Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands

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EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABLE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT
Eunice A. C. Okeke, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

INTRODUCTION

In presenting my perspective on the role of education in sustainable coastal development, I shall focus on Nigeria’s coastal region, drawing heavily on the findings on the Niger Delta environmental survey of 1997. But before doing that I will briefly review the concepts of development, of sustainable coastal development and of education as the basis for establishing a linkage between the concepts.

KEY CONCEPTS

Development is a concept whose definition varies according to the thrust of the person defining it. The economist emphasizes increase in gross national product. The political scientist stresses democracy and stability of government. The educationalist focuses on the tapping and utilization of all available human resources. In general, however, development simply means the tapping and utilization of potential human and material resources of any community or nation to increase its productivity as well as equitable distribution of the products in order to improve the quality of life of the people. The emphasis or ultimate goal is good quality of life which is characterized among other things by:

• food security;
• adequate and affordable health care;
• available potable water;
• manageable family size;
• high life expectancy;
• health and a sustainable environment.

These indicators often serve to categorize nations as ‘developed’ or ‘developing’. Nigeria is one of the developing countries.

The term ‘development’ is now being qualified with ‘sustainable’ to draw out the fact that some development may not be sustainable. Sustainable development means that type of development, which in the course of tapping and use of resources does not destroy the very ecological foundations that support it. Behind the concept of sustainable development is rationality in production and use with the future in mind. Sustainable coastal development therefore refers to the development of our coasts in a pattern which encourages the maintenance of the ecology of the coasts while utilizing and benefiting from their vast resources.

Education is the process of helping one to acquire desirable knowledge, skills and attitude for effective life in today ’s society and in the future. The process may be informal – when there is no organized or prescribed content, or formal – when a scheme of learning activities, conditions and duration are prescribed as is the case in our school system. It is non-formal when learning outcomes are known but conditions and procedures are rather fluid in order to suit the conditions of the learners who are often adults. Most adult education programmes for updating skills and knowledge or modifying attitudes is non-formal. It is necessary to draw the distinctions so as to understand the various educational pathways which can be used to achieve sustainable coastal development. What actually are the common coastal development problems?

COASTAL DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS

The coastal regions of the world have similar geography. They experience similar environmental conditions and development patterns – that is, a relatively stable and balanced ecological system turning to a rapidly changing and destabilized system due primarily to human development activities.

Nigeria’s coastal region, especially around the estuaries of the Niger and Benue rivers and the Atlantic coastline, is known to be experiencing serious development problems that threaten the sustainability of this region. The inhabitants of this coastal region make their living from fishing and farming, they sell their products to others thereby contributing to the food security and economic development of the nation. Unfortunately, developmental activities in this region, especially the oil industry and associated industrial establishments, have created ecological problems of immense dimension. The ordinary citizen is able to observe several ecological changes:

• changes in the rhythm and patterns of atmospheric/weather conditions such as rhythm of tidal waves;
• changes in the variety and ubiquity of organisms as exemplified in the type, quality and quantity of the fish harvest;
• reduced vitality and increased human health problems associated with pollution, e.g. of water;
• depleting natural resources such as drying-up of oil wells and deforestation;
• lowered soil fertility and agricultural production.

It is concern over these observations and other socio-economic problems that influenced the government, the oil companies, the oil-producing communities and other stakeholders to set up the Niger Delta Environmental Survey (NDES). The goal of NDES is ‘to establish the causes of ecological and socioeconomic change over time and induce corrective action... to improve the quality of life of the people and achieve sustainable development in the region’. The survey findings which were published in 1997 identified fourteen major environmental problems, which are:

• flooding and coastal erosion;
• sedimentation and siltation;
• degradation and depletion of water and coastal resources;
• land degradation;
• air pollution;
• biodiversity depletion;
• noise pollution;
• light problems;
• lack of community participation;
• health problems;
• low agricultural production;
• socio-economic problems such as unemployment, poverty;
• weak or non-existent laws and regulations;
• improvement in the well-being of the population.

Each of these problems can be categorized as naturally occurring, development-induced or socio-economic. Examples of naturally occurring coastal problems are erosion and flooding of coastal river banks, sedimentation and siltation, the invasion of such plants as water hyacinths. Education will serve to inform the public on what each phenomenon is, explain the process, show how to manage it and inculcate the right attitude to it. The subject matter should feature in the curricula at formal and non-formal levels. When people are equipped with correct information on the growth and activities of water hyacinths for example, they will be less scared and be more able to seek ways to combat the invasion. Interest in research into such phenomenon can be generated through education and public awareness.

Development-related problems include land degradation/loss of soil fertility, decline of forest reserve, depletion of biodiversity especially fish, oil spillage and gas flaring, sewage and waste disposal into water. Given that these problems are development induced, they have been traced to ignorance and illiteracy and sometimes to the selfish interests of the perpetrators. So well-packaged education programmes for youths and adults of formal and non-formal kinds will provide opportunities to learn the causes, management and prevention of these problems. A topic such as ‘the oil industry and our environment’ that will expose the activities of oil companies, the economic benefits and the environmental problems created.

A curriculum that includes sustainable coastal development is necessary to provide people with relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes towards sustained development. In this regard the Project 2000+ on Scientific and Technological Literary for All is appropriate. Project 2000+ encourages the development and introduction of appropriate in-school and out-of-school opportunities and programmes and curricula towards achieving responsible and sustainable development. In a recently concluded training/writing workshop on Project 2000+ for Africa, held in Accra Ghana, environmental issues featured prominently in the expected supplementary reading series for Junior Secondary Schools. In short, education has an important role to play in sustainable coastal development by development and implementation of a curriculum that includes coastal environmental education.

The NDES document also outlines some socio-economic spin-off of coastal development activities. These include unemployment, poverty, conflicts, decay of societal values, non-participation of the community in major decision making. These problems can be easily addressed by providing the young with wide access to education and training. Education is the most important investment in people. Education to eliminate illiteracy will help the young to gain employment, to rise above poverty, to join the class that makes decisions, to reduce and/or manage conflict, to seek the enforcement or provision of laws and regulations etc.

Community partnership which is vital to proper coastal development and management will be successful when the community has a critical mass of educated men and women who understand the complexities of development.

NIGERIA’S EDUCATION INITIATIVE ON ENVIRONMENT

In addition to the establishment in 1992 of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) whose mandate was expanded to cover conservation of natural resources and biological diversity, the government is trying to inculcate environmentally sound beliefs and practices through education. The government charged the Nigerian Education, Research and Development Council (NERDC) with the responsibility of developing an environmental education programme for schools. The project document states ‘to assist government to build institutional capacity and make operational its education and environment policies of achieving an environmentally literate citizenry, empowered sufficiently to deal with current environmental problems such as sustainable development’. An environmental education programme for junior secondary schools has been developed and approved by the National Council for Education (NCE).

Characteristically, the programme adopted the infusion approach whereby themes in environmental education were infused into the curricula for English language, social studies, health education, integrated science and agricultural science. The infusion is based on five themes: ecological foundations; human environment/development; environmental change/impact; sustainable development.

It is expected that if the innovation takes off successfully other levels of education will be included. However, some universities and colleges in Nigeria are already offering certificate and diploma courses in environmental education/management, while some have degree programmes and postgraduate programmes that focus on the environment. It is within these programmes that emphasis on sustainable coastal development will feature.

From the non-formal education angle, there is not much happening that can impact sufficiently on the attitude of people towards sustainable development. Public awareness campaigns using every means are urgently needed to achieve the desired sustainable coastal development.

It is one thing to develop a curriculum or plan intervention programmes, and another to successfully implement them. There are often obstacles and problems.

PROBLEMS IN IMPLEMENTING ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAMMES

• Poor preparation of teachers. In Nigeria, as in many countries, teachers are trained to specialize in one or two subjects with the result that such a teacher is unable to teach the interdisciplinary concepts that characterize environmental issues.
  
  Environmental education demands the use of a variety of methods which will not only provide knowledge but serve to modify learner behaviour/attitude to the environment. Methods which have been found to be suitable are practical, interactive ones such as group discussion; field trips; debates, role-plays; demonstration; projects and practical experiments such as testing water quality; pictures/sketches and audio-visual representations.
  
  
• Lack of funds and support for field trips to environmentally degraded areas such as the Niger Delta zone in order to provide learners with first hand experience of environmental problems. A learner who experiences continuous gas flares, or the thick layer of oil on the surface of a river after an oil spillage or devastation of farmland arising from oil exploration, will be permanently sensitized and committed to deal with issues of sustainable development.
  
  
• Near absence of culturally relevant texts on the Nigerian coastal environment at primary, secondary and non-formal educational levels.

SOLUTIONS

Firstly, we need greater co-operation between education systems in various African countries and also with appropriate international bodies. The Commission for Biology Education (CBE), an arm of the International Union for Biological Sciences (IUBS), has made efforts and continues to work on environmental education, curriculum and teaching. A well planned education programme will serve for advocacy, awareness raising, information, dissemination, capacity building, informed decision making, attitude change, problem solving towards sustainable coastal development.

Secondly, we have to develop appropriate curricula on environmental education at all levels. We must accommodate indigenous knowledge.

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