CEC Regional Vice-Chair
John Francis
Vice President, Research, Conservation and Exploration
National Geographic Society
Washington D.C., USA
Email: jfrancis@ngs.org
The Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) is one of the six Commissions on which IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, draws expertise to fulfill its mission. Keith Wheeler, FFOF President, serves as the Chair of this commission.
The Commission on Education and Communication is IUCN's knowledge network about how to involve people in learning and change towards more sustainable development, through the window of biodiversity and natural resources management. CEC is composed of more than 600 experts from over 90 countries from international organizations, governments, NGO, academia and the field. This network of experts connects IUCN managers and policy makers to knowledge, resources and experiences in using communication, education, participation and public awareness and assists them in planning and managing changes in environment and society.
CEC advocates for participatory approaches to develop policies, management and solutions and helps to develop capacity amongst IUCN constituents to realize this. It helps communities and institutions find their own solutions to overcome the many barriers and most appropriate forms of participation in environmental management and sustainable development.
As CEC members develop local capacity, they draw on CEC and its partners. CEC members provide practical local knowledge and experiences from various parts of the world for its global advocacy and capacity development work. This is the basis for the leadership of CEC, which involves people in learning for change towards sustainability within their environments.
The World Conservation Learning Network is a program of the IUCN - CEC, which the Foundation for Our Future helped launch in 2004.
The Commission membership has evolved over the years from experts in formal education towards experts in informal, non formal and development education and communication experts. They work in governments, NGOs and international organizations, universities and consultancies.
The CEC has experts in capacity development including directors of capacity development programs and institutions, such as from LEAD, REC, UNDP, UNEP, World Bank, consultancies, university departments and training institutions.
The current membership is reviewed at the end of 2012 after the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, Korea, which gives an opportunity to develop the membership to better meet the needs of the new program and to re-invite only those who are active in the past intersessional period.
The CEC is seeking to develop its membership in the following areas to meet the demands of IUCN - such as expertise in:
John Francis
Vice President, Research, Conservation and Exploration
National Geographic Society
Washington D.C., USA
Email: jfrancis@ngs.org
Canada — Monique Trudel, monique108@sympatico.ca
USA — Brian Day, brian@naaee.org
Canada
Jamaica
USA