ESSA - Ecosystem Services, Strong Sustainability and Agency
The very basis for human existence on Earth are the life-supporting services provided by ecosystems. However, for the present and future generations to keep benefiting from these services the destruction and over-use of ecosystems have to be overturned and steered into taking account of the existing planetary boundaries. To address these issues within education, SWEDESD is, together with partner organisations, developing the programme ESSA: Ecosystem Services, Strong Sustainability and Agency
The programme
The main objective of the ESSA programme is to strengthen the permeation into and the presence of the three ESSA components, Ecosystem Services (ES), Strong Sustainability (SS) and Agency (A), or action competences, in the curriculum, teaching and practice of teacher training institutions. This will be achieved through a collaborative development process, including the development and testing of approaches, methods and materials that will help teachers to apply a thorough and well planned educational and institutional approach for increased sustainability, with special regards to these ESSA components.
The ESSA programme will contribute to:
An increased momentum and mainstreaming of ES, SS and A within the context of teacher training programmes and education.
The development of ESSA-specific objectives, including materials and methods, for ESD, based upon collaborative methods in ESD teacher training.
The structuring of capacity building (modules and elements) within teacher training and education policies in the partner countries to incorporate the ESSA components (ES, SS and A).
The creation of a repository of materials, methods and practice related to the ESSA components (ES, SS and A).
Background
Regardless of lifestyle, the Earth’s natural systems and resources are the fundamental base of all human existence and activities. The services provided by our ecosystems supply oxygen, fresh water and the possibilities to grow or collect food products as well as other life-sustaining functions. The natural systems, together with human input, also provide the constituents for the resources
we have available for economic activities. The recognition of these conditions is a prerequisite for the focus on achieving what is defined as
Strong Sustainability (figure). It is how the dynamic interactions between nature and the ecosystems on the one hand, and society and economics on the other hand are shaped that determine the patterns of sustainability, and therefore also of production, consumption and power as well as of human livelihood and well-being.
Today the problem is that we are not only living off of the interest from the natural capital, but are actually consuming natural resources faster than they have time to replenish. These problems are exacerbating poverty for some groups of people, especially those dependent on ecosystem services for their immediate subsistence and survival. These problems are also enhancing inequalities in resource distribution and are hampering progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Unless these challenges are addressed, the benefits that future generations can obtain from ecosystems will also be substantially diminished.
The challenge for our teaching now is to identify what new elements and approaches that are needed, to understand what they embrace as well as to find ways of integrating them into our institutions and syllabuses and to develop new material and methods.
Follow the work within ESSA:
ESSA Collaborative Development Workshop in Jönköping 2011
ESSA Lesotho workshop 2011
ESSA Visby workshop 2011
SWEDESD News, 08 March 2012: ESD teacher manual in progress
Read more:
Strong sustainability
Programme documents
