Ecopedagogy - Early History

Early History

Ecopedagogy began in a Latin American educational context, growing out of discussions conducted at the second Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. In this movement, intellectuals desired to make a systematic statement about the interrelationship between humanity and the Earth and to formulate a mission for education universally to integrate an ecological ethic. This statement would eventually be ratified as the Earth Charter in 2000. In 1999, the Instituto Paulo Freire, Brasil under the direction of Moacir Gadotti, along with the Earth Council and UNESCO, convened the First International Symposium on the Earth Charter in the Perspective of Education, which was quickly followed by the First International Forum on Ecopedagogy. These conferences led not only to the final formation of the Earth Charter Initiative but to key movement documents such as the Ecopedagogy Charter, as reiterated in Gadotti’s essay Pedagogy of the Earth and the Culture of Sustainability (2000). Gadotti and others in the Ecopedagogy movement have remained influential in advancing the Earth Charter Initiative and continue to mount ecopedagogy seminars, degree programs, workshops and other learning opportunities through an ever-growing number of international Paulo Freire Institutes.