<P><FONT color=#33711E><STRONG>Day 3 – Session 7C: <br>Educating Rural People for Sustainable Development</STRONG></FONT></P>
Panorama 2
13.00 – 13.20
7.C.1 School and Community Farmland Biodiversity Conservation
Marut Jatiket and Kevin Kamp, Thai Education Foundation, Thailand
Over sixty percent of Thailand’s population is engaged in livelihoods relating to farming, and market-oriented production, including for export, is a major emphasis in the agriculture sector. At the same time, the livelihood security of farmers is heavily dependent upon a diverse number of naturally-occurring (non-farmed) species of animals and plants on their farmlands. Thai farming communities utilize these resources for food, sources of income, household and farm materials, medicine, social and cultural activities, natural crop protection and for creating a pleasant living environment. Unfortunately, degradation of farmland biodiversity is occurring at an alarming rate because of unsustainable local land use and cultivation practices, such as heavy use of toxic chemicals, over-exploitation of some species, destructive harvesting practices, burning, and overuse of water resources. While farmers understand the value of these resources and recognize that biodiversity of the farmlands is decreasing, there is an absence of local community-wide initiatives and local leadership needed to reverse this trend. The Thai Education Foundation has been implementing a project in cooperation with some 50 schools in four provinces of Thailand to create community awareness on the importance of the farmland bio-diversities and to conserve species that are important to farmers’ livelihoods. This project has received much interest and support from communities, governments and international agencies. This paper describes the project and its outcomes.
Download the paper (pdf, 700kb) and presentation (pdf, 1.3mb)
13.20 – 13.40
7.C.2. ODL for Agricultural Development and Rural Poverty Reduction: A Comparative Analysis of Innovation and Best Practice in Asia and the Pacific
Scott McLean, University of Calgary, Canada
Malcolm Hazelman, Food and Agriculture Organization, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Alexander G. Flor, University of the Philippines Open University, Philippines
This paper describes a project which was implemented with the aim of understanding and improving the application of open and distance learning (ODL) strategies, to address the challenges of agricultural development and rural poverty reduction. This project studied five institutions in the Asia-Pacific region and documented innovative and exemplary practices in ODL for agricultural development and rural poverty reduction. The five case studies were analyzed using a framework developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization for the conduct of distance learning projects on agriculture and rural development.
Download the paper (word, 140kb) and presentation (pdf, 90kb)
13.40 – 14.00
7.C.3 Development of the Agricultural ESD program at Agricultural and Forestry Research Centre of the University of Tsukuba
Atsuhi Tajima, Hideo Hasegawa, DeMar Taylor, Yoshihiko Sekozawa, Mizuki Matsuoka, Tsuyoshi Homma,
Tomonari Yamamoto and Haruyuki Mochida
Agricultural and Forestry Research Centre, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Development of an education and research programme on sustainable food production is extremely important for the future generations. The Agricultural and Forestry Research Centre at the University of Tsukuba (AFRC-UT) has been conducting research and education programmes on low-input sustainable agricultural production and is now committed to developing Agricultural ESD (Ag-ESD) programmes. This paper describes the activities of AFRC-UT in this area and the core Ag-ESD programmes at AFRC-UT.
Download the paper (word, 50kb) and presentation (pdf, 210kb)
14.00 - 14.20
Flagship on Education For Rural People (ERP)
Malcolm Hazelman, Food and Agriculture Organization, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Download the presentation (pdf, 620kb)