A SUSTAINABLE development worker from Malvern will visit the Gambia in February to learn how the West African country deals with environmental problems and to share ideas from the UK.

Christine Wild, of the Malvern Development Education Centre (DEC), will then present the lessons learned from the trip to school children in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

Organised by the Birmingham DEC, her visit to the Gambia, along with a team from the West Midlands, will focus in particular on how children are taught in the classroom.

"I will be bringing back my experiences of the Gambia to illustrate development issues when I talk to the children," she said.

Ms Wild, a Malvern Hills district councillor for Trinity ward, said the Gambia shared many problems with Britain.

"It's in the top ten most-at-risk countries from global warming and rising seas," she said. "They've also suffered from a loss of bio-diversity and tourism has had an impact.

"The Gambian government has got to grips with sustainable development but our own Government has only just started to come to terms with it."

Ms Wild will visit local schools to teach children about sustainability, a notoriously difficult concept.

She explained: "If I describe sustainability as a three-legged stool - one leg is the economy, another society and the other the environment.

"Without one the others can't stand up. You have to get the balance right."

Governments and companies should also pay attention to the concept when considering whether to invest in an area, said Ms Wild.

"You have to check that your project is not doing damage to local environment and, just as importantly, to local people or the economy either," she said.