Agenda 21 Program

by Dr. Vlasta Molak President, GAIA UNLIMITED, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio; tel. 513/521-9321; fax. 513/521-9321; E-mail: DrMolak@email.com; President, AGENDA 21 PROGRAM, Croatia-USA-Israel

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

AGENDA 21 PROGRAM teaches operational skills for sustainable development, which is defined as integrated strategies that would halt and reverse the negative impact of human behavior on physical environment and allow for livable environment for future generations on Earth. The goal of this program is to promote implementing the principles of sustainable development, originated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992. AGENDA 21 presents a blueprint for development of humanity in the 21st century agreed upon and signed by a majority of countries on Earth in 1992.

AGENDA 21 PROGRAM is located in Mljet, Dubrovnik and Zagreb (Croatia), in Washington, DC (USA) and Kibbutz Gezer (Israel), making it easily accessible for a variety of learners, such as legislators and Congressional aides, and European and Asian decision makers. At the University of Zagreb (Croatia), Kibbutz Gezer (Israel), and The Union Institute (Washington, DC), we have created a "global classroom" made possible by the newest technological development in communication, which allows people from all parts of the world to be connected via the Internet. By combining innovative classroom teaching with advances in distance education through the Internet, our classrooms and students are not limited by location, and the world's best experts' knowledge is made available to our students on-line and/or by live interaction in our "global classroom". Also, such an ducational mode can bring together students with diverse experiences and areas of expertise themselves and thus develop and improve the AGENDA 21 PROGRAM curriculum.

The purpose of our AGENDA 21 PROGRAM is to teach a new paradigm in dealing with environmental and occupational problems, by integrating science and technology with the social sciences and applying them to sustainable development (as defined in the 1992 Earth Summit). This program will give our learners the operational skills necessary implementation of sustainable development, i.e., such as risk assessment and risk management. There is a great need for this type of knowledge in order to make sound environmental decisions compatible with sustainable development principles.

Besides providing training for the undergraduate and graduate learners, industrial learners and decision makers in developed countries, such as US, Canada and Western Europe, the program has developed a range of courses to be taught in other parts of the world, where such knowledge is in great demand. AGENDA 21 PROGRAM will specifically target developing countries and Eastern Europe where environmental problems need immediate attention and the concepts of sustainable development are most applicable, since those countries are undergoing rapid reconstruction and development.

The program also will facilitate technology transfer developed under the research portion of the AGENDA 21 PROGRAM at the Biosystems Research Center (Mljet, Croatia) and Energy Research Center (Israel), which will help develop and promulgate new paradigms in those fields.

Potential target populations for our outreach programs include employees and decision makers in chemical and other industries who deal with risk assessment and risk management on an everyday basis, and managers who direct and organize health and safety management in industrial facilities. Another target for our outreach program are the city managers and local government members who make important decisions affecting the quality of everyday life. To do this, the AGENDA 21 PROGRAM has a small full-time and a large adjunct faculty, both in the USA, Croatia and Israel, and among the nationally and internationally recognized experts from across the world. The structure of the AGENDA 21 PROGRAM will be flexible to enable maximum transfer of knowledge and technology and to adjust the teaching to the particular needs of the learners.