Many of the most critical global environmental issues are rooted in local, day-to-day problems. Local decisions about such issues benefit all citizens globally. This book attempts to identify and document the current range of initiatives toward developing sustainable communities. Dozens of tools, initiatives, and resources are presented,…

Discusses the need for greening of academic establishments in order to encourage environmental responsibility in youths. Academic establishments find themselves committed to two elements of greening: (1) operational, that which is followed by any environmentally responsible company; and (2) curriculum greening, which is problematic with a changing…

Reports on students' perceptions of the environment and their expectations from an elective course called Environmental Education. Students initially preferred nature protection values to economic interests but later supported sustainable development and solidarity, demonstrating a shift toward systemic and more complex attitudes about the…

The communist regime in Romania destroyed civil society by breeding suspicion and distrust. Viata, an adventure education program in a depressed coal mining region, assists social redevelopment by providing youth with free, positive experiences of self-efficacy and interconnectedness within the larger web of community. (TD)

Recounts the history of some of the earliest tribal colleges and poses questions regarding the current state of American Indian higher education institutions. Argues that, though the colleges are expanding, the larger goals of nurturing sustainable communities remain unfulfilled. Compares tribal colleges to Maori schools in New Zealand. (NB)

Since 1973, the Heritage Centre and its precursors on Walpole Island First Nations Reserve (Ontario) have countered environmental threats through research, creation of environmental management plans, and youth education and employment in environmental projects. A study of four critical environmental events shows how community support was mobilized…

Alaska's efforts toward sustainable development include protecting the subsistence lifestyle by involving indigenous people in stakeholder decisions about whaling and fishing quotas and offshore oil drilling; developing rural energy, water, and sewage infrastructures; using telecommunications to bring health care and education to remote areas; and…

Asserts that three factors are changing international development assistance and the agenda of international development agencies working in the area of education: (1) shifts in the age distribution of the population; (2) devolution of more authority to lower levels of the education system; and (3) intensified competition for resources. Examines…

The Northwest Center for Sustainable Resources, at Chemeketa Community College (Salem, Oregon), develops college curricula in natural resources management encompassing Native American understandings of relations between humans and their environment; organizes hands-on conservation programs for tribal youth; and sponsors conferences and seminars…

Commentators tend to agree that the rural resource is becoming increasingly subject to pressures arising from an ever wider range of economic, social, political and environmental influences. This paper focuses on the case of rural tourism in illustrating the advantages of adopting a sustainable development approach to identifying suitable policies…

At the Institute of Silviculture at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, students learn to cross-link ecological, socio-economic and technical knowledge of maintaining, regenerating, tending and utilizing forests in a sustainable way. They learn complex concepts and processes most successfully when they are…

For most of their history, two separate, but related, after-school education programs operated independently, coordinated by separate teams of university and community partners. When the existence of the programs was threatened, a community-university coalition formed in an effort to sustain them. This coincided with the university-community…

Faculty at Columbia University's Earth Semester created the interdisciplinary Riparian Area Management Project to help students integrate information and skills from life sciences, geosciences, social sciences, and humanities focused coursework. Structured as a "consulting" contract, students were required to make a policy recommendation…

Amidst Australia's background of ecological devastation there is hope as people and their communities search for ways to re-think and revision their future, moving ever so slowly towards sustainability. For the author, sustainability is the intersection where humanity consciously engages with the ecological systems in ways to ensure all life is…

This paper describes the results of a research project that investigated the ways that academics understand sustainability within their own disciplines. It describes a range of ways in which academics view sustainability in the context of their teaching, and a range of ways they suggest that sustainability could be integrated into their teaching.…