New Guidelines for Environmental Education

New guidelines have been drawn up to provide practical advice for those delivering community and adult education.

They were developed by a team from Agriculture New Zealand and The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, with input from environmental educators from throughout New Zealand and Ministry for the Environment staff.

The result is Environmental Education: A guide for Programme Providers ­ how to develop, implement and evaluate strategies and programmes. The guide is designed to support the Ministry's national strategy to develop the knowledge, awareness, attitudes, values and skills that will enable individuals and the community to contribute towards maintaining and improving the quality of the environment. The Ministry's strategy for environmental education ­ Learning to Care for Our Environment - was released in 1998.

The guide, a Sustainable Management Fund project, is arranged in three main sections:

• Developing effective environmental education strategies
• Developing effective programmes and activities

• Evaluation of environmental education strategies, programmes and activities.

Each of the three sections can be used independently, depending on the stage of development. For each section there is an overview, a set of five principles and a set of checklists. At the end of the guidelines there is a toolbox with other helpful resources: a reference list, glossary, list of web sites and background on specific topics.

For more information tel: (04) 917 7414; email donna.gardener@mfe.govt.nz. Address: http://www.eednz.org.nz