An Overview of environmental education initiatives in the international and Romanian tourism

• Author: Untaru E.N., Ispas A., Candrea A. N.
• Pages: 107-116

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 8 (57) No. 1 - 2015

An overview of environmental education initiatives in

the international and Romanian tourism

Elena-Nicoleta UNTARU 1, Ana ISPAS 2, Adina-Nicoleta CANDREA3

Abstract: Environmental education in the tourism field has benefited in recent years from

the attention of various specialists, due to its potential influence on raising individual

awareness about environmental issues, as well as on their environmentally friendly attitudes

and behaviors, both at home and in a holiday setting. Given these issues, this paper aims to

achieve an overview of some of the existing environmental education initiatives in tourism,

both internationally and in Romania.

Key-words: environmental education, tourism, initiatives.

1. Introduction

Education is an essential tool for achieving sustainable development and solving

environmental problems (Jickling and Spork 1998; McKeown 2002; Thathong

2010). Environmental education is a process that recognizes the value and clarifies

many concepts in order to develop skills and attitudes necessary to understand and

appreciate the relationships between man, culture and the environment.

Environmental education includes decision-making practice and the formulation of a

code of conduct on environmental quality (Bălăceanu 2013).

The concept of "Education for Sustainable Development" (ESD) was first

defined as "education that allows people to acquire the values, knowledge and skills

to participate in decisions about how individual and collective actions, both locally

and globally, will improve quality of life without damaging the environment "(Aziz

et al. 2012). ESD goal is to make individuals and communities understand the

complex nature of the natural and built environment resulting from the interaction of

biological, physical, social, economic and cultural issues (UNESCO-UNEP 1978).

In the tourism field, sustainable education is of particular importance as it

helps to inform individuals, but also to increase their awareness on environmental

issues, while exerting a significant influence on their environmentally-friendly

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, elena.untaru@unitbv.ro

2 Transilvania University of Braşov, ispasana@unitbv.ro

3 Transilvania University of Braşov, adina.candrea@unitbv.ro