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Responding to climate change and environment preservation
NEC Forest People Training Course
Ever since the Environmental Preservation Activity and Environmental Education Promotion Act (2003) was passed, companies and schools have been actively engaged in environmental programs and there is a greater consciousness concerning the environment. However, although there are more schools including environmental education as part of their curriculum, there is a lack of people (environmental education instructors) who can teach others to be more conscious and share their knowledge about environmental problems, and training more such people is a major problem.
In order to solve this problem, NEC and the Japan Environmental Education Forum hold the "NEC Forest People Training Course" for university and vocational school students who are interested in environmental education.
Two camp-style courses are held per year at the Oak Village (Kiyomi-mura, Gifu Prefecture) and KEEP Foresters' School (Kiyosato, Yamanashi Prefecture); an early summer camp and a late autumn camp. By spending time together in the same forest, participants can feel the changes in the forest and wildlife with the changing of the seasons. The aim is to train environmental instructors who can speak from experience by having participants actually plant trees, remove undergrowth, thin trees, etc.
About 500 people have completed this course since it was started in 1995.
The circle of people who care for the environment is steadily growing through this project because it is producing people who are working in some form in environmental education, such as nature park rangers, employees at environmental NPOs, environmental researchers, school teachers, etc.
Comments from Participants
- I was able to think seriously about forests for the first time by taking part in this course. The participants were able to understand the dangers facing Japan's forests, we discussed what should be done and we felt that we had taken a small step forward by "changing" a small part of the forest with our own efforts.
I am also thankful that I was able to gain friends who share my love of the forest and nature. - My view of environmental education changed because of this course. Until now, I thought of environmental education as a narrow range of activities involving nature experience activities and enlightenment activities concerning pollution. However, I learned about the goals of environmental education in this initial lecture and this both moved me and motivated me. I feel that I want to work in an environmental related field in the future.
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