Rohan Lloyd specializes in North Queensland and Australian environmental history and has written four books on these subjects.
Yarra Ranges is one of Victoria’s most diverse council areas, home to an eclectic array of suburbs, townships and small communities. Additionally, less of its inhabitants participate in postsecondary education than in metropolitan Melbourne.
Outdoor Learning
Environmental Education (EE) uses the environment as an integrative context to teach state and district education standards, with hands-on outdoor learning being central. Many schools have environmental education policies which allocate funds for environmental curricula in classroom settings as well as activities and lessons outdoors – helping children connect with nature while alleviating “nature deficit disorder” and creating healthy lifestyles.
Environmental Education (EE) helps individuals better comprehend their environmental surroundings, become aware of any associated problems, and understand ways to solve them. Furthermore, it promotes environmentally responsible and sustainable stewardship by creating interest and participation in public service and leadership projects which address, prevent, or mitigate emerging environmental crises.
Studies have revealed the many advantages associated with environmental education programs for children. Research shows they improve test scores, demonstrate greater interest and focus in classroom settings when returning back into traditional settings and have better health and wellbeing than their counterparts who don’t attend such programs. Educators are discovering new ways to extend these advantages by connecting local natural resources, community groups and organisations that offer meaningful outdoor education opportunities linked to school curriculum and address environmental concerns in their community.
In the Yarra Valley, local government, community groups and businesses are coming together to offer environmental education opportunities for young people. With high unemployment and poverty rates compared to Victoria as a whole, resulting in lower levels of achievement, engagement and wellbeing for students attending schools there. If Yarra Valley youth want to thrive in an era of global challenges and climate change they require access to good quality education opportunities and employment prospects if they want their futures secured.
Outdoor environmental education programs give students a chance to explore a diverse landscape while becoming self-reliant and adaptable learners. Students explore natural and cultural heritage sites, fauna of various environments, indigenous teachings, waterways, weather patterns and more in these experiences that encourage a love of the natural world while cultivating an awareness that they are part of it.
Outdoor learning provides students with an opportunity to engage with nature through their senses, which are stimulated more intensely than they would be inside a traditional classroom setting. This means they’re better able to focus, process and remember information while forming greater capacities for problem-solving and critical thinking.
Environmental Remediation
Youth volunteers ranging in their teens and twenties have been working to make our local environment better through environmental remediation and restoration projects. Their enthusiasm, energy, and deep care for nature all play key roles. Engaging young people in environmental work projects has many advantages – the work is meaningful and fulfilling; community connections become vital; participants gain leadership and teamwork skills; the community benefits greatly from youth taking an active role in protecting natural resources while the youth themselves feel more connected to our environment through involvement.
UBI (Urban Bushland Initiative), led by young people, works to green urban areas in Melbourne’s north-west. Through volunteer days and events, as well as education about wildlife-friendly landscaping practices, this community group engages the local community while raising public awareness. A collaborative project among Yarra Valley Water, Greening Australia, Zoos Victoria, Narrap Rangers and local community groups; its primary goal is creating habitat for Helmeted Honeyeater and lowland Leadbeater’s Possum species on the Yarra River floodplain at Upper Yarra Sewage Treatment Plant site where its habitat design takes into account ecological, behavioral and social requirements of each species.
The Yarrowee Leigh Catchment Group in Ballarat is working to restore habitat along the Yarrowee River, Specimen Vale Creek, Canadian Creek and their tributaries. Working closely with schools, community groups and volunteers as well as hosting community tree planting days and weed removal events at Moorabool River Reserve in Batesford.
Stonnington City Council’s project to restore and protect 3 hectares of wetlands in Sydenham Park through weed control and revegetation is another prime example. Working alongside Wurundjeri Woi wurrung Traditional Owners and Melbourne Water, this initiative will support arboreal mammals and small woodland birds as well as provide connectivity between organ Pipes National Park and Sydenham Park.
Other examples of environmental remediation conducted through community engagement include the Rakali Salamander Conservation program at Yarra Ranges Ecological Education Centre and KooyongKoot Alliance’s hand revegetation of 1 Ha of Yering Billabong by KooyongKoot Alliance – both funded through Green Links project funding and training provided to them respectively.
Children’s Health and Nature
Environmental education aims at expanding people’s understanding and awareness of their total environment, in particular their interconnection between humans and nature in order to help them make informed decisions that contribute to sustainable human society development.
Environmental education refers to any learning that pertains to the environment and how it functions, from teaching children about nature interactions and ecology, to engaging local communities in community-based stewardship projects. Environmental education also covers topics like interdependency between natural and human worlds as well as impact of human activity on planet earth.
Environmental education is currently experiencing a transformation towards place-based learning. This approach utilizes local cultural, historical, and sociopolitical contexts as an integrating backdrop for education; teaching students to value and respect the local environment while encouraging participation in civic ecology practices such as monitoring streams for pollution.
Studies suggest that children’s lack of contact with nature can adversely impact their health and cognitive development, yet contemporary children spend far less time outdoors than previous generations – something early childhood environmental education (ECEE) programs aim to address by offering programs which allow children to explore their intrinsic fascination for the natural world while simultaneously teaching why protecting it is vitally important.
Raising ecological literacy empowers individuals to take an active and responsible role in managing their environments, including monitoring streams for pollution and taking part in strategic plans for sustainable development. When education meets activism, positive results arise that are tangible in terms of both environment protection and sustainable development.
Community-Based Stewardship
Community-based environmental stewardship refers to when local communities–rather than individuals or for-profit corporations–own and control land, using it in ways that reflect their values. Land stewards possess considerable expertise about ecosystems which they use as the basis for making resource management decisions and serving as support networks for fellow stewards; training sessions may also be organized so as to empower the community achieve its stewardship goals more easily.
Young people today are eager to engage in community-based environmental stewardship programs, offering exciting opportunities for them to learn about and take responsibility for the natural world around them. Through ecological restoration projects – planting trees or clearing out invasive plants from public lands such as forests or parks – or helping manage public lands such as forests or parks, youth can take ownership over their environment and learn more. Furthermore, more communities are creating regenerative agriculture systems which improve food, water and soil quality – these projects giving residents responsibility for taking care for their local landscape and for reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuel sources – thus contributing to healthful local landscape health reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuel emissions by participating community members taking responsibility.
The Victorian State Government Department of Education and Training pays respect to the Wurundjeri people as the Traditional Owners of Lilydale and Upper Yarra lands, along with their Elders past, present, and future.
Due to an intensive consultation process with key stakeholders in Lilydale and Upper Yarra, key decision-makers reached consensus that an Education Plan is necessary in order to radically revamp secondary education provision within their area. Current results regarding achievement, engagement, wellbeing and enrollment disparity across schools remain below expected levels and present an imbalanced provision of secondary education services in their area.
Zonta Club of Armidale Inc in Australia is raising awareness about climate change’s repercussions for women and girls through hosting discussions with experts and disseminating its gender-focused policy document Zonta Says Now. Meanwhile, in Bangladesh Zonta Club Dhaka I offers sewing skills training through Suchi Shoilee School as part of a project designed to increase self-reliance and economic growth.
The University of Hawaii at Hilo Center for Maunakea Stewardship received the 2022 Kona-Kohalua Chamber of Commerce Pualu Award, honoring their efforts in restoring native plants and renewing cultural connections to Maunakea through classes such as Hawaiian language study. Furthermore, it implemented long-term historic property monitoring plans on University managed areas within Maunakea.