Sustainability: Learning for Empowerment
April 2012
Banner photo: Environmental education through art, Los Tuxtlas biosphere, Veracruz, Mexico. [© Cardiela Amézcua Luna]
Nurturing Seeds of Hope in the Amazon
The CEPEAM Center near Manaus [BSGI]
In 1992, the city of Rio de Janeiro hosted the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), designed to launch the concept of sustainable development. At the conference, the SGI showed the exhibition "Coexistence and Hope," which later traveled to major Brazilian cities, reaching an estimated 670,000 people.
In Brazil, a new awareness about sustainability was born from Rio-92, and the Brazil SGI Association (BSGI) expanded several of its projects in the area of environmental education, including inaugurating the Amazon Ecological Conservation Center (CEPEAM in Portuguese) the following year.
An environmental education workshop [BSGI]
BSGI's activities are based broadly on promotion of humanistic education, working together with public school teachers and students' parents through the Makiguchi Education Action program created by the BSGI Education Department.
The program began in 1994, and by 2009 it had reached approximately 300 schools in several Brazilian cities. It consists of workshops for teachers and activities involving parents. The methodology aims to equip teachers to transmit values and virtues, develop habits of being sensitive to the possibilities around them, and make creative use of recyclable objects.
The workshops are designed to offer the student and teacher an investigative path for building knowledge. Examples of this methodology are the toy and music workshops, both of which use scrap metal to create fun games and musical instruments, helping students learn to read music and teaching them about classification, considered fundamental for learning mathematics.
Awareness-raising through the "Seeds of Change" exhibition [BSGI]
There is also a shadow theater workshop that uses recycled materials to introduce students to the world of video and cinema, developing possibilities for creativity and awakening awareness about citizenship.
In the cooking and school garden workshops, the students learn about the relationship between human beings and their surroundings in a playful manner.
Agents of Change
One of the most successful projects of the Education Department of BSGI is part of the local Agenda 21 program of action for sustainability that developed out of UNCED. The pilot project is at the Jardim Campos municipal crèche, helping create an environment of cooperation and synergy between the community, parents, students and professionals of the crèche with the goal of improving the local community. It aims to raise the awareness that, in order to improve the society in which we live, it is first necessary to reform ourselves. It also highlights our interrelationship with the environment and strives to cultivate a "Culture of Peace." Based on the objectives of Agenda 21, and also using the Earth Charter, there is an emphasis on dialogue, democratic participation and healthy relationships, promoting community involvement in environmental preservation, using environmental education concepts to spread awareness, as well as enhancing the relationship between the community and public agencies.
Students arriving at the CEPEAM Center [BSGI]
When the Agenda 21 project was implemented, the teachers became aware of their true professional role. This improved their motivation, which had ripple effects in the crèche and community.
The current environmental situation is complex and presents alarming levels of degradation and poverty. The guarantee of a better future in which all life is respected depends on the participation of each person. On the basis of this understanding, BSGI has worked through its Scientists Department (DEPAC) to develop an action plan focused on raising the awareness of DEPAC members to be agents of transformation in their own situations. This resulted in the 2001 launch of the Environmental Agents' Movement. DEPAC uses participatory methods to empower these agents in the belief each person can create new behavioral values to build a sustainable future.
Environmental education for students [BSGI]
In the same vein, BSGI also implemented the Seeds of Change Project in the municipality of São Paulo. It was designed to transform the complex problems of metropolitan areas through small actions by individuals willing to make a difference. It draws in students, teachers and members of the local community and includes the "Seeds of Change" exhibition, a Trail of Life Workshop, art for peace, an environmental education workshop and the planting of tree seedlings and commemorative trees. The project has reached 50,000 people and trained some 1,500 environmental agents in the municipality of São Paulo.
Amazon Center
The Amazon Ecological Conservation Center (CEPEAM) was created near Manaus to offer possibilities for maintaining the balance and stability of the forest as well as for the local populations that depend on local plants.
In 1993, a technical and scientific cooperation agreement was signed between CEPEAM, Japan's Soka University and the former State Department of the Environment and Science and Technology.
In recognition of its achievements, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources accredited the CEPEAM area as a Private Reserve of Natural Heritage, making it one of a select group of conservation units recognized and protected by the government.
A workshop involving students, teachers and the local community [BSGI]
The Center's objectives are to: establish a reserve for conservation and protection for future generations; restore degraded areas; support environmental education; become a refuge for wild flora and fauna species; and develop and monitor projects designed to align the principles of environmental conservation and preservation, with an overall focus on improving the quality of life of local people.
Each week, approximately 50 students take part in visits through the Escola Itinerante ("Traveling School") project, promoted by the Manaus Municipal Department of Environment and Sustainability. According to the department, CEPEAM provides excellent study conditions for visitors. CEPEAM promotes the following projects: lectures and seminars; forest enrichment systems; scientific data collection and recording; incentivizing local communities to plant rare species which produce essential oils; and donation of seedlings.
Through its educational actions, BSGI seeks to bequeath to future generations sustainable human and environmental development policies, acting in the belief that transformation of society and the environment begins with an inner transformation in the life of each citizen.
