WWF-Pakistan has been actively involved for over 5 years in promoting environmental education throughout the country. Among the major initiatives taken by the education team to enhance awareness and incorporate it into the school curriculum are teacher tr aining workshops, production of resource material and establishment of nature clubs at the school level.

It has been an uphill task. For the first one and a half years it was difficult to convince the school authorities about the effectiveness of environmental education in terms of innovative methodologies and techniques. Thanks to the hard work of the WWF e ducation officers, WWF now is in contact with more than 2,000 schools, of which about 500 are directly involved in environmental education activities.

WWF managed to break the ice in the educational system by mobilizing different media to create environmental understanding. It has introduced interesting concepts such as Greening the Schools Programme, ACT (Awareness through Children's Theatre), and PAND A (Performing Arts and Dramatic Activity).

Instead of channelizing its efforts solely towards the formal education sector, WWF expanded its environmental education programme to make it more interdisciplinary. It brought in community development and conservation education in areas where WWF has ong oing projects.

The Churmian project in Baluchistan province, mainly a rocky desert region, is one example. Churmian is a small village located in the belt of relic forest of Juniper. The locals identified rapid evaporation of irrigation water channels and cutting down o f virgin forests for fuelwood as the major problems.

WWF, with the involvement of the community, constructed a covered water channel to conserve water for irrigation purposes. The local people are now actively participating in planting fuelwood species to conserve the forest. They have also now begun growin g fruit orchards to enhance their income.

WWF is replicating the Churmian example in another village, Parhi, in the same area. A Participatory Rural Appraisal has been conducted to assess the needs of the community. The project will focus on the management and sustainable use of the juniper fores t by providing alternatives to the community, such as growing fuelwood species and fruit orchards.

Another small but important accomplishment of WWF is the Kot Lakhpat project. The Youth Commission for Human Rights, an NGO, approached WWF to support them by providing expertise in environmental improvement. Launched in an industrial shanty town in the s uburbs of Lahore, this project primarily involves women because they are most affected by the deteriorating environmental problems prevalent in the area.

WWF formed a women's nature club in the community. Within a short span of three years, these semi-literate women had managed to procure a number of benefits for the community. They had meetings with the water authorities and procured clean drinking tap wa ter for five streets in the area. After receiving training in vegetable gardening, 100 households started engaging in this activity on a regular basis. Some women also earned money by selling tree saplings they had raised in nurseries following training.

Training programmes for NGOs and other community institutions are a regular feature of WWF's educational activities. WWF is also actively involved in developing forums and national events for awareness building among the general public, in schools and col leges.

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