Tullamore College in association with Banagher College and Self Help Africa organised a series of development education (DE) workshops in the Court Hotel, Tullamore, Co Offaly. Over 80 students took part in a series of workshops that explored our relationship with global issues of poverty, climate change and resource sustainability.

1. Development education workshop with
Tom Roche - Just Forests
in association with
Self Help Africa
Court Hotel, Tullamore, Co Offaly - Thursday 12th December, 2013
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2. Geography-the challenge!
•human geography
•physical geography
People:
As global populations exceed 7billion (February 2011)
natural resources are shrinking.More that 1.6 billion
people depend to varying degrees on forests for their
livelihoods, e.g. fuelwood, medicinal plants, and forest
foods. Q. Where will we get our timber from?
Legal & Human Rights:
Indigenous(native) and other forest peoples experience
racial and cultural discrimination, are denied rights to
lands and livelihoods, to organise and to represent
themselves, and, in short, are hindered in myriad ways
from fully exercising and enjoying their right to self- 2
Images: pollution in Shanghai 6th December, 2013
http://mashable.com/2013/12/06/shanghai-pollution-photos/#gallery/shangaismog/52a8a347b589e4402c000d2a

3. Environmental Challenges
Sustainable use of natural resources
Natural resources are the
backbone of every economy.
In using and transforming
resources, assets are built up,
adding to the wealth of
present and future
generations.
However, the current rate of
resource use by developed
and developing nations is
unsustainable, meaning that
future generations and
developing nations won’t
have access to their fair share
of scarce resources.
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4. Development education
(DE) & education for
sustainable
development (ESD)
The ‘development’ rationale of Just
Forests work pivots around a number of
key issues and challenges: Unsustainable
resource use can also cause serious
damage to the environment and
contributes significantly to the enhanced
greenhouse effect and climate change.
The environmental impact of our resource
use patterns will only worsen once the
developing world uses resources at the
high rates of industrialised countries.
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5. Education for sustainable development
requires far-reaching changes in the way
education is often practiced today.
Climate justice links human rights and
development to achieve a human-centered
approach, safeguarding the rights of the most
vulnerable and sharing the burdens and benefits
of climate change and its resolution equitably
and fairly.
Climate justice insists that all the peoples of the
world (and not just the rich and powerful) have a
right to development.
A developmental approach to climate justice
recognises this fact while also demanding that it
should be made both possible and attractive for
such development to occur in a sustainable
way., biodiversity is currently vanishing at an
alarming rate all over the world. (Source:
http://www.mrfcj.org)
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6. Education for Sustainable Development
allows every human being to acquire the
knowledge, skills, attitudes and values
necessary to shape a sustainable future.
Education for Sustainable Development
means including key sustainable development
issues into teaching and learning; for
example, climate change, disaster risk
reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and
sustainable consumption.
It also requires participatory teaching and
learning methods that motivate and
empower learners to change their
behaviour and take action for sustainable
development.
Education for Sustainable Development
consequently promotes competencies
like critical thinking, imagining future
scenarios and making decisions in a
collaborative way.
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7. Few recognise that biological
diversity (which includes all
living things)
represents the
natural wealth of
the Earth.
It provides the basis for life,
economic development and
prosperity for the whole of
mankind.
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8. Education is an
essential element of
the global response
to climate change. It
helps young people
understand and
address the impact
of global warming,
encourages changes
in their attitudes and
behaviour and helps
them adapt to
climate changerelated trends.
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9. 7 BILLION and growing...
Finding ways to
embed a
message of
sustainability into
the curriculum is
URGENT
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10. Cross-curricular Learning
Links to some of Just Forests on-line resources.
1.Thinking TREES: Within the context of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 - 2014), Thinking
Trees: Development, Trees and our Interdependent World is designed for primary school pupils in Ranganna 3, 4, 5 and
6 and seeks to encourage students to explore the importance of trees and of forests in our daily lives. It also stimulates
them to think about some of the consequences of the loss of forests and trees and how, each of us can contribute
positively to sustainable development. You will find excellent supporting resources to help you facilitate the 7 activities
in Thinking TREES http://www.justforests.org/thinking-trees
2.Anatomy of a Musical Instrument - linking our love of music to our dependance on 'tonewoods' for our beautiful
musical instruments. This interactive resource is very popular with pupils as it shows just how (geographically)
dependant Ireland is on tropical timber (you will need to have FLASH installed to use this) http://www.justmusic.ie/anatomyof-an-instrument
3.Wood of Life Exhibition - All 22 panels of our WOL exhibition are all on-line now. You will also find an introductory
brochure (showing curriculum links), an activity sheet and a follow-on classroon project sheet with suggestions on
actions pupils can take after engaging with the exhibition. There is also a nice poster for broadcasting/advertising the
exhibition in your school http://www.justforests.org/thinking-trees/exhibitions
4.Just RESTORATION- in an effort to raise much needed funds to support our development education (DE) and education
for sustainable development (ESD) work we will run furniture restoration courses with a DE/ESD component embedded
in the workshop. This course/workshop can be delivered either here in my workshop in Rhode or at your college.This is
very much hands-on learning and will involve participants actually restoring a small piece of furniture/wood
item http://www.justforests.org/the-restorer
5.Just MUSIC/Sound of Wood Concerts - We all love music. Why not organise a Sound of Wood Concert in your school?.
Pupils can invite their family and friends to hear them. This is a lovely way to introduce our dependance on natural
resources (forests/wood) http://www.justforests.org/thinking-trees/school-concerts
6.
KNOW-Wood Board- a hands on wood identification board http://www.justforests.org/know-wood-board
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11. Thank You
www.suckincarbon.com
For more information on our work please
visit our website @
www.justforests.org
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