The Belgrade Charter
EE gained international recognition in the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. In Recommendation 96, EE is called upon as a means to address the environmental issues worldwide.
In 1975, this recommendation was addressed at the International Environmental Workshop in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Participants at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) workshop, proposed a global framework for environmental education, referred to as the Belgrade Charter. The Charter's goal statement for environmental education has been generally accepted by professionals in the field. The Charter states:
Environmental education, properly understood, should constitute a comprehensive lifelong education, one responsive to changes in a rapidly changing world. It should prepare the individual for life through an understanding of the major problems of the contemporary world, and the provision of skills and attributes needed to play a productive role towards improving life and protecting the environment with due regard given to ethical values.
The goal of environmental education is to develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones.
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