1. Communication of disaster stories and religious narratives.
(at local scales)
2. Education in religious institutions and schools regarding water and food production, nature, medicine, astronomy, religion, and other disciplines, with the idea to
enable human life and solve social problems.
(at regional scales)
3. Scientific education of modern concepts to solve environmental problems, including ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation.
(at regional to supra-national scales)
4. Trans-disciplinary exchange of scientific information and education of children,
students, the public and stakeholders in economy and politics, with the purpose to
limit environmental disasters and species extinction.
(at regional to supra-national scales)
5. Environmental education which enables avoidance of environmental catastrophes, species extinction and social disasters.
(at all spatial scales)
These phases can be seen as a chronologically logical sequence. However, the
development in the past was not so clearly arranged, as different aspects occurred at
different times and in different regions independently, or overlapped at the same
time. Today, a combination of phases 1–3 are still globally relevant; phase 4 only
partially exists and can be increased. The last phase has not yet been achieved but is
the idealist goal for humanity and nature.
This sequence of educational evolution, combined with the digital media revolution, is accompanied by the growing concern of a disinformation agenda that would
have a detrimental impact on positive conservation measures. However, diverse
educational programmes show an increasing effort to inform about ecological
conditions and to avoid environmental catastrophes; this is based on scientific
knowledge from all disciplines that are related to human well-being, health, survival,
animal welfare, and the survival of species and ecosystems.
The formal establishment of environmental education programmes started in the
twentieth century due to a worldwide growing concern about environmental problems; a good example is the early national park movements around the world. The
concepts of Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) meanwhile were established in educational systems across the world.
Such programmes are often intermingled between short-term perspectives (health,
well-being, profit) and long-term perspectives (survival of ecosystems and biodiversity, resource use, recycling), and between constancy and development. Furthermore, different aspects of economic processes, societal relations, and ecological
conditions are merged, with the effect that the goal or combination of targets
sometimes becomes rather ambiguous.
The central purpose of Biodiversity Conservation Education (BCE) is the analysis
and intermediation of the relationship between nature and culture, evolution and
extinction, species and ecosystems, natural constraints and human possibilities. In
general, the issue of biodiversity is more related to natural sciences while questions
Land Use Change and the Future of Biodiversity
459
(at local scales)
2. Education in religious institutions and schools regarding water and food production, nature, medicine, astronomy, religion, and other disciplines, with the idea to
enable human life and solve social problems.
(at regional scales)
3. Scientific education of modern concepts to solve environmental problems, including ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation.
(at regional to supra-national scales)
4. Trans-disciplinary exchange of scientific information and education of children,
students, the public and stakeholders in economy and politics, with the purpose to
limit environmental disasters and species extinction.
(at regional to supra-national scales)
5. Environmental education which enables avoidance of environmental catastrophes, species extinction and social disasters.
(at all spatial scales)
These phases can be seen as a chronologically logical sequence. However, the
development in the past was not so clearly arranged, as different aspects occurred at
different times and in different regions independently, or overlapped at the same
time. Today, a combination of phases 1–3 are still globally relevant; phase 4 only
partially exists and can be increased. The last phase has not yet been achieved but is
the idealist goal for humanity and nature.
This sequence of educational evolution, combined with the digital media revolution, is accompanied by the growing concern of a disinformation agenda that would
have a detrimental impact on positive conservation measures. However, diverse
educational programmes show an increasing effort to inform about ecological
conditions and to avoid environmental catastrophes; this is based on scientific
knowledge from all disciplines that are related to human well-being, health, survival,
animal welfare, and the survival of species and ecosystems.
The formal establishment of environmental education programmes started in the
twentieth century due to a worldwide growing concern about environmental problems; a good example is the early national park movements around the world. The
concepts of Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) meanwhile were established in educational systems across the world.
Such programmes are often intermingled between short-term perspectives (health,
well-being, profit) and long-term perspectives (survival of ecosystems and biodiversity, resource use, recycling), and between constancy and development. Furthermore, different aspects of economic processes, societal relations, and ecological
conditions are merged, with the effect that the goal or combination of targets
sometimes becomes rather ambiguous.
The central purpose of Biodiversity Conservation Education (BCE) is the analysis
and intermediation of the relationship between nature and culture, evolution and
extinction, species and ecosystems, natural constraints and human possibilities. In
general, the issue of biodiversity is more related to natural sciences while questions
Land Use Change and the Future of Biodiversity
459