Environmental education in Malta : trends and challenges

Abstract

The development of environmental education in Malta followed three major evolutionary stages: the Awareness Stage, the Fragmentary Stage and the Co-ordinated Stage. This paper analyses the main events that have characterised this evolutionary process. Besides highlighting the problems environmental education initiatives characteristically face in similar small island states, the historical analysis identifies emerging trends in the development of environmental education in Malta. Among these trends is the move to educate the general public on environmental issues and the preference for a more participatory process of policy making regarding environmental matters. However, the most significant shift has been that from a fragmentary approach to a coordinated nationwide approach to environmental education planning.