Fostering the One Health Approach in Environmental Education: Innovations, Challenges, and Opportunities

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding Environmental Education (EE) is increasingly complex due to its multidisciplinary nature. Traditional EE in teaching has mainly focused on conveying ecological content and raising awareness of environmental issues without a clear emphasis on actionable objectives. This is exacerbated by the neglect of EE content in early education stages, where foundational learning occurs.

Additionally, EE often lacks a health perspective, and Health Education is seldom linked to environmental health. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to contemplate the novel educational direction required to achieve high-quality and transformative "Education for Environmental, Animal, and Human Health (One Health)". This entails educating students about healthy environmental characteristics, signs of deterioration, the impacts of an unhealthy environment on human and animal health, and everyday actions to prevent and mitigate damage. Ideally, this would foster an understanding that environmental issues vary across regions and affect organisms differently.

The One Health approach is typically discussed in the medical and ecotoxicology literature, focusing on topics such as microbial resistance, biodiversity loss, and zoonotic diseases. However, there is limited research on its integration into classroom education. Additionally, many citizens overlook environmental and animal health when considering health issues, reflecting their utilitarian view of the environment and other organisms, as seen in the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Special Issue welcomes original articles exploring "Environmental Education for Sustainability" and the "One Health Approach in Education," especially if they integrate both perspectives. We particularly encourage the submission of studies that investigate how incorporating the One Health approach into classrooms through EE (systematic reviews, intervention proposals, case studies, and so on) can motivate citizens to enhance sustainability. Manuscripts should adhere to journal guidelines and prioritize clarity, coherence, and conciseness.

Prof. Dr. José Manuel Pérez Martín
Dr. Tamara Esquivel-Martín
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.