Taiwan ( Taiwan )

The Situation of Environmental Education in Taiwan
 The development of environmental education in Taiwan started from the beginning of 1980’s mostly by government. After the establishment of Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan in 1987, the government had put more efforts on developing environmental education. At the end of the 1990’s, Ministry of Education started the Taiwan Green Initiative and Sustainable School Campus programs, and made great progress in the education for sustainable development in Taiwan by the time of 2000. Meanwhile, in the 1990’s, there were also many NGOs and corporations joined the efforts of promoting the concepts and action of environmental protection and sustainable development. Since 2006, Taiwan Forestry Bureau has launched its initiative to establish nature centers in eight different forest recreation areas, which will become the society’s model of non-formal environmental education institutions.
 Overall, Taiwan’s development of environmental education began from Environmental Protection Administration, and then was gradually joined by other related government agencies such as Ministry of Education, Council of Agriculture, and National Parks, and by the NGOs and private corporations. They have gradually promoted the concepts of environmental education in both formal and non-formal education system.
 Nonetheless, the development of environmental education in Taiwan is lacking a comprehensive and organized national environmental education policy. This is a key problem needed to be solved in the future in order to develop environmental education in Taiwan more successfully.
 Dr. Ju Chou,

 Graduate Institute of Environmental Education
National Taiwan Normal University