Abstract
M.A.
In the seventies and eighties many countries in the world realised that uncontrolled development
cannot continue without taking the life-sustaining natural base of the ecosystem into consideration.
Many world conferences where held on this topic of which the Rio Conference in 1992 was most
probably the most important. At this conference the Agenda 21 document was approved.
The Agenda 21 document, regarded as the blue print for sustainable development, made proposal
which where to be followed by countries on international, national and local levels, to move nearer
towards sustainable development. The South African government committed itself to the
implementation of this document. Several local documents where developed out of this document
and action plans where put into place to implement the principles of Agenda 21.
The South African government went through a process, which included a Green paper, a White
paper and a Bill. The vision and policy principles in the National Environmental Act determined the
choice of strategic goals to be followed to achieve sustainable integrated environmental management.
These strategic principles will then determine policy implementation. The question arose with the researcher whether effective environmental management is at all possible
without sufficient training and 6ducation on the philosophy, structures and procedure to be followed
to achieve sustainable environmental management.
It was then decided to focus a research on the officials and inhabitants of the local government and
community of Centurion. The purpose being to determine in which way integrated environmental
management is already taking place in this local government area, where shortcomings existed, and
what the contribution of environmental education could be to improve effective environmental
management.
Because of the limited scope of the study the strategic goals where not all addressed, reference was
only made to them and areas of further research where indicated.
The study has been done to formulate guidelines, which can be used in the integration of
environmental education actions in the formulation and implementation of environmental
management policy.
The methods used in the study include quantitative, qualitative including interviews and document
analysis, research methods. In the broader literature research the development and institutionalisation
of environmental concerns on world-wide scale, national and local scale were shown.
The quantitative and qualitative research took the form of a semi-structured questionnaire and
interviews. Officials and inhabitants of Centurion who took part in the integrated developing
planning process where included in the survey.
The research indicated the critical importance of environmental education in the implementation of
an environmental policy for sustainable development. The role of the process of environmental
education in environmental management should be spelled out in policy with reference to
responsibilities in institutional structures with the objective of effective implementation and
monitoring.