1042-C4
Elizabeth M. Remedio 1
Education is seen as a key avenue in exploring humanity's creative ingenuity as we now prepare to rectify the environmental damages inherited from the activities of the past century. The twentieth century ended with a new-found understanding of the critical role of wood energy as a contemporary agenda in the education arena. The experiences of South and Southeast countries in assessing forestry-related education vis-à-vis wood energy development reveal the need for an overhaul and radical change if it intends to remain faithful to the goals of curriculum relevance. Traditional education (e.g. obsolete curricular programs) was meant to respond to problems in the past. Contemporary problems need to be addressed differently as a function of educational upgrading, curriculum planning and instructional management. Wood energy development in the field of education holds a future promise but it has to resolve ontological, epistemological, axiological and pedagogical questions first as a complement to institutional advocacy among governments and stakeholders of society. The amount of support to carry this colossal task is immense. Who will now take the cudgel?
The pillars of education are rooted deeply in its historical, philosophical, legal and technological foundations carried out by the community of scholars. A theory describes, but professional education prescribes. Orteza (2001) reflects that while education as an applied science and a profession ultimately deals with practical questions, education also carries the responsibility of turning non-normative theoretical formulations and conclusions from empirical evidence contributed by the sciences into ought to or should be statements.
The role of education in carrying out the sustainable development concept is critical even though its present status appear to be tangential. The sixth issue of the Millennium Papers (MP) drafted by Stakeholders Forum identified education as one of the major implementation tools for Agenda 21. In it, Smyth (2002) reported "education got more mention in Agenda 21 than anything else besides government...throughout the text." There was almost no comment when Chapter 36 on Education, Training and Public Awareness was passed.
Agenda 21 called for the reconfiguration of the traditional understanding of education beyond formal educational system. Yet, education was touted as slow in producing results in comparison to the other issues. Why has education lost its glory despite having been identified as a primary implementation tool? One consolation cited in Rio 10 Plus 102 (2002) documents `Knowledge Power' as the arena whereby advances has been made in the way natural systems are understood paving the path towards development of sustainable technologies.
Wood energy has taken the first baby steps into the `life' of educational development processes. Several attempts at reviewing forestry and agro-forestry curricular programs in the countries of South and Southeast Asia were carried out at the close of the 20th century. The results revealed minimal to no inclusion at all across and within forestry-related curricular programs of wood energy as a science or as an independent subject matter.
The now defunct Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Wood Energy Development Program in Asia3 (FAO-RWEDP) initiated these development efforts but its momentum came to a gradual halt as the project terminated in 2002. Nipped in the bud, the project left behind a remarkable heritage of information pertaining to wood energy education. Out of the 16 member countries of RWEDP, the status of wood energy education in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam are analyzed throughout succeeding sections.
More than half of the world population (three billion) is to be found in South and Southeast Asia. Majority of these people live in dire poverty and households use biomass (including wood) resources as fuels for their daily needs since time can recall (See Table 1). Despite this importance, much of what is understood about wood energy is surrounded by gaps and misinformation. There is poverty in cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of wood energy education, not to mention scarcity in knowledge, skills and attitudes agenda.
As world population starts to triple in the next 100 years, the continued stable supply of non-renewable fossil-based fuels becomes dubious particularly due to environmental concerns. While electricity is a multipurpose resource, millions of families in Asia will never be able to afford to use this as primary cooking fuel in their lifetime due to poverty.
Wood and biomass will persist to be the source of cooking and heating energy for households and many industries in the developing world. In many areas, wood and biomass are gathered for free and may be converted to convenient energy forms such as solid, liquid or gas. Wood and biomass also serve as feedstock for electrical generation. Environment-wise, wood and biomass are greenhouse gas neutral carbon-based renewable energy sources.
A shroud of indifference and erroneous information cover the discourse on wood energy. It is believed until today that wood-fuel gathering (i.e. charcoal making) is the major cause of forest degradation (and even deforestation). This tale was part of the famous Gap Theory formulated in the 1970s that branded wood-fuel as being consumed on a not sustainable basis (demand greater than supply) and obtained from forest lands. This matter has been to put to rest by empirical evidence that proved the opposite but the tale persists and in many countries such beliefs resulted to uninformed policy decisions. Further on, wood-fuels are considered as dirty and traditional hence obsolete and unimportant; it is branded as non-tradable, non-"monetized", hence not a profitable business venture and when traded, the activities transpire in informal sectors.
Clearing land for agricultural expansion purposes and other land conversion activities as experienced by many countries have caused deforestation; not wood-fuel collection. Poverty may have driven some indiscriminate cutting, all the more reason to scrutinize this phenomenon even closer. The Cebu example in the Philippines (Bensel and Remedio 1993; Remedio 1996) provides the lesson that wood-fuel is a thriving industry and provides employment and income to thousands of people. Fuel-wood is obtained not from virgin forests but from coppice fallow lands, agro-forested lands, and other types of non-forest lands, since Cebu is less than one percent forest cover since the 19th century even though "monetized" wood-fuel has persisted as a profitable commercial trade over time.
Contrary to advises given to include resource assessment figures when citing demand statistics (Table 1), wood energy studies continue to come out with only consumption data mainly because production information (Table 2) is believed to be unreliable and cumbersome to extract. International organizations pronouncing to commit to the alleviation of poverty ironically consign wood energy as one of the least prioritized task despite its importance in the lives of more than half of the world's poor people (Openshaw 2001). With the lack of trained manpower, insufficient wood energy database, scarcity of text reference materials, universal terminology and measurement inadequacy, wood energy education integration across curricular programs is yet a dream to be realized.
Table 1: Total Wood and Biomass Energy Consumption 1995/96 >In FAO - RWEDP Member Countries
Unit PJ |
Wood Energy |
Biomass Energy |
Total Energy |
Share of Wood Energy (%) |
Share of Biomass Energy (%) |
Bangladesh |
144 |
564 |
845 |
17 |
67 |
| Source: FAO RWEDP website <http://www.rwedp.org>. |
Table 2: Woodfuel Supply and Demand Projections
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Chittagong University, one of the leading forestry education institution, found out that there is a limited coverage of wood energy topics among the syllabi of courses taught. On the other hand, Certificate and Diploma courses on forestry offered by the Bangladesh Forest College and Foresters Training School cover only general aspects of wood production, marketing and utilization. There is a dearth of researches done even as biomass energy (wood included) accounted for more than 70 percent share of total energy consumption in 1995-96.
Cambodia
Like in Bangladesh, there were no indications of WE topics present among the courses and curricular programs reviewed. The present strategic plan however mentioned that the Faculty of Forestry and Agronomy would come up with a sustainable wood energy development training and education plan for their Diploma and Bachelor's curricular programs after revising their existing curricular offerings. In 1998, the Cambodian census found out that about 90 percent of the total population used charcoal and fuelwood as their main fuel for cooking. The Royal Government of Cambodia has banned charcoal making due to its "unjustified" linkage.
China
China holds a promising outlook in terms of wood energy education. China has a total of six forestry universities, four forestry colleges, 22 agricultural universities/colleges (with forestry departments) and 10 forestry technical schools. The country envisions a five-pronged approach in its efforts at institutionalizing wood energy education and training: 1) inclusion of wood and biomass energy as a compulsory course in forestry curricula; 2) offer post graduate research program in wood and biomass energy leading to an MSc and PhD degrees; 3) publication of education and training materials; 4) establishment of web site and discussion forum through the electronic mail system and, 5) regular training programs for local farmers.
India
India on the other hand, a country that consumed a total share of more than 70 percent or roughly 10,000 PJ in both wood and biomass energy in 1995-96, has 26 universities offering various curricular programs in forestry education leading up to the masters and doctoral degree levels. Forestry-related authorities propose to do a review of existing syllabi and curricula and find out how wood energy can either be incorporated or offered as a separate course or program in the near future. More importantly, India intends to include topics such as: wood energy in poverty alleviation, wood energy in the context of tribal communities, women and children, and social conflicts, cultural issues, benefit-cost analysis, simulation and modeling, sustainable extraction and collection, among others.
Nepal
In Nepal, fuelwood accounts for 80 percent of total energy consumption. It is one of the world's lowest energy consumer with 14 GJ per capita level. In relation to wood energy education, a Center for Energy Studies is mentioned in a proposed wood energy related courses to be offered by the Tribhuvan University, Institute of Engineering. It hopes to stimulate appreciation and disseminate wood energy information to a spread beyond the academic community.
Philippines
There are 45 forestry and agro-forestry programs offered in the Philippines. It is said that wood energy related topics are already incorporated in at least 10 of these programs in the baccalaureate, masters and PhD levels. There is no one particular formal program on wood energy as a science or as an academic offering. Some of the leading wood experts in the country recommended for the inclusion of critical fuel-wood issues across curricula and spread the information to policy and decision makers in the government.
Sri Lanka
Results of the curricular review in Sri Lanka indicated that wood energy education, training and extension work has been neglected over the years despite the importance of wood energy in the overall energy consumption mix (more than 60 percent of total is biomass and wood use). Forestry institutes have remained to emphasize traditional subjects content-wise and in its curriculum design. There are many obstacles revealed among them are lack of trained manpower, lack of textbooks and insufficient research ventures in wood energy development .A National Coordinating Body is now set up whereby one of its tasks is to craft a strategic plan that would incorporate wood energy education at university and technical levels.
Vietnam
A country where 70 percent of the population consists of farmers, Vietnam is an economy where wood and biomass resources are traditional sources of energy and will remain to be so in the years to come. Vietnam now intends to come up with a 3-credit course on Biomass Fuel Management and Utilization. Vietnam recognizes that there is a lack of competent professors to handle this course but at the same time optimistic that this gap can be rectified particular with some assistance from FAO RWEDP.
Traditional education means the universal principles and practices accepted by the educational-scientific community in general with respect to scientific branches of knowledge and fields of disciplines over time. On one hand, this implies that in each branch of study, in each field of discipline, there exist meta-theoretical paradigms within the context of pedagogy and scientific research. Science as science per se draws the line between formal and non-formal education. On the other hand, traditional education also means existing fields of study or programs that were once created and have endured throughout time as a consequence of problems related to the past.
For wood energy to find its niche into the world of contemporary scientific education, it has to envision and position itself as a Course, then as a Field of Study, and eventually as a Curricular Program. It has to aptly provide its ontology, epistemology, axiology, methodology and methods. It has to utilize inductive, deductive, retroductive and abductive research strategies to prove its scientific worth.
To begin with, wood energy could be integrated into and across existing curriculum and course offerings among forestry-related sciences as a first step. Over time, it will spread its coverage and it will evolve itself as answering Tyler's (Ornstein and Hunkins 1988) fundamental curriculum design questions 1) what objectives are intended for which particular group of learners? 2) What subject matter is to be included (content)? 3) What learning experiences exist (strategies)? 4) What evaluation schemes are needed (measurement)?
Using the language of curriculum engineering, the case of wood energy education is a case of curriculum development at the macro (CDMA) level since the curriculum arena is at the national level4. In this paper, CDMA is a society-centered curriculum development model (resulting from societal needs to improve, change or create new programs) that includes three basic steps: 1) identification of national goals; 2) formulation of educational objectives based on identified national goals by Curriculum Development Bodies (planners and specialists from various national institutions); 3) translation of national goals into prototype instructional materials (Reyes 2000).
As newfound issues evolve, so too new educational programs emerge. Applying the concept of sustainable development i.e. Agenda 21 to sustainable forestry vis-à-vis wood energy; it is not that education lost its glamour, it is, that it must gather enough force so strong to push the frontiers of knowledge farther from where it is now. Environmental paradigms such as those of technocentrism, ecocentrism or deep green are some examples of current environmental theoretical perspectives. The discourse should look at various curriculum models (e.g. emphases) such as those of Longstreet and Shane (1993), Marsh and Willis (1995), Ornstein and Hunkins (1993), Print (1993), and other synoptic curriculum texts to reflect on how change can proceed.
Cognizant to the extreme importance of the role of wood energy, it must now form part of the global educational system. Yet, after RWEDP, who will take the challenge?
Some pertinent recommendations include but not limited to:
In the process, resource mobilization, capacity building in terms of human resource development and expertise development should be greatly multiplied from current levels. Text reference materials should be made available. Continued researches, data base development, web site development, creative teaching strategies and teaching resources should all be part of the package.
Bensel, T.G. and E.M. Remedio, 1993. Patterns of commercial woodfuel supply, distribution and use in the city and province of Cebu, Philippines. FAO-RWEDP FD No.42, Bangkok, 123 p.
FAO Regional wood energy development programme in Asia website <http://www.rwedp.org> 07 February 2003.
International Institute for Sustainable Development website<http://www.iisd.org> 09 February 2003.
Longstreet, W.S. and H.G.Shane, 1993. Curriculum: A new millennium. Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 398 p.
Marsh C.J. and G. Willis, 1995. Curriculum: Alternative approaches. Columbus, Ohio, Merrill, 379 p.
Openshaw, K., 2001. Wood energy education: An eclectic viewpoint. FAO-RWEDP Wood Energy News, 16(1), Bangkok, pp 18-20.
Ornstein, A.C. and Hunkins F., 1993. Curriculum: Foundations, principles and theory, 2nd edition. Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 416 p.
Orteza M.O., 2001. Philosophy of education: A collection of essays. Quezon City, Rex Printing Press, 317 p.
Print, M., 1993. Curriculum development and design. Sydney, Allyn and Unwin, 260 p.
Remedio, E.M., 1996. Economic and environmental impact of commercial woodfuel trade in Cebu City and Province. Graduate School University Journal, 12(2), pp 22-31.
Smyth, J.C., 2002. Are educators ready for the next Earth Summit? <http://www.stakeholderforum.org> 09 February 2003.
1 Professor, Department of Economics, University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Philippines. [email protected]
2 Rio 10 Plus 10 is a summary of the 10 successes and 10 failures identified during the Johannesburg Earth Summit in 2002.
3 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Wood Energy Development Program for Asia in Bangkok was a Dutch government project. It ceased operations December of 2002 after an almost 17 years stint. Its website, http://www.rwedp.org continues to be accessible to this date (2003).
4 If the situation warrants, curriculum development can take place at the national level as a result of a national thrust from national development plans, presidential decrees, legislative acts and so on to serve as a guide targeted at developing a curriculum at the macro level.