Arthor: Ugyen Tshomo
Position: Environment Officer
Affiliation: National Environment Commission Secretariat, Thimphu, Bhutan.
Understanding the Concept of Environmental Education
Dating back to 1969, as per Stapp et al in their article titled “The concept of environmental education”, environmental education (EE) aimed to create responsible individuals who possess attributes as such knowledge and awareness about the environment and its issues, has attitudes of concerns and skills to solve environmental issues and participates to bring behavioral change to undertake individual responsibility and sustainable actions in a community, country and worldwide (Stapp, B William & et al., 1969). Furthermore, in Monroe et al’s article titled “A framework for environmental education” defined EE as multidimension disciplinary focusing on, about and for environment (Monroe, 2007). It was further advocated during the Tbilisi Inter-Governmental Conference in Georgia, 1977 (Monroe, 2007). These EE as a multidimension disciplinary guided educators to create platform of opportunities to every learner to acquire knowledge, develop problem solving skills, critical analysis, and investigation to partake ownership and responsibilities towards environmental stewardships (Monroe, 2007).
Marine Plastic Pollution: A Global Concerns
Over the past decade, plastic emerged as one of the pressing environmental issues and raised global, transboundary, and cross-sectoral concerns in tackling the plastic pollution at national, regional, and international levels. In 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) adopted a resolution focusing on conservation of marine environment and strengthening legal bindings and regulations to “End Plastic Pollution” including marine plastic litter and microplastics (AIT, 2023). During the G20 Osakha Summit in 2019, the Government of Japan launched ‘Osaka Blue Ocean Vision’-the marine initiative to reduce marine plastic pollution by zero at a global scale by 2050 focusing on four themes (1) management of waste, (2) recovery of marine litter, (3) innovation, and (4) empowerment (AIT, 2023).
Marine Plastics Abatement Program
The Osakha Blue Ocean Vision (OBOV) led into the establishment of the one -year Marine Plastics Abatement (MPA) program in August 2020 at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand through the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) under the Government of Japan (AIT, 2023). The MPA program was led by Prof. Thammarat Koottatep in collaborations with the Environmental Engineering and Management Program under the School of Environment, Resources and Development at AIT(AIT, 2023). The MPA is an intensive empowerment program to maximize the potentials of young environmental leaders in achieving SDG14: Life Below Water; SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities; SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production and SDG17: Partnerships for the Goals (AIT, 2023). As explained by Hungerford and Volk in their article entitled “Changing learner behavior through environmental education”, Marine Plastics Abatement Program truly exhibited environmental education with a component of sustainable development goals in achieving environmental education (Hungerford & Volk, 1990).
Achievements of MPA Program
1. The MPA program has empowered 100 young environmental leaders of more than 30 nationalities from the North America, Asia, Africa, and Latin America (AIT, 2023). Professionals and industrial experts provided research skills development and implementation of research in the final semester, learning comprehensive coursework and innovations on plastic waste solutions, business management, technological advancement, circular economy, and understandings power dynamics of stakeholders and leaderships in curving marine plastic pollution to the MPA students (AIT, 2023). Young environmental leaders are creating significant changes in the societies by working at diverse organizations as consultants, researchers, social influencers, governmental officers, NGOs program officers, business entrepreneurs, and teachers.
2. The MPA program included active learning approaches with the practical site visits to waste management facilities such as Refused Derived Fuel (RDF), landfills, material recovery facilities, field work in mangrove forests, and sandy beaches and cleaning campaigns in Thailand.
3. The third batch of MPA students were opportune to visit Japan from 17-21 July 2022. Students received hands-on trainings from the best practices of waste management and environmental education materials at Hama Wing in Yokohama, Recycle Plaza in Fujisawa, JEPLAN Kanagawa and JFE Plant, and Iriezaki Sludge Center in Kawasaki. Students had opportunity to learn about vibrant and rich Japanese culture from Sensoji temple, Meiji Shrine, and Odaiba city in Tokyo.
4. In January 2023, MPA program has successfully published books consolidating study materials of MPA program available for public as a part of knowledge sharing and information disseminations to widen empowerment on marine plastic pollution across various sectors and stakeholders.
-- about Advisory Committee Meeting
-- Case sharing from other countries
Position: Environment Officer
Affiliation: National Environment Commission Secretariat, Thimphu, Bhutan.
Understanding the Concept of Environmental Education
Dating back to 1969, as per Stapp et al in their article titled “The concept of environmental education”, environmental education (EE) aimed to create responsible individuals who possess attributes as such knowledge and awareness about the environment and its issues, has attitudes of concerns and skills to solve environmental issues and participates to bring behavioral change to undertake individual responsibility and sustainable actions in a community, country and worldwide (Stapp, B William & et al., 1969). Furthermore, in Monroe et al’s article titled “A framework for environmental education” defined EE as multidimension disciplinary focusing on, about and for environment (Monroe, 2007). It was further advocated during the Tbilisi Inter-Governmental Conference in Georgia, 1977 (Monroe, 2007). These EE as a multidimension disciplinary guided educators to create platform of opportunities to every learner to acquire knowledge, develop problem solving skills, critical analysis, and investigation to partake ownership and responsibilities towards environmental stewardships (Monroe, 2007).
Marine Plastic Pollution: A Global Concerns
Over the past decade, plastic emerged as one of the pressing environmental issues and raised global, transboundary, and cross-sectoral concerns in tackling the plastic pollution at national, regional, and international levels. In 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) adopted a resolution focusing on conservation of marine environment and strengthening legal bindings and regulations to “End Plastic Pollution” including marine plastic litter and microplastics (AIT, 2023). During the G20 Osakha Summit in 2019, the Government of Japan launched ‘Osaka Blue Ocean Vision’-the marine initiative to reduce marine plastic pollution by zero at a global scale by 2050 focusing on four themes (1) management of waste, (2) recovery of marine litter, (3) innovation, and (4) empowerment (AIT, 2023).
Marine Plastics Abatement Program
The Osakha Blue Ocean Vision (OBOV) led into the establishment of the one -year Marine Plastics Abatement (MPA) program in August 2020 at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand through the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) under the Government of Japan (AIT, 2023). The MPA program was led by Prof. Thammarat Koottatep in collaborations with the Environmental Engineering and Management Program under the School of Environment, Resources and Development at AIT(AIT, 2023). The MPA is an intensive empowerment program to maximize the potentials of young environmental leaders in achieving SDG14: Life Below Water; SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities; SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production and SDG17: Partnerships for the Goals (AIT, 2023). As explained by Hungerford and Volk in their article entitled “Changing learner behavior through environmental education”, Marine Plastics Abatement Program truly exhibited environmental education with a component of sustainable development goals in achieving environmental education (Hungerford & Volk, 1990).
Achievements of MPA Program
1. The MPA program has empowered 100 young environmental leaders of more than 30 nationalities from the North America, Asia, Africa, and Latin America (AIT, 2023). Professionals and industrial experts provided research skills development and implementation of research in the final semester, learning comprehensive coursework and innovations on plastic waste solutions, business management, technological advancement, circular economy, and understandings power dynamics of stakeholders and leaderships in curving marine plastic pollution to the MPA students (AIT, 2023). Young environmental leaders are creating significant changes in the societies by working at diverse organizations as consultants, researchers, social influencers, governmental officers, NGOs program officers, business entrepreneurs, and teachers.
2. The MPA program included active learning approaches with the practical site visits to waste management facilities such as Refused Derived Fuel (RDF), landfills, material recovery facilities, field work in mangrove forests, and sandy beaches and cleaning campaigns in Thailand.
3. The third batch of MPA students were opportune to visit Japan from 17-21 July 2022. Students received hands-on trainings from the best practices of waste management and environmental education materials at Hama Wing in Yokohama, Recycle Plaza in Fujisawa, JEPLAN Kanagawa and JFE Plant, and Iriezaki Sludge Center in Kawasaki. Students had opportunity to learn about vibrant and rich Japanese culture from Sensoji temple, Meiji Shrine, and Odaiba city in Tokyo.
4. In January 2023, MPA program has successfully published books consolidating study materials of MPA program available for public as a part of knowledge sharing and information disseminations to widen empowerment on marine plastic pollution across various sectors and stakeholders.
-- about Advisory Committee Meeting
-- Case sharing from other countries