Vietnam has started implementing the third phase of the Asia-Pacific
Biosphere Reserves for Environmental and Economic Security (BREES)
initiative in the Red River Delta Biosphere Reserve.
As
part of the 2013 work plan between the Ministry of Education and
Training (MoET) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO), the BREES initiative aims at empowering the
local communities to set up creative responses to climate change. Its
first two phases were successfully implemented at the Cat Ba Biosphere
Reserve in northern Hai Phong city.
The third phase
includes a programme to build up local teachers’ capacities to enhance
students’ knowledge on key sustainability challenges, and an initiative
that will integrate Education for Sustainable Development into informal
and non-formal education through sessions on climate change and
biodiversity issues for parents and local community members.
Speaking at the phase’s official launch at Xuan Thuy National Park in
northern Nam Dinh province on January 15, Katherine Muller-Marin,
UNESCO Representative to Vietnam, emphasised this project will have
benefits far beyond Nam Dinh province and the Red River Delta.
It will provide inputs for national policy level, especially
contributing to Vietnam ’s curriculum reform, and will be shared as
an example within the ASEAN community, she said.
The results of
this project will also be a concrete contribution towards the production
of open license e-learning courses that UNESCO and the Ministry are
working on for teacher training on biodiversity conservation and climate
change which will be made available to all teachers in Vietnam , she
noted.
The third phase of BREES at the Red River Delta is expected to finish in late May.
BREES is a long-term (7+ years) climate change and poverty alleviation
programme in the Asia-Pacific Region and is a regional flagship
programme of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Science in
Jakarta.-VNA