Towards Environmental Education for Sustainable Development: The Contributions of NGOs in the Asia-Pacific Region

While the existence, status, and roles of non-government organisations (NGOs) in the Asia-Pacific region vary considerably, there is a global trend in which they are influencing the agenda, accountability, and governance towards sustainable development. NGOs are increasingly influential and have greater responsibilities in ensuring that international and national commitments are implemented. These changing roles were highlighted during the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and reinforced at the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, where the work of this sector was increasingly profiled and identified as key to laying the foundations for change. This paper focuses on the changes occurring in NGO practices within the field of environmental education, and profiles three examples of successful activities in the Asia-Pacific region. It examines the roles and contributions of these NGOs in helping communities and countries with reorienting environmental and conservation education activities towards sustainability, and it helps identify key characteristics of these programs that exemplify the momentum building behind education for sustainable development in the region