Implementation Status of Environmental Conservation Activity

Notes: The values represent the percentage of respondents who answered "Always" or "Almost always."

$ ^{*} $ : In FY 1997 survey, the item was “Separating and recycling cans and bottles.”

**: In the FY 1997 survey, the item was "Recycling used items at bazaars, flea markets, and garage sales."

***: The value for FY 2001 represents the percentage of respondents who replied "At least once," the value for FY 1997 represents the percentage of respondents who replied "Always," "Almost always," and "Sometimes."

Source: Survey of Environment-conscious Lifestyle (May 2002), Ministry of the Environment

## I nternational Comparison of Environmental Awareness

Source: Compiled by the Ministry of the Environment based on The Fifth International Environmental Monitor (30 countries), Environics International

Measures for the Promotion of Environmental Education and Learning

environmental conservation organizations and participation in local greening activities, local beautification activities and the activities of environmental conservation organizations—is still comparatively low. This shows that the heightened awareness of environmental problems does not lead to actual environmental conservation activities.

According to the result of an international joint survey on environmental problems, the fact that the heightening of awareness does not lead to active participation in environmental conservation activities is mainly due to the perception that individual actions cannot contribute much to the solution of environmental problems.

### 2. Changes in Individuals that Prompt Actions

An individual goes through several steps before taking concrete actions to protect the environment. The first step is to become aware of environmental problems and to become interested. The next step is to understand the close cause-and-effect relationship between the environmental problems and our daily activities. The final step is the realization that one's actions can provide various solutions and the taking of initiative to build capacity for solving the problem. Environmental education and learning and environmental information play an important role in facilitating the advancement in these steps.

A report from the Central Environment Council presented eight approaches for promoting environmental education and learning policies. The report points out that implementation of the following four of the eight approaches can facilitate the promotion of environmental education and learning with emphasis on actual practices and experiences: (1) capacity building—establishing a human resource development system to cultivate diverse human resources with knowledge and techniques to gain the impetus for progress, (2) program development—creating venue-specific and topic-specific programs so that they lead to actual actions, (3) information provision—gathering information to create a database for environmental education and to systematically accumulate information of various actors, and (4) expansion of opportunities and venues—creating opportunities and venues where people can actually experience environmental conservation activities. Because environmental education and learning are important means for promoting actions for the realization of a sustainable society, it becomes increasingly important to ensure the effectiveness of environmental education and learning.

In terms of environmental information, the more