ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND AWARENESS: A PAN-SOCIETAL FRAMEWORK FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

Abstract

The intensification of global environmental pollution, climate-associated risks, and ecological-knowledge decline highlights the need for inclusive environmental literacy frameworks capable of shaping sustainability behaviour. Although environmental awareness initiatives have expanded internationally, many developing societies, including Nigeria, continue to operate fragmented or symbolic environmental-education models with weak knowledge-to-practice translation. Anchored on behavioural learning and intention-action theory, this review synthesises empirical evidence supporting environmental literacy progression through the K-A-P (Knowledge → Attitude → Practice) continuum and comparative insights from European and Asian environmental-education institutional architectures. Findings affirm that environmental behaviour is adopted more durably when literacy is introduced early in curricula, socially modelled in communal learning spaces, and reinforced cyclically through institutions and community-of-practice clusters rather than linear or sporadic campaigns. The paper further identifies systemic gaps in community feedback, occupational literacy penetration, and enforcement-education coherence while proposing the imperative for cyclical learning frameworks that empower communities in environmental stewardship. The review concludes that environmental sustainability depends on behaviourally engineered, inclusive, feedback-driven systems where schools, occupation clusters, communities, and environmental accountability institutions function as co-actors in reinforcement cycles. The article contributes a holistic pan-societal sustainability-education position relevant to policy and community empowerment research.