Education for sustainability in The Botanic Garden of the University of Coimbra: 10 years of experience

Resumen

INTRODUCTION
Education is a key component in any project that intends to inform and allow people to improve their quality of life. In the decade of Education for Sustainability (2005-2014), declared by the United Nations, being the “Preservation and Protection of the Environment” one of the main themes, the Botanical Gardens (BGs) are determinants agents in the contemporary societies for education, teaching and divulgation of the Sciences of Nature. The BGs have fundamental elements to equate chief issues that threaten
the world at a global scale representing privileged opportunities to alert to a conscious and tolerant behaviour. The BGs singularity can thus provide stimulant programs, with valuable training and skills, for the “environment” to be integrated by the educative departments in the formal scholar curricula, allowing opportunities based on knowledge that links the social, political and economical issues to the natural systems (Hawkins 2008, Waylen 2006, Willison 2004). Leer más