ABSTRACT
Environmental education projects can be susceptible to vandalism. Children are encouraged to gain practical knowledge via enjoyable, group activities such as a badger watch, a guided bat walk using bat detectors or a tree-planting event. Groups of children from the school, helped by members of the local community, then began the work of planting. Locally there are many conservation organisations which schools can call upon to provide evidence of environmental situations closer to home. When a school embarks upon a wildlife area or pocket park it must decide on which conservation organisations to establish a working relationship with and how to recognise and avoid pitfalls. There are several options which are easily accessible to schools, with fruitful relationships to help children understand the importance of the links between global and local issues. One must hope that future governments will make an equally strong commitment to environmental education and provide the necessary resources to enable schools to take up the challenge.
