Management of Environment
Management of environment is of top priority for all nations. The main objectives of environment management include:
• Maintenance of environmental quality
• Balancing the ecosystem
• Regulating and restricting the exploitation of natural resources
• Preventing degradation of the environment
• Renewing natural resources as far as possible
• Preventing or at least regulating environment pollution
• Preventing or at least reducing various episodes or disasters
• Formulation of laws and regulations to achieve the above objectives
It is essential that the management of environment should be on long-term basis.
An Environmental Education Conference (EEC) was held at Belgrade in 1975 and later by UNEP (United Nations Education Programme) at Tbilisi, USSR in 1977. Their main objective was creating awareness about degradation of the environment.People have begun to recognise that the most important concern which is faced by the society is the problem of environmental pollution. There is absolutely no doubt that education plays a crucial role in solving such problems to achieve the so-called sustainable development. The Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, declared that education is most critical in promoting sustainable development and improving the capability of the people for addressing environmental and developmental issues. Environmental education involves following three stages:
(i) Awareness-It helps the people to acquire sensitivity to the environment and its problems. It helps people to acquire a basic understanding of how environment functions and how people interact with the environment. It is most important to understand how the environmental issues can be addressed or the environmental problems could be solved.
(ii) Attitude-It helps people to develop values and feeling of concern for the environment and commitment to participate in environmental protection and improvement.
(iii) Action-It helps the people to acquire skills for identifying and investigating the environmental problems and participating in their resolution.
The goal of the environmental education is to develop awareness, competence, attitude and values in the people, so that they can be effectively involved in the sustainable development at local, national and international levels. This is the only way to achieve a more equitable and sustainable future.
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