Village-level Documentation and Transmission of Local Environmental Knowledge
An urgent task facing educational systems in developing parts of the world is to develop environmental education programs that draw on locally relevant and economically important knowledge to bridge the gap between village realities and traditional text book information.  UNESCO developed a multilingual book, Reef and Rainforest: An Environmental Encyclopedia of Marovo Lagoon, which was used in education and training centers in the region to document local environmental knowledge and to raise awareness of environmental issues in the region of both ecological and socio-economic importance.  This Pilot Project was intended as a practical demonstration and testing of the role of educational material in vernacular language for fostering the transmission and development of indigenous environmental knowledge.  This project incorporates knowledge systems that are seriously endangered yet have been repeatedly recognized as having crucial ramifications for biodiversity conservation in these sites of global significance (including several natural World Heritage sites).

UNESCO Sector:  Division of Science Policy and Sustainable Development
Responsible Staff:  Douglas Nakashima, Fathimath Ghina, Khalissa Ikhlef
More information: http://www.unesco.org/links