The aim of this report is to present an overview of the 17 Goals using data currently available to highlight the most significant gaps and challenges.

This insightful book analyses the process of the first adoption of guiding human rights principles for education, the Abidjan Principles. It explains the development of the Abidjan Principles, including their articulation of the right to education, the state obligation to provide quality public education, and the role of private actors in education.

National information needs on forests have grown considerably in recent years, evolving from forest area and growing stock information to key aspects of sustainable forest management, such as the role of forests in the conservation of biodiversity and the provision of other ecosystem services. More recently, information on changes in carbon stocks, socio-economic aspects including the contribution to livelihoods and poverty reduction, governance and broader land use issues has become critical for national planning.

The book is based on the exchange of professional experiences which featured in an IUCN CEC workshop in August 2002. Practitioners from around the world shared their models of good practice and explored the challenges involved in engaging people in sustainability. The difficulties facing practitioners vary between country and context but some challenges are universal: A lack of clarity in communicating what is meant by sustainable development; An ambition to educate everyone to bring about a global citizenship; Social, organisational or institutional factors constrain change to sustainable development, yet there is an emphasis on formal education, and community educators do not receive the same support; A lack of balance in addressing the integration of environmental, social and economic dimensions leading to an interpretation that ESD is mainly about environment and conservation issues; New learning (rather than teaching) approaches are called for to promote more debate in society. Yet, few are trained or experienced in these new approaches. Practitioners need support to explore new ways of promoting learning. [Foreword, ed].