What we do
WESSA’s work falls into six thematic areas: biodiversity, energy, Legislative Compliance, Voluntary Social Change, waste and water. Each of these represents critical yet inter-dependent aspects of our environment.
WESSA’s responses to these issues and our management of the systems they represent are framed by the tools for change that we have at our disposal. These tools include legislation (and compliance with that legislation) and social change.
While laws which sets out to protect the environment have the authority of the state behind them in order to force a change in human behaviour, much of the change needed to ensure the sustainable future of our planet has to manifest in the perceptions and attitudes of individual people and societies towards the natural environment.
This shift in mindset cannot be achieved only through legislation. It requires grassroots educational programmes and activities, and it requires the passionate community engagement of environmental activists and experts, and it requires the widespread acceptance by every citizen of shared responsibility for our environment.
Only then can we move towards securing a voluntary commitment from all those who consume the Earth’s rich resources; a commitment to playing a role, no matter how small, in the protection of our planet for future generations.