Umweltbildung und Umweltkommunikation in der VR ChinaClaudia Kruse

ASIEN – Nr. 78 (2001) pp. 25–49

The concept of sustainable development stresses the anthropocentric nature of environmental problems as well as the necessity to change human behavior towards the environment. Environmental Education and Communication are means of crucial importance to serve this purpose. In this article the concept of EE as based on multiplicators in the political, educational, media and non-governmental arena will be outlined. Within the Chinese environmental institutional and regulatory framework, the development of EE in the different social arenas is analyzed and trends are identified. In this domestic context possible forms and types of international co-operation as to contribute to capacity building are anticipated. The author comes to the conclusion that to foster EE and to get China on the way to a sustainable development, international assistance in form of services is needed. This study is partly based on experiences gained while working at the Environmental Education Television Project for China (EETPC) in Beijing in 1998 which was made possible through a scholarship granted by ASA/Carl-Duisberg Foundation.