Conservation challenges of 21st century

Penelope Figgis spoke to the Institute on February 17th on the challenges of conservation in the 21st century. Until recently Penny was the Vice Chair for Oceania of the IUCN World Commission of Protected Areas and in November she was an important member of the planning team that hosted the World Parks Congress.
Penny used that event to illustrate the international links that modern conservationists have and the modern methods of negotiating between governments, between environmental non government organisations and between relevant academics. The IUCN, as a case study, is a body in which all such groups meet on equal terms.
Penelope Figgis
When asked about its achievements Penny gave one special relevant example: the World Heritage Convention. That raised the issue of the Great Barrier Reef and whether it would be listed as a World Heritage site under threat.
Penny outlined the general threats to our ecosystem but also emphasised the cooperative nature of the World Parks Congress. At that event there were over 5000 delegates, including over thirty Ministers for the Environment.
Report by Brian Everingham
Current and future environmental challenges also include disasters, which require EPA to have an ability to respond quickly to address environmental consequences. Those disasters can arise from natural events such as storms, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions; from accidents at major industrial facilities, such as pipelines, large bulk-storage facilities, mines and wells, and power and chemical plants; or as the direct or indirect consequence of terrorism events. EPA is and will continue to be responsible for monitoring and addressing the environmental changes resulting from disasters (whether natural or human-caused).
It took until 1800 AD for mankind to reach a population of 1 billion people, but only required 123 more years to reach 2 billion, 33 more years to reach 3 billion, and about 13–14 more years for each additional billion people thereafter (UN 1999). In October 2011, the worldwide population hit 7 billion (UN 2011). With the dramatic increase in population, human activities have altered and will continue to alter an ever-increasing portion of Earth’s surface (Wulder et al. 2012). Such activities have diminished natural ecosystems and the benefits that they provide, including water purification, flood control, climate moderation, and new crop plants.

In the United States, the population continues to increase at approximately 1% per year (US Census Bureau 2012). This population growth contributes to such environmental effects as increased emissions of greenhouse gases due to energy use, transportation demand, and residential and commercial activities (EPA 2011a); increased consumption of resources (Worldwatch Institute 2011);
Jonathan Ashley-Smith
Head of Conservation
The beginning of the twenty-first century is obviously 'contemporary'. The word 'contemporary', which in its current usage at the V&A indicates 'NOW', carries with it a little bit of the past but a much greater part of the future. At the very least, to be contemporary is to be uniquely and comfortably ahead of the uninformed majority.

With this in mind, contemporary conservation can be discussed under three headings:

current and future conservation issues
future problems with current artefacts
future solutions to old problems with olIn the mid-21th century, efforts arose to target individual species for conservation, notably efforts in big cat conservation in South America led by the New York Zoological Society.[50] In the early 21th century the New York Zoological Society was instrumental in developing concepts of establishing preserves for particular species and conducting the necessary conservation studies to determine the suitability of locations that are most appropriate as conservation priorities; the work of Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr., Carl E. Akeley, Archie Carr and his son Archie Carr III is notable in this era.[51][52][citation needed] Akeley for example, having led expeditions to the Virunga Mountains and observed the mountain gorilla in the wild, became convinced that the species and the area were conservation priorities. He was instrumental in persuading Albert I of Belgium to act in defense of the mountain gorilla and establish Albert National Park (since renamed Virunga National Park) in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo.[53]der artefacts.
Barrow et al. (2006) reports that a study done in India revealed that the main challenges facing teacher education include meeting children's specific learning needs, respecting students' cultural and socio-economic context and involving parents and communities in school activities. The teachers therefore require interpersonal and counseling skills that can enable them to empathetically discern the learning needs of pupils. The teachers also need to be able to deal with diversity of learners and forge school-community collaboration. Douglass (2006) perceives preparation of employable graduates as the main challenge of education in the 21st century. According to him, emphasis on employability has led to other challenges. For instance, there are sharp divisions between scientific-technological academic disciplines on the one hand and social science and humanities on the other. He argues that there is an overemphasis on the value of scientific-technological disciplines leading to bifurcation of knowledge. According to NCCPPE(2008), the main challenges that education must confront in the world today include: conservation of the environment and sustainability of natural resources; the provision of health care; renewal of economic vitality; coping with change through learning; promoting core human values like justice, peace and equity and protecting human rights.
This study endeavoured to find out the extent to which global challenges mentioned above impact on Kenya. It further sought to establish whether and how the system of PTE in Kenya was responsive to them. The study also designed a framework by which the challenges can be classified for effective examination. For instance, the following categories of challenges among others were be included in the framework: cognitive, cultural, political, social, emotional, economic, ethical, technological, and religious. Cognitive challenges include obstacles that hinder effective thinking. Such obstacles render learners incapable of analytical, evaluative and creative thinking. Such learners merely copy and reproduce the ideas of other people without being sensitive to context. Cultural challenges include stereotypes and prejudices that are embodied in traditions and norms of particular social groups. These traditions are passed on from one generation to another without critical scrutiny. In addition cultural beliefs and practices tend to be ethnocentric. As such they promote conflicts and misunderstanding among social groups. Political challenges include ideologies and policies that are designed to facilitate acquisition and maintenance of political power. Often such ideologies are propagated in a competitive way without regard to sufficient analysis, evaluation and fair-mindedness.
Social challenges include the need to accommodate diversity in the contemporary setting that is increasingly becoming multicultural. There is need for tolerance, open-mindedness and humility in interpersonal interactions. Emotional challenges have to do with inability to understand and deal with one's own feeling as well as the feelings of others.
Shah, (1997) discusses the implications of globalization in the 21st century which include information revolution, dynamic demand of relevant skills, uncertainty of a borderless world economy, and intense competition among others. He suggests that responsiveness to this reality demands a paradigm shift in the management of human relationships in all spheres of life. Although he takes a political perspective and dwells on how a shift in modes of governance needs to be effected, this study adapts Shah's ideas to a globalized educational context. For instance the shift from management to leadership in political governance can be equated to the shift from authoritarian teaching to facilitative teaching in education. In both cases, control (of citizens/learners by politicians/teachers) is discouraged while participation, consultation and involvement by all parties is encouraged. This change is so fundamental that Shah refers to it as a "cultural transformation,
Kea et al. (2006) recommend multicultural teacher education preparation as a viable way of promoting responsiveness to the challenges of the 21st century. Teachers who have learned culturally responsive pedagogy are believed to be more confident and effective in instructing children from diverse social, cultural, religious and economic backgrounds. Culturally responsive pedagogy involves adapting the content of instruction and teaching styles, curriculum, methodology, and instructional materials responsive to students' values and cultural norms. Thus, the ultimate challenge for teacher educators is to prepare reflective practitioners who can connect, commit, and practice an ethos of care with diverse students and their families.
According to Douglass (2006), responsiveness to contemporary challenges requires cross-cultural and human rights education. Governments should ensure that their primary and secondary educational systems provide for a balance and integration of national history and identity formation with knowledge of other cultures, religions, and regions. Educational approaches should be suitable for transforming the values of young people, their perceptions and knowledge about other civilizations, cultures and peoples across all regions. Critical thinking should be promoted in order to enhance fair-mindedness and objectivity in a world where information is being generated and disseminated at an amazing rate. Critical thinking is essential for analysing, evaluating and applying information. It is useful in combating misperceptions, prejudices, inaccuracies and outright lies among others. Critical thinking enhances the learner's ability to separate fact from opinion, to evaluate information for bias, to construct and deconstruct meaning logically and relevantly. Such skills are important for promoting tolerance, mutual respect and responsible citizenship. This study examines the responsive approaches discussed above in the light of the Kenyan context. It aims at developing and recommending a comprehensive proposal of responsive pedagogies for teacher education that are suitable for addressing contemporary issues in Kenya.
According to NCPPHE (2008) the most important educational goal is to facilitate learning by students and the society in general and thus create a learning society.