The world environmental crisis has ed to a growing international concern to promote sustainable development. Environmental education is being heralded as one of the foremost responses to the promotion of sustainable development The Southern African Development Community Environment and Land Management Sector initiated a programme to support environmental education in the region. Among other things, this programme offers various forms of training for environmental educators in an attempt to meet the needs of southern Africa. The purpose of this report is to investigate the environmental education training needs in the southern African region. The research itself concentrates on the environmental education training needs as articulated by participants in, and applicants to, the Southern African Development Community Regional Environmental Education Programme (SADC-REEP). The report documents the establishment of the SADC-REEP and the environmental education training it offers within the context of current thinking on environmental education processes in the region. It then goes on to document the training needs articulated by the research respondents. This leads to a discussion of the articulated needs in relation to the current training offered by the SADC-REEP. The research reveals common themes expressed amongst the research respondents as to the training needs of the region. These themes include such issues as a broader understanding of environmental education processes, networking and the ability to disseminate information. These themes have led to recommendations for the SADC-REEP for the enhancement of their training programmes. / Thesis (M.Sc.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

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Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2010. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

South Africa is not well endowed with indigenous forests which are now known to be degraded and declining at unknown rates. This constitutes a direct threat to quality of life of the resource-poor rural households who directly depend on them and to ecological integrity. It is also recognised that the declining tree resources, particularly the high value indigenous tree species, are increasingly threatened by a number of growing subsistence demands. This emphasised the need to cultivate and conserve high-value tree species such as Englerophytum natalense, Ptaeroxylon obliquum and Millettia grandis on-farm in Umzimvubu District. Agroforestry is recognised as a viable option for optimising land productivity, reducing pressure on the indigenous forests, ensuring a sustainable supply of desired tree products and services and improving the quality of life of the resource-poor rural households. This Thesis examines whether agroforestry in Umzimvubu District and similar areas of South Africa has the potential for addressing these needs. It recognises that for successful initiation, implementation and adoption, agroforestry should be considered at two levels, namely, household and institutional. Responses based on structured questionnaires were obtained at these levels. Questionnaires were used to determine whether the households and institutions were aware of, and responding to, the need to intensify and diversify on-farm production, ease pressure on indigenous forest, improve income opportunities and problem solving capacities to address agroforestry related issues. An ecological inventory of E. natalense, P. obliquum and M grandis was carried out to provide a sound basis for integrating high-value species into appropriate agroforestry systems and to facilitate the preparation of future management guidelines for these resources in Mt. Thesiger Forest Reserve. The study: i) confirms that most high value indigenous tree species merit integration into subsistence farming systems through agroforestry, ii) appreciates that some rural households have been unknowingly practising agroforestry, iii) recognises that agroforestry is implied in South Mrica's White Paper on Sustainable Forest Development of 1997, but notes that similar emphasis has not been adopted or incorporated in the National Forestry Action Programme of 1997, and iv) notes that challenges to promoting agroforestry research and development in the South Mrican context of the institutions and resource-poor rural households are many, but can be resolved. The study concludes that agroforestry stands to benefit many resource-poor rural households and enhance environmental resilience in South Africa in the next millennium. / Thesis (M.Sc.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Historically, local communities have been excluded from the managemcnt of natural resources and their knowledge about their social and physical environment has been ignored and disregarded. The aim of this is study is to assess whether local knowledge is a significant resource and arbitrates in the management of natural resources in rural Namibia. The study looks at the place and use of local knowledge in governmental and non-governmental organisations, especially in their rural development programmes. It also examines local knowledge in institutional management of natural resources. Lastly, the study assesses the significance of local knowledge in different land use systems. The study found that local knowledge is widely acknowledged as an important source of information and a useful part of development. However, this recognition is often not translated into practice. The knowledge system is not recorded and available to people who are not members of the community, which limits the contribution it can make to natural resource management and rural development. The study shows that local communities have a vast knowledge of the social and physical environlnent in which they live. Rural development organisations can make better contributions to rural communities by learning from them and using their accumulated knowledge and experience in their programmes. The recommendations made in the study will help rural development practitioners, researchers, academics and agricultural extension officials to realise that local knowledge is a resource which can be used to the benefit of the community and the environment. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

In the context of the post-apartheid era and under the new Government of National Unity, the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was initiated in 1994. To assist in the realisation of the goals of this programme the macro-economic strategy, Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR), was implemented in 1996. It was within these frameworks that the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) launched its Working for Water (WFW) programme in October 1995. This programme was based on three pillars, namely: enhancing water supply and water security; creating jobs, building communities and improving quality of life and; conserving ecological functioning and biological diversity. Since October 1995 the Working for Water Programme has created 42 059 jobs, 220 884 hectares have been cleared with follow-up clearing in 55 731 hectares as part of the programme strategy to enhance water supply. Investment has been made in 240 projects, with a budget of R365 147 259 as at 31 March 1998. The impact of the Turn Table Trust WFW Project, a sub-project of the Central Umkomaas WFW Project, was examined in terms of fuelwood supply and household income of three small rural communities, namely: Xosheyakhe, Intabamakhaba and Mkhohlwa, referred to in this dissertation as the Rural Bulwer community. The research was carried out by means of questionnaire interviews and a workshop held at the Pholela Tribal court. The results of this study indicate that the Bulwer community depend on four energy types, in order of importance; wood, paraffin, dung and electricity. Many of the households perceive that, since the Turn Table Trust WFW Project began in the area in November 1995, there is less wood available and trees which are used for fuelwood are being cleared. Certain areas have felt the impacts of the clearingprogramme. People who have access to electricity still rely on fuelwood as they can not afford to use electricity exclusively. Indigenous forests are important as a source of fuelwood and for the harvesting of medicinal plants. The indigenous forests could be put under severe stress if wattle becomes unavailable forfuelwood purposes. The impact of the Turn Table Trust WFW Project on the fuelwood supply of the Bulwer community is small at present, but likely to increase. Households that have members employed by the Project, rely on this income to cover most household expenses. These households struggle to survive if or when employment by the Turn Table Trust WFW Project is periodically terminated. The businesses in Bulwer have also come to rely on the income earned by those employed by the Project. The Working for Water programme has far reaching implications for a local community and its surrounds and these need to be taken into account when both beginning and, importantly, ending a project in an area. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

This thesis analyses the interactions between poverty and environmental degradation and the responses given by the international organisations and the EU. The analysis on poverty and environment, at the conceptual level and their interactions demonstrates the interrelatedness of the two issues and the need for an integrated and coherent response towards poverty alleviation and reversing environmental degradation. International organisations such as UNEP, UNDP, WB, GEF, CSD, OECD and the EU have the two issues on their agenda and have devised comprehensive sets of policies to achieve sustainable development objectives. The response of the international actors and the EU appears to be effective, however the analysis exemplifies the fragmentation and lack of coherency, as well as the existence of some policy areas that still fail to integrate poverty- environment interactions. Moreover, the reflection of the said policies into decisive actions has also remained limited.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 435-467). Also available via the World Wide Web.

This diploma thesis have special pedagogical character and it focuses on language development of children from multilingual environment. The reason for this focus is their increasing number. However, there are still relatively few publications on this topic in the Czech Republic because more emphasis is placed on bilingualism. In the theoretical part, is trying to cover the complexity of language development and then deal with the concepts of multilingualism and bilingualism. In the practical part there is a qualitative research investigation based on three case studies of children from multilingual environment. The individual studies describe in detail their language development, including the possible mixing of language codes, and possible communication disabilities. Also, there is trying to find which of the language becomes relaxed for the children. Interviews with parents and class teacher mainly used to obtain data.