62
heritage. For example, after the WWII, vernacular architecture and traditional building crafts in the Balkans were viewed with contempt and a want to embrace new
artificial building materials instead (Dragisic and Dordevic 2014).
The Environmental Citizen and Education for Environmental Citizenship are
both expected to strengthen the awareness of the cultural context, not to exclude any
inherited practice as obsolete but to respect cultural differences and protect the
entire world cultural heritage, regardless of the nation or geographic region. An
Environmental Citizen is an inhabitant of the Earth and whose knowledge is stored
in various cultural traditions. In order to adequately sustain the cultural heritage of
humanity for future generations, it is important to develop an awareness of its
importance and complexity. Pivotal actions would not limit its interpretation by the
currently accepted measures of its preservation and safeguard, but as suggested in
the document Culture 21: Actions (2015) (United Cities and Local Governments
2015), thus including it in education, cultural skills, knowledge, intercultural dialogue, tangible and intangible heritage, and cultural rights. This is one of the important issues for Environmental Citizens.
4.6 Conclusion
This chapter presented the role of Environmental Citizenship in selected key human
societal activities as observed in the 2030 Agenda. It has explored how Environmental
Citizenship is inseparably related to the evaluation of the territory and urban development, transport systems, cultural heritage, and tourism. It has demonstrated that,
although Environmental Citizenship focuses mostly on the environment, it has to be
involved in all paradigms of socio-economic development to make the human activities more sustainable. The previous analysis has shown, for instance, that
Environmental Citizenship has played a great role in the innovative and sustainable
means of carbon-free transport, increased energy efficiency, and the achievement of
economic and social equal citizenship.
Furthermore, as stated in the 2030 Agenda, the trends of environmental degradation have to be reversed, not only to preserve the environment by itself but also to
solve (or at least reduce) some of the most important and severe current problems –
hunger, extreme poverty, unhealthy living environments, climate changes, major
war sites, and conflicts that lead to impressive migration, to mention just a few.
Some of these problems are a result of unequal allocation of environmental resources
and therefore strongly require a high consciousness with environmental problems
and individual and collective actions to resolve them and improve the environment.
The chapter also presents examples of sustainable approach to important human
societal activities that have already been applied somewhere and have obtained
favourable results. They can be used as examples of good practice that can be implemented elsewhere. For example, the successful use of an inherited built environment can be used as a lesson of building materials, techniques, and principles of
planning and building. However, one has to keep in mind that sustainable practices
I. Šulc et al.
heritage. For example, after the WWII, vernacular architecture and traditional building crafts in the Balkans were viewed with contempt and a want to embrace new
artificial building materials instead (Dragisic and Dordevic 2014).
The Environmental Citizen and Education for Environmental Citizenship are
both expected to strengthen the awareness of the cultural context, not to exclude any
inherited practice as obsolete but to respect cultural differences and protect the
entire world cultural heritage, regardless of the nation or geographic region. An
Environmental Citizen is an inhabitant of the Earth and whose knowledge is stored
in various cultural traditions. In order to adequately sustain the cultural heritage of
humanity for future generations, it is important to develop an awareness of its
importance and complexity. Pivotal actions would not limit its interpretation by the
currently accepted measures of its preservation and safeguard, but as suggested in
the document Culture 21: Actions (2015) (United Cities and Local Governments
2015), thus including it in education, cultural skills, knowledge, intercultural dialogue, tangible and intangible heritage, and cultural rights. This is one of the important issues for Environmental Citizens.
4.6 Conclusion
This chapter presented the role of Environmental Citizenship in selected key human
societal activities as observed in the 2030 Agenda. It has explored how Environmental
Citizenship is inseparably related to the evaluation of the territory and urban development, transport systems, cultural heritage, and tourism. It has demonstrated that,
although Environmental Citizenship focuses mostly on the environment, it has to be
involved in all paradigms of socio-economic development to make the human activities more sustainable. The previous analysis has shown, for instance, that
Environmental Citizenship has played a great role in the innovative and sustainable
means of carbon-free transport, increased energy efficiency, and the achievement of
economic and social equal citizenship.
Furthermore, as stated in the 2030 Agenda, the trends of environmental degradation have to be reversed, not only to preserve the environment by itself but also to
solve (or at least reduce) some of the most important and severe current problems –
hunger, extreme poverty, unhealthy living environments, climate changes, major
war sites, and conflicts that lead to impressive migration, to mention just a few.
Some of these problems are a result of unequal allocation of environmental resources
and therefore strongly require a high consciousness with environmental problems
and individual and collective actions to resolve them and improve the environment.
The chapter also presents examples of sustainable approach to important human
societal activities that have already been applied somewhere and have obtained
favourable results. They can be used as examples of good practice that can be implemented elsewhere. For example, the successful use of an inherited built environment can be used as a lesson of building materials, techniques, and principles of
planning and building. However, one has to keep in mind that sustainable practices
I. Šulc et al.