The Indian Environmental Society, one of the most active Civil Society Organization working on Environmental and Sustainable Development issues since 1972, plans to convene the 7th Global Conference on Environmental Education for Sustainable Development at Agra (city of Taj Mahal) in India during September 19 – 23, 2005. The Conference is the 7th in the series and aims to develop agenda for the Conference on Environmental Education proposed in the year 2007 (30 years after Tbilisi Declaration). It will be 30 years in the year 2007, when the Charter on the Environmental Education was adopted by the UNESCO’s sponsored Intergovernmental Conference at Tbilisi.

Strengthening and enhancing Environmental Education (an essential element of sustainable development in all countries) are the critical measures that have to be undertaken among the individual to develop the sensitivity of existing environmental problems and also to be able to adopt a rational and integrated approach in managing the environment.

The Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education convened in Tbilisi, Georgia (USSR), in 1977 was one such effort to strengthen environmental literacy among the community at the global level. The conference was organized by United Nation’s Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in cooperation with the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP). The conference marked the unanimous accord in the important role of Environmental Education in the preservation and improvement of the environment, as well as in the sound and balanced development of the communities. The Conference recommends the adoption of certain criteria, which will help to guide efforts to develop EE at the regional, national, and global levels.

In order to evaluate the steps taken as a follow-up of Tbilisi at regional, national and global level to strengthen EE and also to appraise the activities and success of programs developed and implemented on environmental education in the last three decades, Indian Environmental Society is organizing the 7th Global Conference on Environmental Education at Hotel Holiday Inn, Agra during September 19 – 23, 2005.

This Conference aims to develop an agenda and to identify the emerging environmental issues for the Conference on “Environmental Education – 30 years after Tbilisi” to be organized in the Year 2007.