Tag Archive for: WEEC2019

Be giants in the education work you do: the request of young people at 10WEEC

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Around the world, young people are marching for action on climate change.
Around the world, students are striking.
Around the world, the youth are protesting for a better world.
Young people are standing up and asking to be heard. This is what democracy is about. Being heard.

Dear Congress organisers, Her Royal Highness, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, WEEC Committee, and conference delegates, thank you for this opportunity to stand up, speak up, and be heard. Thank you for this opportunity to be a part of this 2019 World Environmental Education Congress.

I am speaking on behalf of 68 students and teachers from Thailand, Taiwan, Nepal, Japan, Philippines and India. In a way, I am also speaking on behalf of all young people in those six countries and around the world.
It is an honour to have the chance to present the views of young people to this Congress.

I want to thank you all for the work you have done and the work you are doing in environment and education to make the world better. It is not young people Vs old people. The Earth is one country and we humans are its citizens. We are in this together and we youth want to help heal and protect the Earth.

Yesterday, students from the Youth Camp came up with messages for some of the main groups in this room.

To the people from schools and universities, please teach students to become aware of the problems and how to help. Then students can use their knowledge and skills to make the better world.
To community organisations, please keep doing what you are doing to care for people and the environment.
To the scientists and engineers, we ask you to keep doing good science and keep innovating new designs and materials for the betterment of the planet and the people.
To the business people, we ask you to use your platform as a foundation to promote environmental awareness and action.
To the politicians here today, please make good decisions so young people can enjoy being young and not worried about the future. We don’t want to protest. We want to be children.
Finally, to everyone here, please work together. A sustainable world depends on communication and collaboration of all groups in society.

Sir Isaac Newton, a famous scientist from the 17th century, once said, “If I have seen further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”

We students at the Youth Camp will leave school soon. We will go to universities, we will go into the community, and we will go into the workforce. We ask you…

Please be giants.

Please be giants in the science and education work you do.

Please build a strong sustainability foundation that we can stand upon. Please be sustainability giants with strong shoulders that will help us see further and continue your work in building a world worth living in.

Please be giants.

Phansa Duangtip

Plutaluang Wittaya School, Chonburi Province, Thailand

see photos and video of the Youth Camp

Improvement of the environment and natural resources: the goal of the Chaipattana Foundation

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May it please, Your Royal Highness, May I, Sumet Tantivejkul, Secretary-General of the Chaipattana Foundation, humbly request Your Royal Highness permission to deliver the introductory Remarks for the 10th World Environmental Education Congress. Your Royal Highness, On behalf of the Chaipattana Foundation and distinguished participants, I am greatly honored to express our deepest appreciation to Your Royal Highness for graciously presiding over the 10th World Environmental Education Congress today.

On this remarkable event, I have a privilege to announce that we are delighted to serve as one of the organizers that made this congress happen for the first time in Asia. It is also a wonderful experience for us to work with other two co-organizers, Kasetsart University and the World Environment Education Network. Established by His Majesty Late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the Chaipattana Foundation has served, for 30 years, to provide prompt, timely and necessary responses to problems affecting the Thai people through various development projects. The Faculty of Environment Kasetsart University has long been providing vital assistance to the Chaipattana Foundation particularly in the areas of environment. Therefore, this serves as an excellent opportunity to host the Congress together with our co-organizers whose expertise will guide us through the worldwide discussions and exchanges of ideas that will lead to sustainability of the local and global connectivity.

The Chaipattana Foundation’s great concern has always been on the improvement of the environment and natural resources. Therefore, various royal development projects aiming at improving the quality of soil and water have been established around the nation that apply simple, affordable, and practical methods. Among these projects is the Laem Phak Bia Environmental Study Research and Development Project or LERD in Petchaburi Province. The main purpose is to provide environmental knowledge for local communities and organizations on how to implement simple natural methods to treat solid waste and wastewater. Extensive research and experiments to make the natural methods become more effective have been conducted by an academic team from the Faculty of Environment, Kasetsart University.

Throughout the years of implementation, the results on the application of the natural methods have been satisfactory and the LERD Project has become internationally recognized. Each year, the Project received numerous visitors from every part of the world. Collaborations with several academic institutions in the national and international levels were also established.

As the world is becoming smaller and our common future has become a common challenge, the Chaipattana Foundation is confident that the knowledge sharing is the key. The sharing that will happen during the conference will bring forth diverse bodies of knowledge from around the world to help formulate guidelines that will help ease the environmental problems that are becoming more severe. I personally believe that this meaningful congress will eventually play a significant part that helps our common future gear towards sustainability.

On this auspicious occasion, with Your Royal Highness’ gracious permission, I have a great honor to respectfully invite Your Royal Highness to graciously deliver an opening address and to preside over the opening ceremony of the 10th World Environmental Education Congress for all the success of this remarkable event.

Education is the key to create significant changes

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It is a privilege to preside over the opening ceremony of the 10th World Environmental Education Congress hosted by the Chaipattana Foundation and Kasetsart University in collaboration with the World Environmental Education Network. I am delighted to welcome such a large and diverse audience which is gathered here today.

It is a great pleasure to witness the commitment of the international community to fight the increasing degradation of our environment. I believe that we are here today because we all need to understand the fragile state of our environment and the importance of its protection. It is apparent that everything around us is interconnected. We will lose our balance, if we break the chain of nature’s connectivity, and the impact to human beings and all living things would be tremendous.

One great effect that may occur will concern food. To keep up with the increasing world population, there is a greater demand for food. Natural resources such as soil and water are essential foundation for food production. Therefore, sustainable use and preservation of these resources is crucial in order for the food system to function properly. If the soil becomes infertile or the water becomes polluted, producing sufficient and good quality food to feed the global population would be another challenge.

The Chaipattana Foundation has conducted many projects related to environmental improvement and also in connection with the implementation of standardized food production for consumption. One example is the seed production project that emphasizes producing the finest quality seeds because we truly believe that by producing quality seeds, we also produce quality yields. In order to do so, seeds need to be grown in a good environment. This project focuses on the production of quality seeds with zero use of chemical substances, causing no harm to natural resources. In addition, the use of chemical pesticide was replaced by using natural methods. At present, this project benefits local villagers covering three provinces in different parts of the country.

Another example is the Tea Seed Oil Plant and Oil Crops Research and Development Center. The Chaipattana Foundation introduced tea seed cultivation that involves the process of reforestation in the northern part of Thailand in an attempt to restore arid land and to enable the local people to have stable incomes and to create vocational opportunities in a sustainable manner. The quality of tea seed oil is also rich in nutritional properties, which is beneficial for daily consumption.

Most of the projects under the responsibility of the Chaipattana Foundation including these two aforementioned projects aim at educating people. The interested public is welcome to learn from us. I believe that education is the key to create significant changes and it is best to educate the younger generation. Thus, many of our projects try to provide knowledge and understanding, as well as to raise the people’s awareness regarding environmental issues because us, human beings, are one of the factors that intentionally or unintentionally damaged the balance of nature. This congress, I believe, serves as an excellent platform that engages a diverse audience particularly the younger generation, to educate, and to give a floor to us all to share our experiences, case studies, and stories of success that have occured in different parts of the world.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all those whose dedication and commitment have made this conference happen. I would also like to convey my appreciation to every concerned organization that has contributed to assuring the success of the conference. Without all of your support, organizing this significant event would not have been possible.

With these remarks, may I now open the 10th Environmental Education Congress. I wish the congress every success and all that the participants will have a pleasant time in Thailand.

Thank you very much.

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

“It is not enough to just say you will do it, but you have to say we will do it”

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During the WEEC2019 conference in the Bangkok city of Thailand we had a chance to meet Niclas Svenningsen who was really kind and showed great interest into our being there and interview.

Just after his speech in the opening ceremony, We, timidly, went next to him and asked him if he could spare some time to us for an interview. He, sincerely and very welcomingly, accepted our offer and started to find a quiter place to help us. At that moment all of our hesitations faded away.

We proposed him a couple of questions about environmental education, communication and global connectivity which are the main themes of 10th World Environmental Education Congress held in Thailand and he sincerely answered all of our questions. In short, It was an informative interview for everone. Here you can find the details.

Hallo Mr Svenningsen, Could please you present yourself for YRE students?

«My name is Niclas Svenningsen. I am working for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. I am responsible for our work on what we call as Global Climate Action, which is basically everything that is not so much negotiations, but engaging everybody else into this fight against the climate change».

In your speech, you mentioned that you conduct a programme called Action for Climate Empowerement of UNFCC. Can you explain the programme more in details?

«Action for Climate empowerement is something that has been in UNFCCCs since the very begining of 1992 and it contains six elements: Education and Training, public information, awareness and Access to engagement and then also international cooperation, but it’s really about the education and to have everybody involve in climate action basically».

“This is a war that you can not win with soldiers or bombs”. What do you think about today’s environmental situation? What are your expectations for the future?

«Well, it’s a big question. Today’s environmental situation could be better. We are at war against our planet. This is a war that you can not win with soldiers or bombs. You need to have intelligence and you need to work together. I’m optimistic, I think we can win this fight… I think we can do something about it, yet we need leaders who lead».

How can the environmental education be widespread to all around the World?

«That’s what I hope to learn from this conference. Every government under the Paris agreement, they have a commitment, a climate action plan. And that climate action plan also needs to include an element on ACE (Action for Climate Empowerment). They have to say how they are going to implement ACE. Today we need more ACE focal points. These focal points work with an industry of economy, infrastructure, transport, energy, the whole government and then with the rest of the society. We work for government to make them put effort on it . It is not enough to just say you will do it but you have to say we will do it».

Do you think the environmental movement efforts of today are enough? Why/ Why not?

«I can tell you that it’s getting better. I think that environmental movement have been there for many many years. However, I assume that the voice that has been out there through “Firdays For Future”, Greta Thunberg and many many others have really made all of us unconfortable for politicians which is good. It shouldn’t be confortable to not to do something, it should be unconfortable to do something. So we need more but we are improving.

Alin Aşım(15)

Ali Özek(16)

Young Reporters for the Environment (Turkey)

YRE: an interview to Gunter Pauli at 10WEEC

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When we were about to leave the conferance hall, we heard someone talking enthusiastically. We sat back to our seats. It didn’t take much time of the speaker to catch our attention. He was Gunter Pauli the author of the book The Blue Economy. We would like to share some highligting points from his speech.

“Tell the people three-minutes stories , they will ask for more.”

Everyone loves stories if we turn the most difficult scientific subjets into stories by using childhood games that we all played outdoor. Childrens mustn’t lose their fantasy . We need this fantasy to move to a vision. Plus, science should be solid. We can use children toys and games to make science concrete for them. For example we can use kites to teach gravity and ascending force.

“Now it’s time to sell the diplomas.”

We should stop whatever we are doing today because it seems that it doesn’t work as we can’t save the world as we don’t have any sustainability to the economy with old industrial errors of which the worst is the education. Because we still have mind control at schools. The biggest industry today is selling diplomas. We don’t need to be there; we should change whatever we are doing today.

“We should shift from green economy to blue economy”.

After his speech, we had a chance to talk about his book, The Blue Economy, which was translated into 34 languages. In his book he claims that green economy doesn’t work. Moreover, it is expensive as it doesn’t use what we have in nature. Sustainable economy requires new methods; blue economy which is cheap and responses to the people’s needs by using what we have in nature. We must benefit from our oceans and seas.

YRE Turkey in WEEC 2019 Thailand
By İrem Yılmaz & Mehmet Ardan

UNFCCC: Special Message to the 10th WEEC

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Niclas Svenningsen, UNFCCC, with the Young Reporters for Environment. WEEC2019 (3-7 November 2019)

Your Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

Dr Sumet Tantivejkul, Honorary Chairman of the World Environmental Education Congress 2019 Steering Committee

Distinguished delegates

Ladies and Gentlemen

Dear friends.

On behalf of the United Nations Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, her excellency Patricia Espinosa, I am honoured to deliver this message to this the 10th World Environmental Education Congress.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – UNFCCC – was established at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The purpose of the convention is to bring together all governments of the world to work jointly in addressing the threat of climate change and to ensure that global warming does not reach levels that will be irreparably harmful to our society and to our planet.

This is a task that may seem easy, but which in fact is very complicated. It took more than 20 years for our 198 parties to the Convention – the world’s governments – to agree on a common plan. This common plan is known as the Paris Agreement, which was adopted in 2015. This agreement is essentially a blueprint for international cooperation around climate change. It states the responsibilities that every government has, and it defines how they must work together to reach the specific objective of the Paris Agreement: to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, with the ambition to limit it to 1.5 degrees C.

It took more than 20 years to agree on this plan. Not because governments don’t want to do anything, but because addressing climate change requires a complete re-thinking of how we do things. It is not about banning an individual chemical or changing a single sector, but it requires us to think differently about everything: How we produce food, how we manufacture everything from clothes, to vehicles to buildings, how we travel and transport things, how we generate and consume energy, how we take care of our forests, oceans, rivers and lakes, how we build our cities and how we do business. Addressing climate change simply affects all walks of life and society.

It took more than 20 years to achieve the Paris Agreement. In that period, global greenhouse gas emissions increased by 40% pushing the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to levels we haven’t seen on this planet for at least 3.6 million years. And we are feeling the impact now. With temperature records being broken every year, with melting ice caps and glaciers, with extreme storms, droughts and weather events. And we see the impact on food production, on infrastructure, on the economy and on the health and lives of people all over the world. From wild fires in California, to typhoons in Japan, flooding in Jamaica, landslides in China and starvation in Africa. It is all linked to our changing climate.

If you follow the climate change negotiations, you will be familiar with discussions on finance, on technology, capacity building, on mitigation, on adaptation, on national climate action plans and so on. However, the fundamental aspect of our work is a different one: It is all about people.

Whether you are a student, a teacher, a business owner, a mayor of a city, or even the president of a country, your decisions will have an impact on the climate footprint of yourself, of your university, of your company, city or country. It is our decisions, as individuals and as representatives of our community, organization or country that in the end decide if we will be successful in tackling the climate crisis. And to be able to take the right decisions, we need to be informed. We need to be educated. And we need to have access to information.

This is why the issue of education, training, public awareness, access to information and public participation is so fundamental to our work on climate change in the United Nations. Already in 1992, this was defined as a priority. In the Paris Agreement, it was again confirmed as a top priority for all countries and all governments to address. In UNFCCC we refer to this issue as Action for Climate Empowerment, with the nice acronym A-C-E, or just ACE.

Under the Paris Agreement, every country is required to develop their national climate action plans – also known as “Nationally Determined Contributions” – NDCs, that describes what the country will do to fight climate change, to reduce emissions and increase adaptation. These climate action plans need to be regularly updated until we reach the Paris Agreement objective.

What does it really mean? Science tells us that it means that we must cut our emissions by 45% by 2030. It means that we have to achieve a climate neutral society – a society where we are not emitting more greenhouse gases than the planet can absorb – by 2050.

Ladies and gentlemen; cutting emissions by 45% in just 10 years from now, and achieving a climate neutral society by 2050, requires that we take action now. Clearly, this is not a job for future generations. But for us. Now. Here. Today. That action will not happen if we, as individuals, and decision makers, and if everybody who have a say about the direction that society is going, are not fully aware, informed, and educated.

And what is it they need to know? They need to know that – Yes – climate change is a formidable threat to our society and planet. A threat that is both global and personal for most of us. But they also need to know that tackling climate change is not a threat. It is not something that will impact us negatively. On the contrary, climate action means that we innovate, renew and improve how we do things. Think about energy without smoke, products without waste, travel without congestion, food without artificial chemicals. In every way, a climate neutral future is a positive one. But we need to be bold to take the steps needed to go there.

This is why we in UNFCCC consider that the work of the World Environmental Education Congress is so essential. This is why Patricia Espinosa, was very happy to also provide her personal patronage to this conference. We believe that the work you do here today can, and will, help the world’s governments to step up and fully implement ACE as part of their national commitments to tackle climate change. This is also why we are very grateful to Thailand, to her Royal Highness, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, to host and welcome this important event. This is the first time the UNFCCC attends WEEC. We pledge that it is not the last time.

Ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, I wish us all a productive, progressive and successful World Environmental Education Congress.

Thank you!

WEEC: the success of the 10th edition looking at the future

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Dear friends and colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

for the 10th time we arrive at the end of this beautiful experience of the World Environmental Education Congress.

I hope that you will go back home, to your job places, to your Universities and schools where you teach, you do research or you study, with rejuvenated enthusiasm, with a wealth of contacts, with a treasure of experience and relations that you consolidated or that were born here in Bangkok.

From my side and on behalf of my staff, I express my gratitude and I renew my thanks to all Thai public and private institutions and to the people of Thailand for their graceful kindness and warmth.

During this 10th congress, many networks and initiatives met and/or created new relationships, many important meetings have taken place and important decisions have been made.

I thank also all youth who has joined us at the congress and the Young Reporters for the Environment.

As I said at the opening ceremony, I would like to remind you that the WEEC does not represent only congresses but it is an active network and it aims to be the more and more active between one congress and the other, with some common tools, initiatives, goals and work plans that I would like to stress here:

1. The website and the social network (as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and the newsletter) that the Permanent Secretariat manages and develops, are strategic tools to use and enhance with everybody participation. So, visit and use the website and the social networks.

2. Between one congress and the other I hope in the increase of regional and sub-regional meetings, over the two years that separates one WEEC to the other.

3. I wish that the network can be more and more a promoter and supporter of joint programme of research, campaigns, exchange among countries, of training as summer and winter courses, didactic tools, online courses, etc. I invite you all to make proposals and to ask to the Secretariat the WEEC logo for initiatives and activities that you will organize.

4. Last but not the least, today the preparation of the World Environmental Education Day 2020 starts. Since now, I invite you to develop initiatives in the month of October 2020 and devote to the WEEC the initiatives that you possibly have already planned for that month.

5. Finally, I open the call for bid for the congress. Since now it is possible to contact the Secretariat for information and advice about the candidacies for hosting the 12th WEEC in 2023 in a date that will very significative because it will be a “WEEC+20”, twenty years after the firs congress in Portugal;

and I am proud to announce the location of the 11th WEEC we have chosen among 52 professions of interest and among five short listed countries.

The 11th WEEC will be held in Prague. It is for me an immense pleasure to confirm our next appointment in 2021.

The title is just a promise: “Building Bridges”!

Now, our colleague professor Ian Cincera of Masaryk University is going to present you and explain the spirit and the setting of the next congress we will work on together.

My warmest wishes and my warmest greetings to all of you.

See you in Prague!

 

Environmental education to understand the complexity of the world

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Lyonpo Thakur Powdyel (on the left) with Mario Salomone WEEC Secretary General (on the right)

Your Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Honorable members and partners of Thai Organizing Committee, distinguished representatives of the UNESCO, UNFCCC and UNEP, distinguished representatives of public bodies, institutions, scientific societies, networks, universities, schools, parks, NGOs, dear friends and colleagues coming to Bangkok from all over the world, dear delegates from about seventy countries, I’m much honored to address to a such outstanding audience: my warmest thanks to all for attending the 10th World Environmental Education Congress.

Moreover, l would like to express my gratitude to the Kingdom of Thailand, to the people of this great and noble country for their warm welcome, their wonderful organization. And the splendid and superb mood you have made.

It is for me a great pleasure to open this congress. Among a lot of reasons, there are at least two main reasons for celebrating this great event in Bangkok:

1. We are meeting the goal of the 10th congress. Since 2003 the World Environmental Education Congresses are the most regular and important appointment for all the actors in environmental education (academia, associations, public institutions, civil society, etc.).

I hope the 10th WEEC will be a further opportunity for making the global WEEC network more useful. Having originated in 2003 and still growing, the 10th congress will enable the network to have broader and more active participation among the greatest possible number of environmental education actors, both academic and non-academic.

During the closing plenary session, on the 6th November, we announce the next milestone: The Eleventh World Congress, its location and its title, and we will open the ‘call for bid’ collecting candidacies for the congress in 2023.

Above all, I would like to remember and to underline you that WEECs are not simply congresses, but an opportunity of networking and partnerships for improving and strengthening the environmental education worldwide in the world.

WEECs are not simply scientific meetings, but are also a permanent organization fitted with advisory board, staff, websites, newsletters, WEECs are a strategic international network acting for spreading information, sharing knowledge, enhancing the work of thousands and thousands of teachers, researchers, educators, young environmental activists in all continents. Finally, an opportunity for all.

2. For the first time the WEECs land in Asia: the largest continent, the most populated, with a powerful and grandiose nature, with an ancient history and a flourishing of great civilizations, with the greatest variety of religious faiths, with the largest rural population and the largest number of workers in the industry. With a thriving economy until the Western/European colonization and which now resumes its place in the world, having therefore, like everyone, to face the challenge of sustainability.

Maybe, also a decolonization of the environmental education languages and patterns is needed.

In short, there is much to learn from Asia, and we hope it will be served, thanks to a conference full of papers, posters, workshops and authoritative speakers from four corners of the world and from different languages ​​and cultures.

Today we are also closing a month of worldwide initiatives throughout October, around the World environmental education day we celebrate each year on 14th October, because on 14th October 1977 the Tbilisi United Nations – UNESCO – UNEP Conference on environmental education opened.

Environmental education is and will always be more fundamental in a world that changes quickly and poses increasingly complex challenges, starting with “global heating”.

Psychological resistance, petty and thirsty interests, egoism, divisions, ideological cages, fears, hatreds, prejudices, all obstacles to let us to feel as precarious and temporary tenants of Mother Earth and part of a single planetary “community of destiny” will also remain in the future.

So, environmental education must be the pivot, the guide and the beacon of the education for peace, for planetary citizenship, for a fair trade, for a social and environmental justice, for the global heating mitigation.

At the same time, environmental education claims with satisfaction the fruit of decades of awareness raising, to change consciences, give awareness, change attitudes and therefore behaviors, spread knowledge and above all build competences of active and responsible citizenship and for change.

And environmental education is exactly that: a holistic education, to understand the complexity of the world as modified by human action, to understand a slightly different world every morning, and to give all human beings reasons for brotherhood and sisterhood, between them and the planet and the tool to stand upright and not get carried away like extras from the muddy river of the History.

So, my greetings and my warmest wishes: have a joyful and productive congress!

Mario Salomone

Five steps to reduce your ecological footprint during the 10WEEC

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Food, water, waste, CO2 emissions, paper. What you can do to reduce your ecological footprint during the 10WEEC? Remember to adopt all the suggestions!

You can determine the carbon footprint of your flight and donate the amount necessary to offset to the environmental project The Laom Phak Bia Royal, an useful way to offer your contribution to a local project. Use the Carbon Emission Calculator that you will find in Bitec.

Bring your reusable bottle, you will find a dispenser with cool water!

We will donate the leftover food to local organisation, but you remember to use the separate bin for your waste and don’t use paper if you don’t need it, thank you.

Thais Join Forces to Host 10th World Environmental Education Congress

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The Chaipattana Foundation, via the Royal Project on Laem Phak Bia Environmental Study and Development, in collaboration with Thai environmental networks and WEEC Network will host the 10th World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC2019) between 3 and 7 November 2019 at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center (BITEC Bangna) to foster academic cooperation among congress participants, academics, and local scholars, and also to engage youth from developing nations in the exchanges of knowledge and joint formulation of solutions to environmental issues that exist today or may emerge in the future.

Dr. Sumet Tantivejkul, Chaipattana Foundation’s board member and secretary-general

Dr. Sumet Tantivejkul, Chaipattana Foundation’s board member and secretary-general (see photo) in his capacity as the honorary chair of the WEEC2019 steering committee, says environmental problems are now important issues in the society and everyone undeniably must be responsible for addressing environmental concerns. He emphasizes that the inculcation of green mind to conserve and develop the environment is not the duty of any specific person, but the shared duty of all sectors in the society.

Recognizing the need for environmental conservation, HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has granted a royal permission for the Chaipattana Foundation via the Royal Project on Laem Phak Bia Environmental Study and Development to co-organize WEEC2019 for the purpose of showcasing HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great’s talents in nature-based environmental management. The showcase, when done through international environmental networks, promises to create awareness of the need to conserve natural resources in the way that may upgrade relevant knowledge further.

Organisers and supporters
WEEC2019 will be held through the collaboration between the Chaipattana Foundation and relevant organizations from various sectors. Among them are the Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Environment, the Thailand Global Warming Academy (TGWA) by the Napamitr Foundation, the WEEC Network Office, the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, and the Power for Sustainable Future Foundation. Many other organizations from both the government and the private sectors have also supported the event.
These supporters are: Thai Beverage Public Company Limited, C asean, PTT Public Company Limited, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, TTW Public Company Limited, Sahaviriya Steel Industries Public Company Limited, Namyong Terminal Public Company Limited, Siam Cement Public Company Limited, and Top Gun Company Limited. N.C.C. International Event Company Limited, meanwhile, serves as the organizer.

Goals

The goals of WEEC2019 are to encourage the academic exchanges of environmental knowledge and the sharing of relevant experiences that will lead to efforts to explore environmental- management approaches for current and future situations; to foster academic cooperation; and to search for environmental solutions together at regional and global levels, under the “Local Knowledge, Communication and Global Connectivity” theme.

WEEC2019 also aims to foster academic cooperation among congress participants, academics from all over the world, and local scholars.
In addition, the event intends to give youth in developing nations opportunities to join the exchanges of knowledge and the formulation of approaches to address existing and future environmental problems. The environmental-management approaches, which are based on the propagation of environmental knowledge through various forms of communications designed for target groups across the world, will develop global networks for handling environmental problems. These approaches can be shared among operation-level officers, executives and planners. WEEC2019, in addition, will give a good opportunity for congress participations from all over the world to visit Bangkok that is rich in cultural attractions.
The upcoming congress, moreover, will be a forum to present HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great’s talents in social development and environmental sustainability to the global community.

Current global environmental changes directly affect human activities, with adverse impacts on their quality of life and living conditions. There are also indirect effects, which are perpetuated via disasters. In the face of global environmental changes, policies, measures and plans have been formulated to address environmental problems, conserve the environment and rehabilitate degraded environment.
WEEC2019 is one of the approaches for sustainable environmental development, which is directly related to human activities. The control of human activities, via environmental studies, originates from contributions from humans at all levels – household, community, society, national, regional and global levels. It takes technologies to distribute environmental knowledge to various target groups with effectiveness and efficiency so as to create environmental knowledge, understanding, awareness, conscience, and responsibility among individuals and networks. These elements will pave way for the academic exchanges of environmental knowledge and experiences, which encourage efforts to explore ways to manage global environmental changes as well as climate changes in both current and future context.

Program

Asst. Prof. Dr. Surat Bualert, dean of Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Environment in his capacity as the chair of the WEEC2019-organizing committee, says WEEC2019 will run for five days from 3 to 7 November 2019 at Bhiraj Halls 1-3 and Amber Halls 1-4 of BITEC Bangna, Bangkok.
Each day of the congress will have two main parts: 1. Plenary Hall that presents Plenary Sessions and Panel Discussions; and 2. Breakout Session that cover Oral Presentations, Round Table Sessions, Workshops and Side Events. Thanks to cooperation from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), there will be keynote speeches in as many as four days of the event. Keynote speakers are nationally or internationally- recognized specialists on environmental studies.

According to Asst. Prof. Dr. Surat, WEEC2019 will also include exhibitions by leading government and private organizations.  Academic exhibitions will feature works done by government agencies, foundations and associations so as to distribute knowledge and promote the “Environmental Quality Management Plan of B.E. 2560 – 2561 (2017-2018)”. This plan has four main strategies namely: 1) Balanced and fair management of natural resources; 2) Good management of environmental quality with prevention, treatments and rehabilitations in place; 3) Efficient and sustainable use of natural resources; and 4) Building capabilities to deal with climate change and natural disasters, as well as to promote cooperation with the international community.

PR exhibitions on environmental responsibility, according to Asst. Prof. Dr. Surat, will present activities that organizations in various sectors have conducted out of social and environmental responsibility and in pursuit of sustainable development. These exhibitions aim at sowing seeds for green mind and raising public awareness of the value of the environment so that environmental responsibility is successfully integrated into every step of work process and work operations. PR exhibitions on green products will showcase environmentally-friendly products and innovations. Visitors may buy these products at WEEC2019 too.
Furthermore, WEEC2019 will include one-day Technical and Cultural Excursion. Participants in WEEC2019 may choose to visit the site of an environmental education project, which covers a center on natural studies and ecological systems, or a cultural attraction whereby humans coexist with nature in line with the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy in support of sustainable economic and environmental development. The excursion to the cultural attraction will cover Thai-style green cultural activities.

Target

Target groups of WEEC2019 are executives, operation-level officers, researchers, and academics from both government and private sectors. In addition, WEEC2019 targets independent agencies, teachers, school students, and university students of state and private educational institutes, as well as environmentally-conscious people and those working in environmental fields in Thailand and other Asian nations. At WEEC2019, several organizations and universities will stage interesting activities about the environment. Included will be Poster Presentations on academic works and Art Gallery with environmental theme.

Hosted by Thailand, WEEC2019 is set to fulfill its goals of promoting, conducting PR for, and inculcating the mindset that is in line with the ‘Environmental Quality Management Plan of B.E. 2560 – 2561 (2017-2018)’.
The event will also educate the public and people in the environmental-education field in regards to knowledge and understanding for the joint promotion of environmental-education awareness and the need to take care of the environment not just today but also in the future. On top of this, WEEC2019 will give opportunities to people of all ages to express their opinions, knowledge, abilities, and interest that will promote the importance of environmental protection and support related campaigns across the world. Via WEEC2019, people will be able to exchange knowledge and experiences on international academic forums. WEEC2019, moreover, will provide a basis for relevant agencies in Asia to issue joint agreements on environmental education for people of all ages and all levels. So, in the end, there will be policy-based cooperation among the government, educational and private sectors under the ‘Environmental Quality Management Plan of B.E. 2560 – 2561 (2017-2018)’,” Asst. Prof. Dr. Surat says.

Themes

WEEC2019 will present conferences and sessions under the main theme of Local Knowledge, Communication and Global Connectivity.
There will also be three sub-themes namely: 1) Local Sphere; 2) Environmental Education and Communication Sphere and 3) Global Connectivity Sphere from 9am to 6pm between 4 and 6 November 2019.
As Thailand is the host of the event, participants who wish to make presentations at WEEC2019 may get 50-per-cent discount. For students, university students or persons who just wish to join sessions without making a presentation, they may reserve a seat at the fee of just Bt350 per day or Bt1,000 for three days. Members of the general public who wish to visit exhibitions at WEEC2019 will enjoy free admission. For details please browse to www.facebook.com/weec2019 or www.weec2019.org