TUI Junior Academy Nature Based Education
Education is essential to fostering awareness and action about biodiversity and the climate.
The recent decision of the Convention on Biological Diversity to develop a Global Plan of Action on Education for Biodiversity underscores the importance of education as a mechanism to help protect biodiversity and natural ecosystems and address climate change.
Embedding environmental themes into curricula is essential for effective climate education. Providing teachers with resources, training, and support enables solution-oriented lessons on nature, climate, and biodiversity. This promotes green skills, jobs, and civic engagement, while addressing climate anxiety and fostering a just transition to renewable energy and ecosystem protection.
The Nature-Based Education: Time for Action (NBE) project aims to address the urgent climate crisis by integrating environmental themes into education systems worldwide.
Developed in collaboration with a number of partners, including Salzburg Global, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Commission on Education and Communication, the project creates and disseminates advocacy resources to advance nature-based education globally. It includes mapping out the role that education can play in reaching the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which consists of global targets to be achieved by 2030 and beyond to safeguard and sustainably use biodiversity. It also designs a call to action to be shared at the IUCN World Conservation Congress.
The programme brings together a diverse range of key stakeholders to strengthen the global coalition of educators, education systems, and organisations working together to advance nature-based education globally.
The primary activity is the programme titled Nature-Based Education: Time for Action, convened in at Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria, which is the home of Salzburg Global. The programme brings together approximately 40 international, interdisciplinary and intergenerational leaders, working across sectors including policy, education, civil society, philanthropy, and more, to strengthen the global coalition of education systems and organisations working together on nature-based education. Participants meet online first and then gather in person for five days. Through a co-development process, the programme ensures that participants engage actively in knowledge exchange, creative ideation, and collective problem-solving, Nature and nature-based learning will be embedded in the programme.
Fellows work collectively to map out the role that education can play in realising the UN Global Biodiversity Framework and design a call to action for the inclusion of nature-based education to be shared at the IUCN World Conservation Congress and other relevant policy spaces. They also develop an action plan of country case studies that demonstrate the impact and value of nature-based education alongside other outcomes. They also develop a set of collective advocacy messages and resources.
Project Partner
Salzburg Global is a non-profit organisation dedicated to convening open-minded leaders to overcome barriers and open a world of better possibilities through programmes dedicated to Peace & Justice, Education, Culture, Health, and Finance & Governance. Since 1947, they have worked with over 40,000 Fellows from 173 countries for more than 1,100 sessions that address the most pressing issues of our time.
