Environmental education is defined as the educational action undertaken by a community in order to create awareness of reality on a universal level. In addition, it allows members of a society to bond together to fight each other for nature. Its main objective is to create values and attitudes in individuals to transform reality.
The history of environmental education emerged in 1948 in the middle of an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) meeting in Paris when Thomas Pritchard, Deputy Director of Nature Conservation in Wales, pointed out that it should be done a change of the term education for conservation, for a more alternative that in this case was Environmental Education.
But not everything started there, since the origin of Environmental Education dates back many years ago, when man and the environment had an important relationship and were being prepared for it. But it was only that the term began to be used as such in the late 60s and early 70s, at that time an interest and concern for the unfortunate conditions in which the environment was found began to grow.
A very important objective of environmental education is to achieve that both individuals and communities understand the complex nature of the environment, which is the result of the interaction of its different aspects, among which are: physical, biological, social, cultural, economic, among others. In this way they acquire the knowledge, values and practical skills to participate responsibly and effectively in the prevention and solution of environmental problems and in the management of environmental quality.
Among the characteristics of environmental education are:
- Permanent education.
- Global approach.
- Problem solving.
Therefore, environmental education, beyond being limited to a specific aspect of the educational process, must be a firm basis for developing a new lifestyle. It must be an educational practice open to the community so that members of society participate and raise awareness regarding the environment and human harm.
