What is Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)?

ESD is a dynamic and expansive undertaking that envisions a world where every person has the chance to benefit from educational opportunities and to learn the lifestyles, behaviours and values necessary to create a sustainable future.

UNESCO

ESD is for everyone, it equally addresses all three pillars of sustainable development - society, environment and economy - with culture as an essential additional and underlying dimension. By integrating these elements, ESD aims to enables everyone to enjoy equal opportunity to benefit from life wide and life long education to acquire the positive values, behaviour and lifestyles for sustainable future and positive social transformation. Essential skills of ESD include envisioning, critical thinking and reflection, systemic thinking, building partnerships and participation in decision-making.

In recognition of the importance of ESD, the United Nations General Assembly in its 57th Session in 2002 proclaimed the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) from 2005 to 2014. UNESCO is the lead agency.

WWF Education for Sustainable Development programmes
WWF is committed to ESD, we believes that weaving ESD as a thread from early learning stage to higher education institution will maximise its impact to achieve the sustainable future. By offering various learning opportunities though our education programmes and building partnerships with stakeholders, we seek to encourage stronger commitment from individual to take responsibility to protect our precious natural resources.

About the Project
To stimulate the synergy by working together with local schools in Hong Kong, WWF has developing our ESD programme, namely “Seed of Nature – School-based Education for Sustainable Development Programme” with 6 primary schools. The programme aims to promote the framework proposed in the DESD, in specifically, to link up the proposed concepts of ESD and local primary school curriculum so that ESD could be articulated in local level. Building up primary school capacity including teachers, students and parents, are the key strategic mechanism to achieve the goal.

Project Phases
The whole programme comprises four phases:

Phase I (August - September 2006): Facilities establishment, teacher programme and education pack development.

Phase II (October 2006 - January 2007): Implementation of Profession Teacher Development Programmes.

Phase III (January 2007 – June 2007): Implementation of School-based ESD programmes.

Phase IV (June 2007 – July 2007): Promotional phase and experience sharing.