Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development in ASEAN

▪ Environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) are needed
to develop individuals’ and communities’ capacities through transformative education to build
sustainable environments, economies, and societies through reconfiguring the relationship
between people, the environment, the economy, and society.
▪ AMS face various challenges when implementing EE/ESD programmes such as overloaded
educational programmes, resource constraints, and insufficient implementation guidelines. EE/
ESD in the ASEAN region is neither universal nor harmonized.
▪ The ASEAN Working Group on Environmental Education (AWGEE)’s Action Plan prioritizes
the following: the ASEAN Eco-Schools Programme; the ASEAN Green Higher Education
Programme; Regional Communication, Education and Public Awareness; and Sustainable
Consumption and Production.
▪ There are limited data to assess the state of EE/ESD in ASEAN holistically. A better framework
or scheme for accelerating the understanding and sharing of the status of EE/ESD in the region
is needed, including the content of EE/ESD for each area and level; educational methods
used; assistance from governments, businesses, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and
international organizations; and challenges in planning and implementation.
▪ Many areas of EE/ESD in each country could be improved. Governments should strengthen
their support of educators and educational institutions, such as financing, provision of materials
and training courses for educators.
▪ It is also important to help educators and institutes to localize EE/ESD learning objectives and
contents to be more easily understood by the local stakeholders. It is also desirable to facilitate
networking and exchanges among practitioners and researchers and increased cooperation
among NGOs, local governments, and businesses.
▪ EE/ESD are enablers of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and should be
mainstreamed in the planning, programming, budgeting and implementation across all SDG
programmes and projects. Implementation of SDG target 4.7 on education for sustainable
development would help to address all the environmental issues in the region.