Learning With Islands
Why? and How?
Why? and How?
Establishing a Living Constellation of Island Stakeholders
Learning to Implement a Global Circular Economy
LEARNING WITH ISLANDS 1
The ‘Small Islands Voice’ initiative, (SIV) started in 2002, focused on small island developing states and islands with other affiliations in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific regions. The aims were to combine new information and communication technologies with print, radio, television and other media for LEARNING WITH ISLANDS’ (LWI) to develop and implement a global circular economy incorporating the behavioral topics of placemaking, belonging and sustainability.
Educational self-organisation was promoted by SIV for the effective participation of the general public in the process of sustainable development. The term self-organization refers to the ways in which individuals organize their communal behavior to create global order by interactions amongst themselves rather than through external intervention or instruction. In a rapidly changing world people learn with islands not about islands. Now, the rapid transition towards a global circular economy (CE) entails transformative and system-wide changes, implying involvement, alignment, and cooperation between all stakeholders in all places at all levels. The practical theme is ‘MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME’ (MYAH) where the environment is interrogated to highlight the good things and improve those that are bad.
A ‘SMALL ISLAND PEDAGOGY’ (SIP), for LWI, which integrates SIV, and MAYAH with CE, is key because it imparts a way of knowing which affects what we come to know and apply in our day to day lives.
LEARNING WITH ISLANDS 2
What we come to know is determined by our way of knowing. If we only use intellectual, analytical, scientific approaches to try to understand things, we place ourselves above nature. If we use more holistic, intuitive, experiential ways of knowing, we position ourselves within nature, accepting the primordial bond between humanity, Earth, and all beings. However, it isn’t enough to say that everything is connected, actions should reflect a learner’s beliefs. Regarding islands, this requires identifying and applying a community’s educational assets, not as subjects but as topics framing culture and ecology. This is the flexible, cross curricular holistic framework for promoting conservation management to identify and implement intra- and inter-island circular economy policies at the global level.
‘Learning with Islands’ is a project that promotes the use of the ISLAND Green Forum to establish a bottom up, living network of stakeholder’s ideas and practice to design the transition towards a global circular economy. Learning is built on the traditional nexus of ‘science’, ‘communities’ and ‘nature', enlarged by the inclusion of the dynamic environmental subsystems of islands in oceans.
The educational model is a constellation of island communities in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean with diverse cultures and governance. ‘Learning With Islands’ invites members and organisations of these island communities to join the Green Forum and participate in the ISLANDS Group.
Although its original focus was on small oceanic islands, Learning With Islands can also be applied to any bounded area of land where a group of people have made their permanent home as a cultural island separated from others. The settlement is called an ecumene and contains all work areas occupied and used by the population for agricultural or any other economic purpose. An ecumene may also include areas, or features, of special interest protected and managed for purposes of conservation. Examples are the UN’s biosphere reserves designated to provide opportunities for study or research into local socio/ecological heritage.
The role of the Green Forum is to help connect people around specific action areas, aiming for high-impact and scalable change, as outcomes of producing and sharing local action plans. It is a space for individuals, community groups/schools, specialists, businesses, young people, officials and elected representatives to connect for collaboration on CE, Green Skills and Curricular Improvements for a sustainable and a fair future for their community.
By posting to the ‘Learning with Islands’ project, individuals will be able to self organize to share and discuss the latest information, ideas, achievements, and opportunities for island communities to achieve a sustainable economic 2030 transition. The following topics highlight specific action areas common to this educational pathway for all islands and ecumenes.
Increased Safety and Resilience of Communities
Implementation of Waste Management
Development of Renewable Energy
Conservation of Coral Reefs and Mangrove Forests
Implementation of Practical Fisheries Management Policies
Maintenance and Securing of Shipping Services
Exploitation of Marine Mineral Resources and Preservation of Marine Environment
Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Marine Environment and Marine Biodiversity
Response to Climate Change and Variability
https://sites.google.com/view/bboknowledge/home