I thought that there was no relationship between biodiversity and the sustainability as in my mind, cycling was the base of sustainability and biodiversity was not associated with cycling. This means that it was hard for me to connect the following picture with biodiversity.

However, after reading the article-Testing a participatory integrated assessment (PIA) approach to select climate change adaptation actions to enhance wetland sustainability: The case of Poyang Lake region in China, I changed my values and beliefs about the relationships between sustainability and biodiversity. I realized that there are mutual connections between the sustainability and the biodiversity context.

Firstly, the sustainable development consists of biodiversity conservation, climate balance and other factors related to ecosystem health. These factors are mentioned in this article and Li Huang and YongyuanYin points out that reducing the biodiversity loss improves the ecosystem health, which benefits the regional sustainable development in a changing climate. In this case, wetland biodiversity conservation and health programs influence the wetland ecosystem sustainability goals under a changing climate.

This indicates that the sustainability refers to ecosystem health that is associated with biodiversity conservation and climate change. In other words, sustainability of an ecosystem means the ecosystem’s ability to maintain its function and biodiversity over time with the influence of the external stress. The healthy ecosystem supported by biodiversity is shown in the following picture.

Secondly, sustainability is the base of conserving biodiversity owing to the fact that various creatures can live well in a sustainable environment like a cycling wetland. According to this article, the professionals come up with many solutions to conserve the sustainable development of the wetland

such as water use planning, water pricing or ecosystem services payment. These methods are applied to create a sustainable ecosystem where multiple creatures have opportunities to survive. Thus, sustainability is a basic requirement for the conservation of biodiversity as without a sustainable and healthy ecosystem, many creatures may disappear owing to the shortage of foods or habitats.

Thirdly, sustainability interacts with biodiversity conservation and they affect each other. When introducing the PIA approach, Li Huang and YongyuanYin implicate that one effective way to evaluate ecosystem sustainability is to reduce the harms for the biodiversity in the wetland and this way will be advocated by PIA approach and policy evaluation.

This means that biodiversity damage could influence the development of sustainability in a negative way. Conversely, the sustainable ecosystem is able to promote renewable energy to lower the emissions of greenhouse gas, which reduces the disease inflections among creatures and protests the survival of different creatures. Such a situation is beneficial for the conservation of biodiversity by declining the disease infections.

Furthermore, an article called the Biodiversity Conservation through Environmental Education for Sustainable Development – A Case Study from Puducherry, India impacted me a lot as it is tightly associated with education. Firstly, the goal of education for sustainable development is to help the students to recognize the significance of conserving the local biodiversity by multiple forms like outdoor education.

The biology class can help the students to acquire knowledge and skills to deal with various biodiversity problems related to the local context, which assists them to protect the local biodiversity by solving related problems. The outdoor ecological settings provide the students with an environment to learn about animals and plants species (Killermann 1998; Lock 1998; Prokop & Tilling 2004). The psychological constructs including the attitudes, values, and beliefs can be considered in the education for the sustainable development as these instruments are able to urge the students to protect the biodiversity (Bogner 2002).

Based on the learning in the classroom, the outdoor education would have a good result due to the support of study within the classroom. For example, As the following picture show, the teachers can give the students some tasks during the outdoor learning, preventing them from playing in the outdoor settings and completing the teaching goals by supervising them to conduct the tasks related to the biodiversity.

Secondly, the current problems of biodiversity can be included in the teaching contents as by addressing these problems, more species including the populations, animals and plants can survive. The purpose of education for sustainability is to develop the students’ attitudes, skills and knowledge structure and these factors are important for them to make decisions. By shaping the students’ qualities, the education is able to play a role in the conservation of biodiversity as with the help of knowledge and skills, the students have enough ability to solve biological problems.

Thirdly, Education for sustainability can be linked to biodiversity, livelihoods, agriculture, fisheries and so on. This kind of education provides the students with a chance to recognize the connection between the consumption and local biodiversity, benefiting the students to take responsibility in the conservation of biodiversity by developing human resources, preventing habitat loss, degradation, species loss, and population.

The biodiversity crisis is a confused problem for the whole world. The schools and families should encourage the students to confront with this crisis and put efforts in the conservation of biodiversity because of the fact that every student is the part of education for sustainable development.

References

Bogner, F. X. 2002. The influence of a residential outdoor education programme to pupil’s environmental perception. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 18, 19-34.

Huang, L., Yin, Y., & Du, D. B. 2015. Testing a participatory integrated assessment (PIA) approach to select climate change adaptation actions to enhance wetland sustainability: The case of Poyang Lake region in China. Advances in Climate Change Research, 6(2), 141-150.

Killermann, W. 1998. Research into biology teaching methods. Journal of Biological Education, 33, 4-9.

Lock, R. 1998. Fieldwork in the life sciences. Int. Journal of Science Education, 20, 633-642.

Prokop, P. , Tuncer, G. , & Kvasničák, R. 2007. Short-term effects of field programme on students knowledge and attitude toward biology: A Slovak experience. Journal of Science Education & Technology, 16, 247–255.

Ramadoss, A., & Poyyamoli, G. 2011. Biodiversity conservation through environmental education for sustainable development-a case study from puducherry, India. International Electronic Journal of Environmental Education, 1(2).

Tilling, S. 2004. Fieldwork in UK secondary schools: Influences and provision. Journal of Biological Education, 38, 54-58.