1 September 2000 Asia-Pacific rim says 'YES' to special millennium EnviroSchool

Lincoln University's award-winning EnviroSchool programme goes international this year as a special millennium-marking event. It is also going under a new name for this special occasion – Youth Environment Summit 2000, abbreviated to YES 2000.

To be held at Lincoln University over 19-24 November, YES 2000 has spread its catchment to the Asia-Pacific rim and so far has attracted participants from Japan, Nepal, Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Tonga and Bangladesh.

As in the past, the event, first offered in 1990 and held biennially since then, is supported by the Rotary Club of Lincoln which plays a coordinating role between the University, high schools, Rotary Clubs throughout New Zealand and Rotary International.

Senior secondary students from throughout New Zealand will join their Asia­Pacific neighbours at YES 2000 to learn about and discuss environmental issues facing societies around the world in the 21st century.

"A key guiding principle is the desire to convey the positives as well as the problems of the environment," says Associate Professor Graeme Buchan, who has been associated with EnviroSchool from the start.

"We want to share with young people the excitement of applying science to natural systems and implant positive feelings about the environment, and by so doing give an impetus to environmental understanding and conservation.

"Although honest attention to problems is essential, it has to be balanced by optimism for the future. And this optimism depends on collective action now."

As with earlier EnviroSchools, the programme for YES 2000 is aimed at achieving three transfer processes – knowledge transfer, especially of the scientific bases of phenomena; ethic transfer, through the discussion of values and acceptance of a collective responsibility towards the environment; and action transfer, by providing pointers to action.

The organisers refer to this as the ‘SEA’ triad – science, ethic, action.

Lincoln University's EnviroSchool programme enjoys the endorsement of Sir Edmund Hillary as Patron and in 1996 the initiative received a New Zealand Government ‘Green Ribbon Award’ for its contribution to environmental education.

The principal sponsor for YES 2000 is Meridian Energy, with BP, Wickliffe Press Ltd and Rotary International also in support.

Applications from senior secondary students for this year's YES 2000 can be made to Celia Bodley, Professional Development Group, Lincoln University, telephone (03) 3252811 ext. 8349, fax (03) 3253840, or email YES2000@lincoln.ac.nz

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand