Policy ActionsPolicy Actionson Environmental Educationon Environmental Education

in Japanin Japan

September 23, 2012

Ministry of the Environment

Japan

1. Environmental Education Law

ＥＳＤＥＳＤ

July 2003

September 2004

“Environmental Education Law”(The Act on Enhancing Motivation on Environmental Conservation and Promotion of Environmental Education. former law) enacted (lawmaker-initiated legislation, unanimous)

The basic policy (primary) based on the former law endorsed 　

Afterward, the situation of environmental problems changed, for example, effect of Kyoto Protocol, execution of the Convention on Biological Diversity and formulation of the Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Secondary Sound Material-Cycle Society

Amended “Environmental Education Law”(The Act on Enhancing Motivation on Environmental Conservation and Promoting of Environmental Education enacted (lawmaker-initiated legislation, unanimous)

○Basic Principle Environmental conservation efforts, encouragement of willingness for environmental conservation and environmental education shall be performed by appropriate sharing of roles and cooperation on an equal footing among various entities for construction of sustainable society.

○Effort by Local Government Local government shall make efforts to create the action plan concerning promotion of environmental education, collaborative actions, etc.

○Effort by School - State and local government shall take measures on school education and social education to deepen understanding and nurture interests in environmental conservation according to development stage from infant period. - State government shall take measures to promote environmental education in schools, enrich training programs for teachers, develop teaching materials, and equip schools with eco-friendly facilities.

October 2012

OverviewBackground

June 2011

Amended law came into force on a full scale

○Effort in WorkplaceBusiness sector shall make efforts to provide their employees with environmental education. State and local government shall make efforts to introduce experts to the business sector or provide it with information, etc.

○Concrete Schemes- State government designates entities which support environmental activities by private entities, etc. - State government registers enterprises which certify/develop human resources or develop/provide teaching materials.- Prefectural governor certifies places to provide opportunities for environmental experiences including nature field trip.

- State and local government can make agreement with private entities to promote collaborative actions.

The basic policy (secondary) based on the amended law endorsed

June 2012

○Effort by Citizen, Private Entity, etc. Citizen, private body, etc., shall not only make effort to perform environmental education, collaborative actions, etc. in household, workplace, local areas, etc., but also make efforts to cooperate with environmental education, collaborative actions (*), etc. performed by the other entities.

* The underlined parts are the points of amendment in June 2011

＊ Collaborative actions: Environmental conservation activity, encouragement of willingness for environmental conservation, environmental education and other efforts concerning environmental conservation based on suitable sharing of roles and cooperation on an equal footing among citizen, private entity, State and local government.

2. Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

○ ESD stands for Education for Sustainable Development, which includes key sustainable development issues into teaching and learning; for example, climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption.

○ 　 Government of Japan have proposed ‘Decade of Education for Sustainable Development’ in Johannesburg Summit in Sep 2002.

It was adopted unanimously in the UN General Assembly in Dec. 2002.

Consequently, United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) has started in 2005.

ESD

Environmental Education

Education　on　Society

Education　on　Economy

International　Understanding

Sep 2002 Japan proposed DESD in Johannesburg Summit

Dec 2002 UNDESD passed unanimously in UN General

Assembly

Jan 2005 UNDESD started

Sep 2005 UNESCO cooperated with UN organizations

concerned to formulate the international execution plan.

Dec 2005 The liaison conference for the ministries engaged in

UNDESD was established.

Mar 2006 The domestic UNDESD action plan was determined

by the related ministries.

Jan 2008 Roundtable for UNDESD was established.

Mar 2009 ESD Global Conference (Bonn in Germany)

The venue of the international conference for ESD in 2014 has been

decided as Japan.

Jun 2011 The domestic UNDESD action plan was revised.

Jun 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development

(Rio+20)

-It was agreed that we promote ESD, and integrate sustainable

development more actively into education beyond 2014.

- ”Green Future Initiatives” by Japanese government declared it

continues contributing to the advancement of ESD.

2014 Final Year of UNDESD Nov Global Conference on ESD will be held (Nagoya city and Okayama city in Japan)

Main BackgroundOverview of ESD

We encourage Member States to promote sustainable development awareness among youth, inter alia by promoting programmes for non-formal education in accordance with the goals of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014.

We resolve to promote education for sustainable development and to integrate sustainable development more actively into education beyond the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.

○Rio+20 The future we want （ Excerpted ）

UNESCO in Japan in 2014, the final year of the UNDESD, and continue contributing to the advancement of ESD; further promote the development of human resources for a sustainable society and the creation of environmental education programs toward the conference, and share these globally.

○Rio+20 Japan’s “Green Future Initiatives” （ Excerpted ）

Japan will promote international cooperation regarding ESD through funding the project such as networking of Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development （ RCE ） implemented by the United Nations University (UNU).

Japan also enhances the efforts of domestic environmental education such that Japan can present exemplary actions and take leadership at the Final Year Meeting of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) to be held in 2014 in Japan.

○Rio+20 Government of Japan Initiatives of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan （ Excerpted ）

3. Output related to Environmental Education in Rio+20

4. Main domestic policies to promote ESD

○MOE performed model projects in 14 regions from

2006 to 2008

　＜ 10 areas adopted from 2006 to 2007 ＞

Tobetsu town in Hokkaido Sendai region in Miyagi

Edo Maenoumi in Tokyo Sutama town in Yamanashi

Mishima city in Shizuoka 　 Kasugai city in Aichi

Toyonaka city in Osaka 　 Nishinomiya city in Hyogo

Kashiwa-jima in Kochi Kita-kyushu city in Fukuoka

　＜　 4 areas adopted from 2007 to 2008 ＞

　　 Nishiyodogawa-ku in Osaka Oshima town in

Yamaguchi

Okayama city in Oakayama Unzen city in Nagasaki

○+ESD Project is a system to register domestic local ESD

activities on a website for visualizing them.

○Objectives of this registration system are;

(1)ESD activities to develop human resources who struggle

with local or global issues and make efforts to realize

sustainable society.

(2)Projects to assist ESD activities by providing funds or

introducing experts.

○MOE organizes ”ESD Learning Forum” to gather those

who are engaged in the registered ESD activities or

assistance projects to encourage mutual learning and

cooperation and building network.

(Others)MOE makes contribution of \160 million to the United Nations University each year, a part of which is for-development of network of several leading higher education institutions in Asia and the Pacific to integrate 'sustainable development' into postgraduate courses and curricula. (ProSPER.Net)-Development of Regional Centre of Expertise on ESD (RCE), which is a network of existing formal, non-formal and informal education organizations, mobilized to deliver ESD to local and regional communities.

Model projects of local ESD Programs +ESD Project

Plus

●The members instructedelementary school studentsof the Junior Eco-club in theNanohana Project. A generator was operatedusing BDF to power an electricfan. The group also helped on afarm with students from OsakaUniversity of Economics and alocal junior high school.

Do you think activities to create a sustainable community and ESD are same ?It is difficult to draw a line between them.

For example, Osaka's Nishiyodogawa ESD Commission members from high schools, universities and Girl Scout troops tackled a project for a sustainable transportation system by adopting the Nanohana (rape blossom) Project. Nishiyodogawa High School students also work on the Nanohana Project through compulsory subjects on the environment, in which they learn about the history of local pollution to enable them to reconsider societal matters. The project has also spawned the Eco Communication Club (ECC), which has increased its activities in the area and been developed whileinteracting with other commission members.

●The class was started in a rapeblossom field in full bloom fromlast year.●Students in the class learn abouta range of activities on theNanohana Project.●Nishiyodogawa ESD stickers wereproduced to promote the project.

●Harvesting and threshing ofrapeseed were carried out incooperation with local volunteers.●Osaka's project members atheredseeds to refine Bio Diesel Fuel (BDF),which is utilized to operate Hankyubuses.

●Students monitored airpollution and learned aboutthe Nishiyodogawa AirPollution Lawsuit involvingthe story of a victim ofpollution-related disease.

●The membersdistributed rapeblossom seeds inconjunction with theGreen Fund run by GirlScouts in the area.

●Participants collected wasteoil at a local festival and soldcotton candy during theToyonaka City EnvironmentExposition using BDF as fuelfor the cotton candy machine.

●A New Year party was heldamong Nishiyodogawa ESDmembers.●Activity reports were givenby many participants, andopinions on environmentalproblems were exchangedwith junior high schoolstudents from South Korea.

● Discussion and debatewere conducted onwhat can be doneand what the nationalgovernment, localgovernments andbusinesses should do.

ESD at Nishiyodogawa High School

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter5. ESD to lead the action (Good Practice)

6. International policies to promote ESD

ProSPER.NetProSPER.Net

- November 2007　 Drafting of Charter (11 Organizations)

- June 2008Signing Ceremony(18 Organizations)

- As of August 2012　 22 Organizations

12th TEEN Meeting(Gyeongju, Korea, Nov 2011)

Note. As for (1) and (2), funding (\160 million) is contributed from Ministry of the Environment, Japan to the United Nations University.

＊ 2 Tripartite Ministers Meeting among China,Korea and Japan

Place Certificated as RCE

＊ 1 Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Reseaerch Net work

Building network of several leading higher education institutions in Asia and the Pacific to integrate 'sustainable development' into postgraduate courses and curricula.

【 Member Universities : 22 】（ Japan:11, Korea:1, China: 2 Australia: １ . Philippine: 1, Thailand: １ , Indonesia: １ , India: １ , Malaysia:1, Others: 2 ）

○United Nations University reviews and certificates places where various stake holders cooperate to perform ESD effectively with strong partnership and network.

○ As of Sep 2012, 101 places are certificated as RCEs.

○ Japan has 6 RCEs : Greater Sendai, Yokohama, Chubu,

Hyogo-Kobe, Okayama, Kita-Kyushu

Experts and administrators of environmental education in China, Korea and Japan gather to have symposium and seminars to develop the network of environmental education among 3 countries, which is one of the TEMM*2 projects.

(1) Development of Environment Human Resources in Asian Graduate Schools : ProSPER.Net ＊ 1

(2) Development of Regional Centre of Expertise on ESD: RCE

(3) Environment Cooperation among Japan, China and Korea : Tripartite Environmental Education Network (TEEN)