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Pllanning education to care for the earthSeabird conservation on the North Shore of theGulf of St. Lawrence, Canada:The effects of education on attitudes and behaviourtowards a marine resourceKathleen A. BlanchardAbstractOn the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Quebec, Canada,seabirds traditionally have been harvested for food. Illegal huntingand disturbance of colonially-breeding seabirds caused severedeclines in the populations of several species between 1955 and 1978.A new management plan developed by the Quebec-LabradorFoundation in collaboration with the Canadian Wildlife Servicesought to restore the depleted populations while preserving theintegrity of the local culture. By 1988, three desired outcomes hadbeen achieved: an increased population of seabirds breeding insanctuaries; sustained improvement in local knowledge, attitudes andbehaviour towards seabirds; and greater local support for, andinvolvement in, the management process. The programme includedyouth instruction, leadership training, information dissemination andsupport building. The success of the programme demonstrates thateducational strategies working within the cultural context can help toachieve resource management goals.IntroductionIn Caring for the Earth, IUCN - The World Conservation Union, the UnitedNations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Wide Fund ForNature (WWF), stated that environmental education and training can beimportant in effecting social change towards a sustainable society(IUCN/UNEP/WWF 1991). In North America, there are manyenvironmental education programmes that attempt to provide citizens withthe appropriate values, knowledge, skills, and incentives, but many of theprogrammes fall short of influencing positive change in attitudes andbehaviour. Moreover, in resource management agencies, the traditional roleof education has been to provide information that increases public awarenessand appreciation of natural resources. When perceived simply as a channelfor information, education often is given less importance than research,habitat management, and laws and enforcement, for conserving naturalresources. Agenda 21 states that there is a larger, more important role foreducation in helping societies change their behaviour towards practices thatare consistent with sustainable living (United Nations 1993).39
Planning education to care for the earthUnfortunately, behavioural scientists question whether durable behaviourchange reliably follows from information exchange; there are fewdocumented cases where this has occurred (Festinger 1964, Geller et al.1982, Katzev and Johnson 1987). This is particularly relevant in wildlifemanagement, where agencies, in an effort to change attitudes or behaviour,have often used information materials as a substitute for educationprogrammes (Adams et al. 1988). Just because information is printed in abrochure or displayed on a poster does not mean that the target audience willread, understand, and follow what is being asked, particularly if the messagegoes against traditions, local norms, or conflicts with personal ethics.Even when education to achieve a conservation goal is used successfully,seldom is its use carefully evaluated. In a recent report for the UnitedStates Fish and Wildlife Service, a conservation education expert reportedonly six examples from the North American wildlife and environmentaleducation literature of education programmes in wildlife management thathelped solve a resource management problem and that were evaluated. Thecase of seabird conservation on the North Shore of the Gulf of St.Lawrence, Canada, was one of them (Pomerantz 1992). It demonstratesthe effectiveness of educational strategies that work within the culturalcontext to help achieve resource management goals. It also suggests theefficacy of education and training as tools for sustainability in rural areas(Blanchard 1991). The programme has proved successful in helping toreverse population declines in nesting seabirds and in contributing toimprovements in the knowledge, attitudes and hunting behaviours ofresidents.The issueIllegal hunting and disturbance of seabirds in sanctuaries on the North Shoreof the Gulf of St. Lawrence led to dramatic population declines for severalspecies between 1955 and 1978. The populations of Razorbill (Alca torda)and Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) were reduced by 84 and 76 percentrespectively. The Common Eider (Somateria molissima), Common Murre(Uria aalge) and Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle) were also severelyaffected.The section of the Quebec coast known as the Lower North Shore, whereillegal harvesting was most severe, has some 400 km. of rugged coastline, iswithout road links to the outside world, and has a population of 5,600 mostlyEnglish-speaking residents in 15 fishing communities. Seabirds aretraditionally harvested for food. An enforcement programme introduced bythe Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), backed by the provincial wildlifeagency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, had been insufficient inreducing the level of illegal seabird hunting.In 1978, the non-profit Quebec-Labrador Foundation (QLF), in consultationwith local residents and in collaboration with CWS, developed a newmanagement plan to restore depleted seabird populations in this region whilepreserving the integrity of the local culture. The programme had four major40
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