Planning education to care for the earth - IUCN Knowledge Network

Ecuador: raising environmental awarenessEvaluation of the effect of EDUNAT’S EE programme onknowledge and attitudesIn 1984, 4.5% of people, from a sample drawn out of all theprovinces, were able to correctly understand the meaning ofenvironment and its most important “components”. In 1990, 80.2% ofrespondents demonstrated a fair understanding of this meaning, andthe notions implied by it.Levels of general knowledge about environment were not associatedwith the respondent's, social class, sex and occupation. However apersistent association was observed between high levels of knowledgeand higher levels of schooling.In 1984, less than 5% of people could identify the most important 10environmental problems of the country.In 1990, this had increased to 18%, for 41 broad environmentalproblems; while 51% of people had a medium level knowledge ofthese problems. Only 31% had low levels.Environmental problems were split into two groups, around whichrespondents would feel or envisage themselves as either “agents” or“victims”. The results showed only slight differences between them.Contrary to the hypothesis, people tended to be more conscious of“agent-envisaged-problems”, than “victims-envisaged-problems”.It was found that despite EDUNAT having drawn attention to morethan 60 broad environmental issues over its 13 years of work, somewere highlighted and this matched with the awareness amongst therespondents. Well known issues were:• Environmental impact of petroleum products 85.3%• Environment pollution due to pesticides 81.6%• Endangering of species 78.5%• Effects of noise on people 76.5%• Usefulness of protected areas 76.0%• General petroleum contamination 75.5%• Natural disasters 74.5%Poorly treated issues by EDUNAT also had the lowest levels ofpeople’s knowledge.• The role of scientific research in theenvironmental problematic 25.7%• Time which would be required to solvethe most critical environmental problems 31.0%• The state of marine biological resources 34.8%• The rates of growth of the desert in the country 43.4%161