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(EECC Co-Chair from the United States)
What influenced you to work in environmental
education in the border region?
I am a native San Diegan. My first job at State Parks, ten
years ago, was as a seasonal interpreter at Tijuana Estuary.
While working at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, the
Estuary Reserve Manager asked me to consider coming back to
Tijuana Estuary as the education coordinator. Since the Reserve
works in the whole watershed, two-thirds of which is in Mexico,
the Reserve can serve as a resource on both sides of the border.
What is environmental education?
Environmental education, according to the State of California’s
Strategic Initiatives focuses on environmental “literacy:” learning
about and caring for the total environment, understanding
how humans interact with and are dependent on natural ecosystems,
and developing critical-thinking skills to resolve environmental
issues.
Why have you chosen to work with the Council?
Through the Council, I can enhance the Reserve’s role
as a resource to the watershed by providing programming,
events, and materials for the Baja California and Imperial
Beach/San Diego areas.
What are the challenges of operating a successful
binational coalition?
The challenges include, communication among everyone, having
equal representation at meetings between Mexico and the U.S.,
and lack of enough funds for projects.
What would you like to see in the future
of the Council?
Currently, there seems to be more participation from Baja California.
As the U.S. chair, I would like to work towards more participation
of environmental educators from the U.S. I would like us to
continue to build the capacity of the members to improve the
quality of all of our programs and services. It will also be
important to diversify the funding sources to the Council to
enable us to support more quality environmental education.
In our role as the Border 2012 Environmental Education (EE)
Taskforce for the Californias, we can serve as the role
model for the other taskforces to the east that are in early
stages of development. I would like us to implement the work
plan that we described at the National Coordinators Meeting
in March 2005 that includes having EE be officially recognized
by the National Coordinators, building the communications
network along the border, inventorying the border EE resources,
and building our capacity to perform effective evaluations
to demonstrate the efficacy of EE programs and services.
Interview
with Maria Curry | Interview
with Anne Marie Tipton
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