religious values are essential elements in environmental education development strategies. It is important to embrace cultural and religious values since their practice has significant implications in nature conservation. Local people of Nepal see the forest as an important economic resource and highly revere certain forests as the place where the Gods and spirits live. For example, in many villages of Nepal, local people protect certain forests in the name of Gods. They believe that the Gods live in the forests and therefore do not cut down these trees for firewood and timber needs. Instead they have high regard for such forests for their cultural and spiritual identities. Therefore management of forest resources is influenced by cultural and religious parameters.
Perceptions of environments differ with culture. The physical environment is perceived through a cultural 'filter' made up of attitudes, past experiences and styles of observation. It is important at local levels to critically examine and adopt into environmental education local traditions and cultural values. In this way, environmental education can be made more meaningful and appropriate to local indigenous people.
Indigenous Resource Management
There are two major types of people in the world: 'Ecosystem People' and 'Biosphere People':
'Ecosystem People' (traditional people) are the members of indigenous cultures who live within a single ecosystem, or at most two or three adjacent and closely related ecosystems. Hunting-and-gathering societies that exploit only their local area, primitive fishing societies that harvest nearby reefs, and subsistence agricultural societies that till local fields would all be considered examples of traditional societies practising traditional systems of resource management. In contrast, are Dasmann's 'Biosphere People' tied in with global technological civilisation, drawing support, not from the resources of any one ecosystem, but from the entire biosphere. One look at a representative meal of the average American makes it obvious we are Biosphere People; the beef steak from Argentina, the wheat bread from Canada, and the coffee from Brazil are all elements of a way of life based on global resource exploitation (Dasmann, 1974, cited in Klee, 1980).
This suggests that the Ecosystem People maintain their existence within their own ecosystem, while the Biosphere People invade the global ecosystems thus maintaining themselves from other people's ecosystems. Local or indigenous people (Ecosystem People) have managed their natural resources for hundreds of thousands of years in many parts of the world without collapsing their life support systems. Indigenous cultures have insights regarding living with the earth that the technocratic world has lost. Indigenous people possess an exact knowledge of their local environment.
Many small-scale cultures have evolved ways of coping masterfully with their environments - jungles, mountains and hot or cold deserts. There are several benefits of traditional conservation practices. For example, 'slash and burn cultivation' has been blamed for a number of environmental problems but this is not so when practised on a small scale.
Traditional systems of nature conservation and resource management in developing countries are tied with strongly held cultural and religious values. Resource management by strictly regulated use of sacred plants and animals, sacred groves, lakes and river pools, is an important ways of maintaining life support systems. Indigenous wisdom often has high conservation and ecological value.
India, Bhutan and Nepal have a cultural inheritance of worshipping trees, tigers and elephants. There are also familiar sayings, such as that a tree is as valuable as ten good sons, since a tree provides ten important needs of people: food, fodder, fertilisers, fibre, fuel, air, water, soil, shade and beauty. However, due to the indirect influence of foreign 'developed' visitors, traditional cultures are disappearing at an increasing rate and this decline means the loss of much useful environmental information.
Conversation skills are lost as old people die and their knowledge, usually unrecorded, is not transmitted to younger generations. Cultural conservation could be a strategy for environmental education which safeguards people's identity with sound environmental practice.
The significance of cultural values cannot be overemphasised because cultures are:
the 'librarians' of vast stores of knowledge, accumulated over centuries, about the potential and actual usefulness to human welfare of resources unique to their own environment: natural sources of food, medicine, textiles, dyes, pesticides and much besides that has not yet a category in conventional wisdom (IUCN, 1983, pp 97-98).
Indigenous Knowledge: A Mechanism for Breaking Down the Barriers to Environmental Education
The emphasis for indigenous people should be on participation in determining appropriate patterns of development. The plight of poor people in developing countries (as with poor people everywhere) has been compounded by two major factors:
Local people are usually very much aware of the costs and impacts of environmental degradation but unfortunately their knowledge is often overlooked. One of the barriers for teachers is a lack of environmental information in both formal and informal education. As discussed in an earlier section, cultural and religious values contain valuable indigenous knowledge and conservation skills. Such knowledge and skills can be a mechanism for breaking down some of the barriers to environmental education. Use of indigenous ideas and local knowledge can be very effective for environmental education.
Conclusion
Cultural and religious values have significant implications in the implementation of successful environmental education programmes. Use of indigenous knowledge for environmental education is vital in order to revive the cultural diversity and promote ecological integrity. This will strengthen the indigenous traditional values and can be a mechanism for breaking down some of the barriers to successful implementation of environmental education.
References
Howard, J. (1983) New Strategies for Environmental Education in Developing Countries, Journal of Environmental Education 4(2), 41-44.
IUCN (1983) Culture and Conservation, IUCN Bulletin, 14(7), 96-100.
Klee, G. (ed.) (1980),World Systems of Traditional Resource Management, Edward Arnold, London.
TSW Home
Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3 | Module 4 | Module 5
Module 6 | Module 7 | Module 8 | Module 9 | Module 10
Module 11 | Module 12 | Module 13 | Module 14 | Module 15
Module 16 | Module 17 | Module 18 | Module 19 | Module 20
Module 21 | Module 22 | Module 23 | Module 24 | Module 25 | Module 26
