Watersheds are foundational socio-ecological systems that underpin water security, agricultural livelihoods, and the provision of critical ecosystem services. However, across Southeast Asia, watershed systems are experiencing sustained degradation driven by intensifying anthropogenic pressures and persistent gaps in community-level stewardship. While environmental education is frequently advanced as a key response, prevailing initiatives in watershed contexts tend to be short-term, information-oriented, and weakly embedded in local socio-ecological realities, limiting their capacity to support durable behavioral and collective change. This paper presents the development of an eco-heutagogical framework for community environmental education, explicitly situated within a watershed approach, to address these limitations. The framework is informed by a systematic literature review on community environmental education and watershed resilience in Asia, complemented by on-field immersion and observation, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions conducted in selected watershed and environmental education sites in the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia. These cross-country qualitative engagements generated comparative insights into existing educational practices, community learning processes, and contextual constraints shaping stewardship outcomes. Grounded in Social–Ecological Systems thinking and Integrated Water Resources Management principles, the proposed framework emphasizes self-determined learning, experiential and reflexive engagement, and the integration of scientific and local ecological knowledge. The paper contributes a context-responsive and theoretically grounded educational framework that repositions community environmental education as a central mechanism for adaptive, community-owned watershed stewardship, with broader implications for sustainability practice across Southeast Asia.

Authors:
Cyril John Nagal, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines
Rico Ancog, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines

About the Presenter(s)
Cyril John C. Nagal is a full-time PhD student in Environmental Science at UP Los Baños, interested in socio-ecological systems, environmental education, and extension, currently researching watershed-based community environmental education.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Tuesday Schedule

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