John Muir, a renowned environmental activist, once observed: “Most people are on the world, not in it.”
That sentiment, reflecting human disconnection and disregard for the environment, calls to mind the civic duty to better appreciate and understand it as citizens, and to participate with community members to solve ecological problems and protect the environment for future generations.
In Ukraine, the Ministry of Ecology—which recently regained its independence as a standalone agency after having been merged with the Ministry of Energy—had previously identified the nation’s most pressing environmental challenges to be air pollution, quality of water resources and land degradation, solid waste management, the loss of biodiversity, and climate change.
To address these challenges, Ukraine has developed a regulatory framework and signed on to international conventions and according to the World Bank, Ukraine’s ability to protect its environment will depend on the overall system of public governance. Along with decentralization, this functioning depends upon cooperation and coordination between regional and central authorities, including regulatory enforcement.
Lack of regulatory enforcement—a key component of the rule of law, currently ranked at 100 out of 121 countries—and its impact on the environment drew attention in April when Chornobyl forest fires became so strong that Kyiv temporarily ranked first place among the world’s most polluted cities. Environmental regulation is indeed key for ensuring air quality, water quality, and protecting wildlife and the wilderness.
But can stiff fines and heavier enforcement alone deter the decision to leave rubbish in parks and waterways or profit from illegal logging? Surely not. Environmental stewardship is a matter of civic responsibility and care for the environment, achievable through better engagement, appreciation and understanding.
The Role of Civil Society: Developing “Environmental Citizens”
New research suggests that in order to achieve a sustainable society, citizens must play a role and that they must be supported in doing so through news models of civic education.
Writing in Environmental Discourses in Science Education, researchers call for “Education for Environmental Citizenship.” The authors define this model of education as “the type of education that cultivates a coherent and adequate body of knowledge as well as the necessary skills, values, attitudes and competences that an “Environmental Citizen” should be equipped with in order to be able to act and participate in society as an agent of change in the private and public sphere, on a local, national and global scale, through individual and collective actions, in the direction of solving contemporary environmental problems, preventing the creation of new environmental problems, in achieving sustainability as well as developing a healthy relationship with nature.”
Unlike traditional forms of environmental education methodologies, and even those that incorporate lessons on sustainability, “Environmental Citizenship” emphasizes the knowledge needed to democratically change a society, along with the sociopolitical dimensions of those changes on the local and global society.
This nuanced approach to ecological awareness, and ecological education for citizens, stresses that resilient human systems—including the economy, products, wealth, and perhaps even civil society—depend on resilient ecosystems, and that humans must take steps to reach a higher level of civilization in terms of our relationships with the environment. Reaching this level is incumbent upon the “Environmental Citizen.”
Are Ukrainians “Environmental Citizens”?
Are Ukrainians provided with the knowledge of basic democratic concepts, critical thinking skills, will and desire, and environmental knowledge to be considered “Environmental Citizens”? Results from the USAID/ENGAGE Civic Engagement Poll, conducted in January 2020, provides insight.
The environment is relatively important to individuals, despite the fact that it is not considered to be among the country’s most pressing issues. According to the results of the USAID/ENGAGE Civic Engagement Poll, only 7% of Ukrainians consider the environment to be among the most important issues for the country. Relative to leading issues such as the crisis in the Donbas, corruption, and poverty, environment ranked at only 12 out of 16 issues.
But interestingly, when asked which issues were more important to them and their family, respondents were more inclined to name the environment as a top issue. Eleven percent of respondents identified environment as a top issue, placing it at 8 out of 16 issues, trailing only slightly behind “lawlessness” (14%). After lawlessness, the environment sits behind “pension,” an issue that 25% of respondents considered to be a top issue for them and their families.
As an important issue, can Ukrainians resolve environmental problems that impact their lives? In the USAID/ENGAGE Civic Engagement Poll, when asked about their ability to directly influence environmental issues on the local level without the support of the government, Ukrainians are relatively confident in their (or other citizens’) ability to address some issues, but not all.
For example, while respondents felt confident in their ability to revitalize their local housing territories, to clean local parks, or even support retirees or persons with disabilities, individuals were unsure that they could influence issues such as air quality. Compared to the top four issues Ukrainians believe they can implement together without government assistance, improving air quality is much more challenging. As the figure below demonstrates, only 3% of Ukrainians believe that citizens can unite together to improve air quality without involving the local government.
Steps for Increasing Environmental Citizenship Through Education and Engagement
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the April 2020 Chornobyl fires, and the implementation of new land reforms, societal concern for the environment and the government’s heighted responsibility for a policy response may present a window of opportunity for adoption of updated environmental principles, not only as a matter of regulatory concern, but with respect to civic education, including change-oriented principles found in the Tbilisi Declaration of 1977, a hallmark accord that paved the way for modern environmental education.
The authors of “Education for Environmental Citizenship and Education for Sustainability” provide an updated revision of these principles in their recent article, calling for critical thinking, analytical skills, and problem-solving skills; attitudes and values; and active participation. They go on to propose that these values be codified in corresponding civic education competences, including:
- Competence for critical analysis, establishing interrelations between the social, economic and environmental aspects from local to global levels;
- Competence in the sustainable use of resources and in the prevention of negative impacts on the natural and social environment;
- in the application of ethical principles at personal, local, national and global scales related to the values of Environmental Citizenship; and
- Competence for active participation in community processes enhancing environmental protection through environmental and social change.
Along with continued support for environmental policy reforms regulated by the EU Association Agreement, civil society continues to engage the public in everyday environmentally conscious activities in Ukraine that are easy and accessible. USAID/ENGAGE partners have participated in the GROWMADA initiative, which gathers civil society organizations at mass music festivals to engage youth on various social issues, including ecological awareness through the implementation of recycling systems, separating bottles from other forms of waste.
At the regional level, the CSO “Freedom” has taken steps in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast to communicate an environmental reform agenda, advocating for environmental issues in the city of Enerhodar, educating 8,000 citizens on city recycling and other green-friendly initiatives over the course of one year. An additional coalition—gathering Mediavision, Dzyga, and the Zaporizhzhia Investigations Center—has also raised awareness about environmental reform in the oblast, engaging citizens into an Environmental Impact Assessment. In the West, the Garden of Hope initiative in Rivne revitalized urbans spaces by planting trees and joined a regional coalition advocating for city greening initiatives. And in the Kirovohrad Oblast, a Kropyvnytskyi-based local reform coalition called “Expert Council” took on environmental protection efforts in advocating eco-friendly tree pruning policies, preserving green spaces in the city.
Not unlike other public interest matters, civil society’s ability to support and work with the public sector through its knowledge-sharing and advocacy, together with its ability to nurture future generations of “Environmental Citizens,” will be essential to protecting the environment and resolving ongoing problems. It is the type of engagement that is necessary for addressing an issue that truly unites all on the planet, the need to preserve essential resources and an ecosystem that growingly demonstrates its interconnectivity with civilization.
