Environmental Education

Though many NGOs such as Coral Cay and WWF (link leads to a video on the environmental education implementation by WWF in the Philippines) are increasingly undertaking environmental education programs to spread awareness amongst local Filipinos about the degradation of the environment resulting from destructive human activities, government intervention is still required for these programs to be more effective and to create a widespread understanding of the environmental crisis in the Philippines.

Environmental education programs implemented by NGOs have been effective but largely only at the local or community level. As a result, large-scale lack of awareness of the biodiversity crisis amongst the people of Philippines still exists throughout the country. As such, it becomes important for the government to step in and take certain actions that will make environmental awareness a national phenomenon.

One way to achieve this would be through classroom-based environmental education. Environmental issues should be exposed to young children starting early in their lives. One way to do this would be to integrate environmental education subjects in the school system or incorporate certain concepts and ideas on the importance of wildlife, the ecosystem balance and natural forests in science classes. This will enable students to understand the fundamental roles nature plays in ensuring a healthy planet for us all and the important aim here would be to enable students to understand that humans are one with nature and not separate from it (Clayton and Myers, 2009).

Some other approaches would be to expose children to the beauty of nature at a young age. This can include taking them on field trips, visiting natural forests and teaching the names of organisms that live in the Philippines.

Starting with young children and encouraging them to effectively engage with the natural environment around them can be a positive approach towards hastening the revival of biodiversity in the Philippines.