The 8th WEEC congress is now open

The 8th World Environmental Education Congress has been opened on Monday, June 29th, in Goteborg (Sweden) during an opening ceremony chaired by Katarina Gärdfeldt, director of the centre of environment and sustainability GMV at University of Goteborg and Chalmers University of technology (Sweden).
At the moment over 800 participants from 75 countries are attending the Congress, that will finish on Thursday.
The most numerous delegations are from Sweden, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and Brazil.
The congress has been set up thanks to the help of 85 volunteers that facilitate languages, logistic and so on.
During the opening ceremony Mario Salomone, General Secretary of the WEEC network said that he is proud to contribute to build awareness, capabilities, participation, and ecological citizenship, “We are very happy – he said – for this intersection and true crossroads of institutions, actors from civil society, scientific researchers, experiences and competencies, making the congresses a friendly site where top down and bottom up initiatives and where academia, public bodies, associations, companies can enhance dialogue and collaboration”. The network must be built now to ensure dissemination information about activities, to promote events and publications via website and newsletter, to enable collaborations and partnerships, to better to inform about what is happening in the world. (Read all the speech here)
Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson, co-chair of WEEC 2015 and Pam Fredman, vice-chancellor of University of Goteborg focus on the transitions and the role of students in this process aimed to achieve education to all (all countries, all genders, etc) .
John Holmberg, vice president for Chalmers University of Technology has pointed out the rule of university in order to promote the transformation and integration of the educational system.
The Director-General of Unesco, Irina Bokova has reminded the delegates the past WEEC congress in Morocco and the continuity that links the environmental education congresses. “Green societies for green citizenship education for sustainability – she said – must stand in the heart of the political agenda”.
“Unep commitment on environmental education – said Achim Steiner, Unep Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General of the united Nations – remains strong than ever”.
Arjen Wals WEEC 2015 co-chair and Professor at Wageningen University and University of Goteborg said that different approches and solutions can be mixed. Local solutions can be shared and this exchange of best practises and information has been one of the main goal since the first WEEC congress.
The 8th WEEC congress is now open, good luck for this new challenging adventure!