Education for Nature - Vietnam (ENV)
Education for Nature – Vietnam (ENV) is Vietnam’s first local NGO to focus on conservation of wildlife and the environment through education. It was founded in 2000.
ENV’s mission is to help protect nature and the environment, by encouraging and facilitating increased public participation in this important task. ENV focuses on raising awareness amongst the Vietnamese people about environmental issues of local, national, and global significance, ranging from protection of wildlife and natural ecosystems to climate change.
ENV runs a number of programs in order to achieve this goal:
- Developing and delivering a range of community environmental awareness programs, including ‘Nature Clubs’ for school-aged children, and Participatory Learning Appraisal (PLA) sessions with local residents in and around protected areas and National Parks.
- Training environmental educators at a National Training Facility at Tam Dao National Park. ENV provides scholarships to trainees, allowing them to attend the courses free of charge, and equips them with skills in environmental communication, community facilitation, and information on environmental problems within the Vietnamese context.
- Working to combat the widespread illegal trade in wildlife. ENV established the first ever Wildlife Trade Hotline, a service that allows ordinary people to call in, free of charge, and report wildlife crimes where they see them.
- Publishing a popular student environment magazine, Green Forest. This magazine goes out, free of charge, to students, young people, teachers, environmental educators and community workers throughout Vietnam, providing them with information about a range of local and global environmental issues.
- Through the EE Family Network, providing support and technical input to environmental education programs throughout the country.