Thirty participants from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste, and Vietnam  completed the Regional Training Course on Environmental Education for  Sustainable Development on 17-26 June 2014 held at the BIOTROP’s headquarter in Bogor. The training course was the first collaborative activity between BIOTROP and the SEAMEO Regional Center for Quality Improvement of Teachers and Education Personnel (QITEP) in Science.

The training course is a regular offering of SEAMEO QITEP in Science.   It generally aims to enhance the knowledge and skills of participants to integrate sustainable development issues and concerns into science learning in secondary schools in the region.  Upon completing this course, participants should be able to:  (1) explain the science, issues, and improvements for  environmental education in support of sustainable development at local and regional level; (2) integrate sustainable development issues into lesson plan, hands-on activities and learning materials of envronmental education; (3) develop mass media article for community on environmental education issues to support sustainable development;  (4) share best practices regarding the implentation of environmental education in participant’s school; (5. integrating zero waste lifestyle as part of school program to support sustainable development; 6. observe the example of environmental management effort at West Java as best practice. 

For this years’ offering, BIOTROP and QITEP in Science agreed to co-implement it specifically to share BIOTROP’s expertise and experiences in Ecosystem Services and Conservation as one of the modules of the course.  Other course modules include:  (1)  Environmental Education for Sustainable Development (EESD) in ASEAN Context; (2) EESD in Indonesia; (3) Sustainable Development Principles and Implementation; (4) Environmental Ethic; (5) Climate Change Impact to Ecosystem; (6) Zero Waste Life Style; (7) Environmental Education and Facilitation Methods; (8) Environmental Education Managemet Comparative Study; and (9) Strategy on Persuading Public on Environmental Education.

BIOTROP provided the following lectures during the training course:

(1) Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation in Degraded Areas: The Case of Ex-Mined Sites in Indonesia by Dr. Irdika Mansur
(2) Issues and Challenges in Ecosystem Services and Conservation in Southeast Asia by Dr Jess C. Fernandez
(3) ICT Tools for Mapping Ecosystem Services and Conservation Priorities by Mr. Harry Imantho and Mr. Armaiki
(4) Maximizing Problematic Ecosystem for Productive Purposes:   SEAMEO BIOTROP Experiences in Sorghum Production for Food, Feed and Fuel in Dry and Peat Soils by Dr Supriyanto
(5) Waste Management Technologies and Application: The SEAMEO BIOTROP Experiences by Dr Hilman Affandi

At the end of the training course, the participants produced action plans on how they would integrate the knowledge and experiences they gained from the training course into the science curriculum of their respective schools.