Education for Change

Resources
Books
Children, Citizenship and Environment 

Nurturing a Democratic Imagination in a Changing World

208 Pages; Author: Bronwyn Hayward; Target: Teachers, Professional involved
in Environmental Citizenship Education, Students and Researcher with an interest in environmental change, democracy and inter-generational justice.

Children growing up today are confronted by four difficult and intersecting challenges: dangerous environmental change, weakening democracies, growing social inequality, and a global economy marked by unprecedented youth unemployment and unsustainable resource extraction. Yet on streets everywhere, there is also a strong, youthful energy for change.

This book sets out an inspiring new agenda for citizenship and environmental education which reflects the responsibility and opportunities facing educators, researchers, parents and community groups to support young citizens as they learn to ‘make a difference’ on the issues that concern them.

Controversial yet ultimately hopeful, political scientist Bronwyn Hayward rethinks assumptions about youth citizenship in neoliberal democracies. Her comparative discussion draws on lessons from New Zealand, a country where young citizens often express a strong sense of personal responsibility for their planet but where many children also face shocking social conditions. Hayward develops a ‘SEEDS’ model of ecological citizenship education (Social agency, Environmental Education, Embedded justice, Decentred deliberative democracy and Self transcendence). The discussion considers how the SEEDs model can support young citizens’ democratic imagination and develop their ‘handprint’ for social justice.

From eco-worriers and citizen-scientists to streetwise sceptics, Children, Citizenship and Environment identifies a variety of forms of citizenship and discusses why many approaches make it more difficult, not easier, for young citizens to effect change.

For more information visit: 

http://tinyurl.com/Children-Citizenship-and-Env

Fungus Among Us: An Exploration of Fungi in the Anamalai Hills
Author: Ranjini Murali, P. Jeganathan, T. R. Shankar Raman, & Divya Mudappa Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore.

The rainforest of the Anamalai hills in the Western Ghats provide ideal conditions for the occurrence of a wide diversity of remarkable fungi. Over the last few years, the authors have tried to photo document many of these fungi, identify the species and learn more about their ecology. Over 27,000 species of fungi are known from India, and the Western Ghats is home to hundreds of species, with many more undoubtedly awaiting discovery. In an effort to stimulate interest in the fascinating fungi of the Anamalai hills, the authors have pulled together photographs and information into a 56-page booklet. The booklet can be downloaded from

http://tinyurl.com/Fungus-Anamalai

Churning the Earth The Making of Global India 

Authors: Aseem Shrivastava, Ashish Kothari

Publisher: Penguin Books India

ISBN: 9780670086252; 416 pages; Price: 699/-

The world stands so dazzled by India’s meteoric economic rise that we hesitate to acknowledge its consequences to the people and the environment. In Churning the Earth, Aseem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari engage in a timely enquiry of this impressive growth story. They present incontrovertible evidence on how the nature of this recent growth has been predatory and question its sustainability. Unfettered development has damaged the ecological basis that makes life possible for hundreds of millions resulting in conflicts over water, land and natural resources, and increasing the chasm between the rich and the poor, threatening the future of India as a civilization. Rich with data and stories, this eye-opening critique of India’s development strategy argues for a radical ecological democracy based on the principles of environmental sustainability, social equity and livelihood security. Shrivastava and Kothari urge a fundamental shift towards such alternatives-already emerging from a range of grassroots movements-if we are to forestall the descent into socio- ecological chaos. Churning the Earth is unique in presenting not only what is going wrong in India, but also the ways out of the crises that globalised growth has precipitated.

For more information visit: http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/ content/churning-earth

Networks 
The Youth and United Nations Global Alliance (YUNGA)

The Youth and United Nations Global Alliance (YUNGA) is created to generate collaborative initiatives between United Nations agencies, organizations and civil society organizations working with children and young people. YUNGA is a gateway to assist the engagement of youths in activities of key environmental and social concern at the national and international level.

YUNGA seeks to empower children and young people to have a greater role in society, support UN related activities, raise awareness and be active agents of change. 

YUNGA and its numerous partners are working on a number of thematic areas including: agriculture, biodiversity, climate change, energy, forests, food security, hunger, nutrition, oceans, water, and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Activities range from educational policy, capacity building programmes, didactic materials, resource packs, international competitions, challenge badges and different programmes intended to inspire active participation.
For more information visit: http://yunga-youth.weebly.com/

Satoyama Initiative

Biodiversity conservation does not only mean the conservation of wilderness and the species which inhabit them.

The human induced environments are often inhabited by species which have adapted themselves to the environments and they play an important role in sustaining and enhancing biodiversity. But the sustainable practices and knowledge they represent are increasingly threatened in many parts of the world, due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and rapid population growth increase and decrease.

To tackle this critical issue, the Ministry of Environment, Japan and United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) jointly initiated “Satoyama Initiative”. “Satoyama” denotes mountains, woodlands and grasslands surrounding villages in Japanese. The international partnership is open to all organizations committed to promote and support socio-ecological production landscapes for the benefit of biodiversity and human well being.

The core vision of this initiative is to realize societies in harmony with nature that is built on positive human-nature relationships. This initiative was launched at the 10th Meeting of Conference of Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity. This initiative follows a three-fold approach:

1. Consolidating wisdom on securing diverse ecosystem services and values
2. Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and modern science to promote innovations
3. Exploring new forms of co-management systems or evolving frameworks of “commons” while respecting traditional communal land tenure.

For more information visit: http://satoyama-initiative.org/en/about-2/