Tomorrow Today

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Let’s take care of the planet:

education for sustainable societies

Rachel Trajber, Ministry of Education, Brazil

aulo Freire, one of the most famous Brazilian educators,

pointed out that “the possible dream has to do exactly

with a liberation education, not with a domesticating

education, while at the same time practicing utopia... Utopia

in the sense of the practice that leads to a dialectical dynamic

and entails the denunciation of an unjust society with exploita-

tion, and pointing toward a possible dream for society.” This is

a dream that we now call sustainable development or sustain-

able societies.

In Brazil, the past seven years (starting on World Environment Day,

5 June, 2003 and culminating on 5-10 June, 2010) have witnessed

an astounding force of mobilization and passion permeating envi-

ronmental education for sustainable societies in schools. Over

this period, the National and International Children and Youth

Conferences for the Environment were implemented in second-

ary schools all over Brazil and, later on, throughout the world,

ultimately becoming reference points for public environmental

education policy management.

In 2010, a cycle of three National Children and Youth Conferences,

Let’s Take Care of Brazil, which culminated in a successful inter-

national conference, Let’s Take Care of the Planet,

came to a close. Each one pioneered innovative topics

and actions shaped by creativity, cumulative learning,

complex concepts and methods that were expanded

over time. Local, regional, national and international

conference processes have contributed to amplify the

voices of children and of their schools and communi-

ties, and to effectively empower and include adolescents

in the international dialogue.

The Children and Youth International Conference for

the Environment is included in the framework, mission

and goals of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable

Development (DESD), 2005–2014. The main themes of

the Decade are citizenship, community values, diver-

sity, interdependence, sustainability, quality of life and

social justice, all of which correspond to the goals of the

conference. However, above all, the conference seeks

to contribute to the incorporation of a new generation

that constitutes a large portion of humanity and that is

traditionally thought of as the future but that neverthe-

less lives, thinks and acts in the present.

World Environmental Day – many nations attended the Conference, which has become a reference point for environmental education policy management

Images: Ministry of Education, Brazil