Environmental Educators Gather to Share Ideas about Sustainability, Development

Successful U.S.-Mexico Border Region conference enables environmental educators the unique opportunity to share ideas and collaborate on the themes of sustainability and EE excellence.

With the objective of promoting the professional participation and collaboration in the U.S.-Mexico border regions towards a dialogue in which to elevate the importance and effectiveness of Environmental Education as a vital tool inside the framework of the Border Program 2012, the Regional Meeting of Environmental Educators in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region took place on November 2-4, 2007 at the CETYS University facilities, Tijuana Campus, Baja California.  The event hosted close to 80 environmental educators from the region, who participated in three days of workshops and discussion forums, sharing experiences and exchanging ideas that will allow them to better develop their work as environmental educators in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

The event was made possible thanks to the support of the Director of CECADESU as well as collaborative organizations:  Environmental Education Exchange, The North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE), and Punto Verde Consultants.  The meeting took place at the Tijuana Campus of CETYS University in Baja, California.  Paulina Bueno, Coordinator of International High School Programs and member of the Board of Environmental Education of the Californias, was our host and greatly supported us with regards to the logistics of the location.  The majority of the activities took place in the main auditorium on campus.

The first day commenced at 9:30 in the morning with registration and a welcome breakfast for the participants.  At ten, participants attended the Education for a Sustainable World workshop, presented by Punto Verde, with the support of Foundation Sustainable World.  The workshop’s theme was to introduce to the audience the concept of Sustainable Development and to give them a panoramic view of the actual state of resources in our country and our planet, as well as to offer a plan for the future.  The workshop also aimed to strengthen environmental education as an instrument for the construction of an environmentally-aware culture that favors and drives economic sustainability, ecology and politics of Mexico.

The workshop took a break at six in the afternoon in order to have a welcome drink and participate in a raffle of educational materials.  While the participants enjoyed a glass of red wine and hors d’oeuvres at the buffet, the organizers gave the official event welcome, expressing their gratitude for the financial support of CECADESU, who made the event possible.  During the raffle, in addition to the articles and educational material that were raffled off, NAAEE donated five annual memberships to their organization.

The second day began at 8:30 in the morning with a forum entitled Constructing the Future of Environmental Education in the U.S.-Mexico Border Regions.  The first part of the round table discussion focused on a presentation of the recent history of environmental education in the regions on behalf of environmental educators that included Laura Silván of the Environmental Education Border Project, Daniel Domínguez of the Puerta Foundation, and José Marcos-Iga of the EE Exchange.  Once the earlier presentations concluded—which included the development of programs Border XXI and Border 2012, the formation of CEAC, the five Environmental Education Border conferences, the initiation of the Border-Wide EE Coalition, and the development of the EE Strategies to a national and border level on behalf of CECADESU—the discussion proceeded largely in part on the participation of the forum.

This part of the forum was followed by an open discussion.  First, the group was presented with the idea of forming an online database of environmental educators in the border regions and proceeded developing into a multitude of ideas that included themes and priorities that can become problematic for environmental educators of the border regions.  Following that, the group was invited to vote, selecting two themes that they considered of utmost personal priority.  The votes were counted and the five most popular themes were selected.  During the rest of the session teams discussed these themes and developed initial proposals to alleviate them.  By the end of the session, each group presented their initial proposals to the rest of the participants.  The final results of each one the groups were soon published on the Border-Wide EE Coalition website (www.bordereeweb.net).

During Saturday’s luncheon, the platform was given to the Collaborative EE Fair, where the participants took the opportunity to exchange materials, brochures, and other publications about their programs.  In addition, the second event raffle took place.  During the afternoon, the Education for a Sustainable World workshop continued.

The third day began at promptly at 9:00 in the morning with an advanced workshop, NAAEE Guidelines for Environmental Education Excellence, in which the participants were trained to handle the development, implementation and evaluation of Envrionmental Education programs and materials.  The completion of this workshop concluded the event and certificates of participation were distributed.

The Conference was an excellent tool for training and collaboration between environmental educators in the border regions.  Below we present a list of benefits the event offered:

*Refreshed collaborative relations between environmental educators in the U.S.-Mexico border regions.

*More than 50 new Border-Wide EE Coalition memberships

*Initial development from the discussion for the creation of a formal database of environmental educators from the U.S.-Mexico border regions.

*More than 80 qualified environmental educators in Education for a Sustainable World and NAAEE Guidelines for Environmental Education Excellence.

Plans for the future include:

*Development of an online discussion forum to define steps to follow in order to complete the Border-Wide EE Coalition.

*Design an exploratory committee to convert the Border-Wide EE Coalition into a prime affiliate of the NAAEE in Mexico.

*Develop primary plans for a second meeting of environmental educators for the U.S.-Mexico border regions, with the support of the NAAEE and EPA Region 6.