Community learning has an important role to play in enabling individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment.
Whether we call it environmental education or education for sustainable development, this collaborative learning process enables individuals and communities to enhance their own problem-solving and decision-making skills which can be turned into action on issues of concern.
Without the creation of opportunities for communities to come together to understand the implications of local environmental issues, communities risk being marginalised and excluded from local, national and international initiatives that impact on their communities. Activities such as deforestation, mining, and over-fishing are all impacting on the communities with whom we work and Education for Development is supporting partners who are working with communities to enable them to engage with the development process.
Permaculture
We are excited to work with Sector 39 on promoting permaculture within communities in the UK and in a number of African countries through their Sector 39 Academy of Permaculture. As the impact of climate change is being felt by communities globally, we are seeing greater recognition of the role that permaculture can play in directly and urgently meeting human needs whilst enhancing biodiversity, reducing our impact on the planet, and creating a fairer world for us all. Permaculture approaches are relevant to all communities:
‘The potential for permaculture….is vast. In both rural and urban situations it is a design approach that can create genuinely new opportunities for food and livelihood, drawing mainly on available local resources and knowledge.’ (Sector 39)
Permaculture promotes genuine engagement with our communities and with our environment and we have seen its value – in Welsh schools and in camps for displaced people in Northern Uganda. It is a powerful tool for solving problems, large and small, local and international.
Sector 39’s rich school resource is here PDF-vw.pdf (sector39.co.uk) and details practical ways to engage with children and young people on issues relating to the environment and our relationship with nature and our communities.
With Sector 39 we are working to meet the overwhelming demand for building and developing permaculture practices through the Academy of Permaculture and its practical hands-on model of Demonstrating, Educating and Replicating.