CSPE - The implementation gap in environmental initiatives through community engagement and public pedagogies

据估计，乌干达、博茨瓦纳和尼日利亚70%的人口直接依赖其生态系统丰富的生物多样性维持生计、健康和福祉。这些生态系统正以惊人的速度遭到破坏，同时社会、文化和经济繁荣也在恶化。目前，土地退化导致撒哈拉以南地区每年损失超过农业GDP的3%，预计到2025年非洲将损失三分之二的可耕地。虽然针对这些环境和社会现实的研究、创新和政策是在国内和国际上进行的，但这些研究、创新和政策在很大程度上没有社区参与或质量投入，而且大多没有成功实施。CSPE网络汇集了社区和公共教育学领域的环境和社会科学家，以解决这一明显的实施差距。为了有效解决日益严重的生物多样性退化问题，迫切需要缩小环境研究、创新和政策与影响环境和受环境影响的社区之间的差距。CSPE网络将寻求通过促进跨学科和跨部门的创新合作来发展创新和经济增长，以解决社区经历的社会、文化和经济因素导致的生物多样性丧失问题。乌干达、博茨瓦纳和尼日利亚在非正式、社区和公共教育方面有着丰富而重要的历史。社区和公共教学法侧重于正规教育机构之外的学习和教学，包括在各种公共和社区空间中的学习，可以通过教学、参与、社会艺术和流行文化等多种形式出现。在非洲背景下，社区参与、土著认识方式和职业发展方面有一个重要的研究和实践领域，但这个社会科学领域很少与环境科学直接合作。因此，有平行的目标（环境可持续性和人民的福祉），但缺乏共同的语言、方法或专业知识。在依赖环境的人口的背景下，社区和公共教学法是将新科学信息与现有社会文化知识和现实联系起来所需的最有力、最快和最适当的参与形式。环境政策执行的差距并不新鲜，但主要是由于治理和控制的失败。CSPE网络认为，如果没有真正的社区参与，解决生物多样性退化问题是一个注定要继续失败的项目。同样，要解决没有丰富的、以科学为基础的环境知识的人口的健康、福祉和教育问题，同样是徒劳的。此外，这三个国家的领导人都认识到，他们面临的环境挑战需要跨部门和整体的关注（乌干达2040年愿景；尼日利亚2020年愿景；博茨瓦纳国家发展计划10）。CSPE网络提出，如果没有社区的充分参与，治理只会进一步扩大社区与试图保护它们的决策者和研究人员之间的差距。这种持续的动态和不断增加的问题不是由于缺乏知识、专门知识或财政资源。这是由于环境科学与社区参与之间的脱节：这个网络旨在缓解这种脱节。

It is estimated that 70% of the population of Uganda, Botswana, and Nigeria directly depend on the rich biodiversity of their ecosystems for their livelihoods, health and well-being. These ecosystems are being damaged at alarming rates in conjunction with a deterioration of social, cultural, and economic prosperity. Land degradation currently leads to annual loss of more than 3% of agriculture GDP in the sub-Saharan region, with two-thirds of arable land expected to be lost in Africa by 2025. While research, innovation, and policy addressing these environmental and social realities is carried out nationally and internationally, these occur largely without community involvement or qualitative input, and mostly without successful implementation. The CSPE Network brings together environmental and social scientists in community and public pedagogies to address this apparent implementation gap. As a matter of urgency, the gap between environmental research, innovation, and policy and the communities impacting and being impacted by the environment needs to be mitigated, in order to effectively address the growing issues related to biodiversity degradation. The CSPE Network will seek to develop Innovation and Economic Growth by facilitating innovative cross-disciplinary and cross-sector collaborations to address biodiversity loss in engagement with the social, cultural, and economic factors experienced by communities. Uganda, Botswana, and Nigeria have a rich, important history of non-formal, community and public pedagogies. Focused on learning and teaching outside formal educational institutions, community and public pedagogies include learning in various public and community spaces and can emerge for example, through instruction, engagement, social arts, and popular culture, amongst many other forms. There is a significant field of research and practice in community engagement, indigenous ways of knowing, and vocational development in the African context, but this social science area rarely works directly with environmental science. Hence, there are parallel objectives (environmental sustainability and the well being of people) but a lack of common language, approach, or expertise. In the context of environment-dependent populations, community and public pedagogies are the strongest, fastest, and most appropriate forms of engagement required to connect new scientific information with existing socio-cultural knowledge and realities. The environmental policy implementation gap is not new but it is predominantly put down to failures of governance and control. The CSPE Network postulates that addressing biodiversity degradation without genuine community engagement is a project destined to continue to fail. Likewise, to address the health, well-being, and education of populations without rich, science-based environmental knowledge is equally futile. Furthermore, the leadership of all three countries recognise that the environmental challenges they face require inter-sectoral and holistic attention (Uganda Vision 2040; Nigeria Vision 20:2020; Botswana National Development Plan 10). The CSPE Network proposes that without the full engagement of communities, governance will only further widen the gap between communities and the policy makers and researchers trying to protect them. This sustained dynamic and the ever-increasing set of problems is due not to a lack of knowledge, expertise or financial resources. It is due to the disconnect between environmental science and the engagement of communities: a disconnect this network is designed to mitigate.