Environmental Education

Community mobilization and training is central to CARE's ANR development programming. CARE fosters communities --including children--to become more aware of the linkages between their environment and their lives, and the importance of maintaining biodiversity for the viability of current and future generations. It also empowers farmers and forest dwellers to assume a more self-assured stewardship over their natural resources. CARE works with communities to identify and analyze their key agro-ecological assets and problems, and plan and implement projects to conserve their resources and address those problems. Communities' needs are identified through participatory methods that include Participatory Rural Appraisal, Participatory Learning and Action, and Livelihood Security Rapid Assessments. The needs are then ranked by the community and used to inform project design. Once community needs are identified, CARE empowers farmers and communities to help themselves, mobilizing participants around project activities and providing training in a variety of areas.