The purpose of the Regional Environmental Education (EE) Programme is to enable environmental education practitioners in the SADC region to strengthen environmental education processes for equitable and sustainable environmental management choices. This will be achieved through enhanced and strengthened environmental education policy, networking, resource materials and training capacity.

In 1993, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Environment and Land Management Sector (ELMS) initiated a programme to support environmental education processes in the southern African region. The initial phase of this programme included a series of workshops involving environmental education practitioners in the region. The first workshop was held in Windhoek, Namibia in 1994 and the second in Howick, South Africa in 1996. These workshops were complemented by other research processes designed to assess the state of environmental education in the region. Based on information gathered during this initial phase a formal programme document was developed and submitted to the SADC Council of Ministers for approval.

The Council of Ministers ratified the proposal and agreed that the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) should act as implementing agency of the programme. Following approval in August 1996 the document was finalised in December 1996 (Harare) and submitted to the Swedish International Development Developing Agency (Sida) for funding. Sida found the Programme's recommendations appropriate for responding to the urgent need for environmental education processes in the SADC region and agreed to fund the first three years of operation from July 1997 to June 2000. The SADC Regional Environmental Education Programme (REEP) was officially launched at the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) conference in 1997, and a Regional Environmental Education Centre was established in Umgeni Valley in Howick, South Africa. The building was developed with funding from the South African government.

In 2001, after participatory discussions the programme document was further developed and approved by the National Network Representatives in April 2001. Sida has recently agreed to fund the second phase of the programme from 2002 to 2005. Denmark, USAID and IUCN - The World Conservation Union, also provide financial support for different components of the Programme. With the restructuring of SADC the Regional Environmental Education Programme is now a project of the SADC Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) Directorate.

For more information , go to www.sadc-reep.org.za

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