News from the CEPA e-mail list

Water Outreach Education project (15/03/04)

Good afternoon CEPA people:

The Water Outreach Education project (also known as the Best Education Practices or BEP project) works collaboratively with the US's federal agency clean and safe water partnership to develop and promote best education practices (BEPs) for water education and to improve access to education resources and strategies. Their goal? To assist natural resource management and outreach professionals to increase public understanding and involvement in community decision-making about water issues.

In 2002, their study of Provider Needs was conducted to identify what resources these professionals currently use, how the resources might better meet user needs, how the project can make them more accessible, and how it can promote the use of best practices in water outreach education. This was accomplished through a workshop as well as a telephone survey. Full details of the survey and its findings are available form the Water Outreach Education Web site (http://www.uwex.edu/erc/waterbeps/). Have a look around the Web site - there are many useful links to available resource materials for use with schoolchildren and adults.

Part of their programme of work involves a symposium from June 2-4, 2004, "Best Education Practices for Water Outreach Professionals", at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. The symposium will engage national extension water quality coordinators, outreach professionals, and key stakeholders in fine-tuning BEP Project products and marketing strategy to best assist natural resource professionals in meeting their water management education and outreach objectives. Meeting sessions will provide a mix of speakers, paper presentations, interactive events, poster sessions and networking opportunities. More information here http://www.uwex.edu/erc/waterbeps/PDF/SympLogicModel.pdf about the BEP Symposium proceedings and for submitting proposals for poster or paper presentations or contact Kate Reilly, Project Coordinator, klreilly@wisc.edu.

Best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat

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Sandra Hails, CEPA Programme Officer
Ramsar Convention Secretariat
Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 999 0176; Fax: +41 22 999 0169
E-mail: hails@ramsar.org
Web Site: http://ramsar.org
CEPA mini-Web site: http://ramsar.org/outreach_index.htm

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