“Our rich diversity . . . is our collective strength.” (Johannesburg Declaration, 2002)

Humanity has inhabited every corner of the world, except Antarctica, for centuries. As groups of people worked and lived together, they developed distinctive cultures. Together the cultures of the world create a rich and varied tapestry. The resulting cultural diversity expands choices, nurtures a variety of skills, human values and worldviews and provides wisdom from the past to inform the future. Cultural diversity is a mainspring for sustainable development for individuals, communities and countries. Thus, building an effective global approach to sustainable development and ESD needs to address respecting, protecting and maintaining the cultural diversity of the world now and in the future.

Cultural diversity exerts strong influence on ESD in that:

• All ESD must be locally relevant and culturally appropriate;
• Culture influences what this generation chooses to teach the next generation including what knowledge is valued, skills, ethics, languages and worldviews;
• ESD requires intercultural understanding if people are to live together peacefully, tolerating and accepting differences amongst cultural and ethnic groups.