N U I Galway - Wednesday 13th February, 2013N U I Galway - Wednesday 13th February, 2013

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Development Education DayDevelopment Education Day

Tom Roche

www.justforests.org

Geography-the challenge! •human geography•physical geography

The fundamental demographic disparity between the developed and the developing nations presents extremely difficult cultural, technical and moral challenges to any attempt to manage global climate change.

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Environmental Challenges

The biological components of our environment have evolved in harmony with the physical and climatic surroundings.

The presence, characteristics, structure and behavior of both individual organisms and co-assemblages, or communities, of organisms are largely determined by climate.

The ability of natural communities to adapt to changing climate, and nature of community change is of utmost importance to the survival of man and woman.

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The ‘development’ rationale of Just Forests work pivots around a number of key issues and challenges: wood and poverty, wood and energy, wood and livelihoods/construction, wood and health, wood and education, wood and biodiversity, wood and sustainability, wood and climate-change, wood and conflict/war and wood and ‘sustainable’ economic development.

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Education for Sustainable

Development (ESD)

But, biodiversity is currently vanishing at an alarming rate all over the world.

According to Stavros Dimas, EU Commissioner for Environment...

“we are, so to speak, erasing nature’s hard drive without even knowing what data it contains.”

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 Education for Sustainable Development requires

far-reaching changes in the way education is often

practiced today.

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Education for Sustainable Development allows every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. 

Education for Sustainable Development means including key sustainable development issues into teaching and learning; for example, climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption.

It also requires participatory teaching and learning methods that motivate and empower learners to change their behaviour and take action for sustainable development.

Education for Sustainable Development consequently promotes competencies like critical thinking, imagining future scenarios and making decisions in a collaborative way. 

Few recognise that biological diversity (which includes all living things)

represents the natural wealth of the Earth.

• It provides the basis for life, economic development and prosperity for the whole of mankind.

Few recognise that biological diversity (which includes all living things)

represents the natural wealth of the Earth.

• It provides the basis for life, economic development and prosperity for the whole of mankind.

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• Education is an essential element of the global response to climate change. It helps young people understand and address the impact of global warming, encourages changes in their attitudes and behaviour and helps them adapt to climate change-related trends.

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Finding ways to embed a message of sustainability into the curriculum is URGENT

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7 BILLION and growing...

Cross-curricular LearningLinks to some of Just Forests on-line resources.

4.Thinking TREES: Within the context of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 - 2014), Thinking Trees: Development, Trees and our Interdependent World is designed for primary school pupils in Ranganna 3, 4, 5 and 6 and seeks to encourage students to explore the importance of trees and of forests in our daily lives. It also stimulates them to think about some of the consequences of the loss of forests and trees and how, each of us can contribute positively to sustainable development. You will find excellent supporting resources to help you facilitate the 7 activities in Thinking TREES http://www.justforests.org/thinking-trees

•Anatomy of a Musical Instrument - linking our love of music to our dependance on 'tonewoods' for our beautiful musical instruments. This interactive resource is very popular with pupils as it shows just how (geographically) dependant Ireland is on tropical timber (you will need to have FLASH installed to use this) http://www.justmusic.ie/anatomy-of-an-instrument

4.Wood of Life Exhibition - All 22 panels of our WOL exhibition are all on-line now. You will also find an introductory brochure (showing curriculum links), an activity sheet and a follow-on classroon project sheet with suggestions on actions pupils can take after engaging with the exhibition. There is also a nice poster for broadcasting/advertising the exhibition in your school http://www.justforests.org/thinking-trees/exhibitions

4.Just RESTORATION- in an effort to raise much needed funds to support our development education (DE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) work we will run furniture restoration courses with a DE/ESD component embedded in the workshop. This course/workshop can be delivered either here in my workshop in Rhode or at your college.This is very much hands-on learning and will involve participants actually restoring a small piece of furniture/wood item http://www.justforests.org/the-restorer

•Just MUSIC/Sound of Wood Concerts - We all love music. Why not organise a Sound of Wood Concert in your school?. Pupils can invite their family and friends to hear them. This is a lovely way to introduce our dependance on natural resources (forests/wood) http://www.justforests.org/thinking-trees/school-concerts

6. KNOW-Wood Board- a hands on wood identification board http://www.justforests.org/know-wood-board

Ireland's entry in the European Tree of the Year 2013 Contest needs your vote urgently.

• Please vote for King OAK www.treeoftheyear.org

• and ask your students, family, friends and associates to vote for King OAK also-thank you.

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Thank You