When it comes to the environment and the conservation of natural resources, the conflicting visions and practices between professionals oriented toward production and those with a background in the natural sciences are found throughout most of the world.

In Honduras, where there is no exception to this divergence of views, most universities for many years have focused on preparing professionals who make efficient use of resources in productive and industrial processes, under the premise of higher profitability and competitiveness but not necessarily from the perspective of environmental sustainability. As environmental awareness has increased over the years, universities in Honduras have sought ways to respond to the necessity of forming professionals with higher levels of awareness about environmental issues.

In response to society’s environmental needs, some universities created specialized career programs that focus on environmental themes, such as environmental engineering. Others decided to offer environmental education as a voluntary course. Despite these efforts, there appears to be no increase in environmental awareness in the workplace. For example, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations still reports a deforestation rate of 86,000 hectares per year. Other indicators also speak to the lack of vision, in terms of sustainability, that Honduran professionals maintain in their productive activities. In other words, the current environmental education courses have not been enough, mainly because of their voluntary nature, their general focus on conservation without including other elements, and the immaturity of students at the time they take the courses (often early in their college careers), which prevents some of them from grasping the practical use of environmental education in their career programs.

In 2005, the United States Agency for International Development’s Integrated Watershed Resources Management Project (USAID/MIRA) set the goal of improving the curricula of schools and universities in the country. It has taken a lot of time and effort to reach the goal, but the results have been very encouraging: the Education Secretariat is currently implementing the use of methodological guides to help schoolteachers incorporate environmental education in the social and natural sciences, and will later extend it to all areas of study. At the university level, advocacy in educational policies also began in 2005 with the formation of an interuniversity environmental committee, known as the Inter-Institutional Environmental Sciences Committee (CICA).

Although the CICA began with eight universities, it has now grown to include 19 of the 20 public and private universities in the country. With support from USAID/MIRA and other institutions involved in science and education, the CICA has worked to raise awareness about environmental issues from a sustainable development and competitiveness perspective, holding forums, workshops, and seminars to broaden the criteria of university professors. Following the principles and objectives established at its founding, the CICA challenged itself to incorporate environmental education as a cross-cutting theme in all university program curricula.

To meet this challenge, the CICA has sought institutional support from each university at the highest level. As a result, the presidents of all twenty universities met at the Panamerican School of Agriculture (Zamorano) on August 12, 2008, to sign a declaration committing the institutions to the voluntary incorporation of the environment as a cross-cutting theme in higher education. High-profile government officials such as the ministers of Education, Science and Technology, and Natural Resources and Environment were present at the declaration, an event without precedence in the history of Honduran education.

The most difficult tasks are certainly yet to come; that is to say, the technical and methodological work in curricula, the development of participatory processes to adjust curricula in areas supposedly not related to the environment, and the embracing of the vision of environmental sustainability in the workplace by future university graduates from all degree programs. While these changes take place, each university is forming an internal committee, linked to the CICA, that will immediately carry out activities to raise awareness and place environmental education in practice in areas such as research, institutional operations, and community outreach.

Understandably, this success story about advocacy in public policy is still moving forward. However, the ground already covered is worth mentioning to motivate and inspire hope for all of us who work to improve our planet’s environment.