In order to achieve goals of sustainable development, we must involve children in the decisions which will determine the shape of their own future environment.
A short video was also produced to accompany this project, and is available to view online.
A Child's Place video
Children provide us with a compelling reason to protect the environment. The most widely accepted definition of sustainable development is the one used in the 1987 Brundtland report: "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their own needs".
Yet children are often left out of the development and implementation of environmental policy and are prevented from participating in local decisions. We fail to ensure the long term preservation of children’s play spaces, while schools and play clubs find it difficult to offer environmental learning through outside trips, holidays and outdoor lessons.
A Child’s Place argues that children’s well-being and environmental issues are inextricably linked. The worse a local environment looks, the less able children are to play freely, and develop the habits and commitments that will enable them to address environmental problems in the future.
The researchers gained a detailed knowledge of the way children relate to their environment through a series of interviews and field trips led by the children themselves. What emerged was a picture of children who are frightened by many things adults take in their stride, ranging from car traffic to news bulletins about terrorism.
Children’s anxiety about their own environment is linked to poor understanding of wider environmental issues such as sustainability. This report recommends a range of measures including 'school safaris', which would link children’s learning about their local environment to green issues.
A Child's Place is jointly published with Green Alliance.
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