Planning education to care for the earth - IUCN Knowledge Network

Planning education to care for the earthrural Brazil, so environmental education programmes were produced andbroadcast.High school students and two park employees were trained as nature guides.They were encouraged to contribute ideas and suggest activities. As localpeople, they helped to make the programme acceptable to the communityand to solve specific problems in its implementation.ProductThe Black Lion Tamarin Environmental Education Programme attained anoutstanding level of acceptance by the community. By the end of the firstyear, 6,000 students had visited the park and the average number in each ofthe succeeding three years was 8,000.A systematic evaluation involved 144 students assigned to experimentaland control groups. The tests measured the increase of knowledge andshifts of attitude before exposure to the programme, after the park visit,and one month later. The results testified to the effectiveness of theprogramme.There were other indicators. Families visited the park during weekends. Thepark’s lodging house began to be filled with university students looking forfield experiences. Local teachers requested environmental education courses,and nature guides improved their performance by forming study groups.Community interest in the park’s conservation was demonstrated in thesubjects chosen for floats in local processions for the town’s anniversary andat the year’s end, for Lions’ and Rotary Club parties, and in public initiativessuch as a tree planting campaign.The most important signs came, however, from community involvement inthe protection of the park. Garbage, for example, was being dumped in thevicinity of the park, in an area which had been park territory a few yearsearlier. The threats to the park’s rich fauna and flora were explained in aradio interview with an appeal to local leaders and the community to find asolution. The local population reacted by telephoning the radio station andby demanding that the mayor find a solution. A new place for the garbagewas found in less than a week.The community also helped park employees to put out a forest fire. Therehad been many fires in the past, but the public had never been involved inextinguishing them. Local interest in nature conservation extends beyond theboundaries of the park. The community has spoken up against illegal loggingtaking place on a privately-owned farm nearby. Businessmen formed a groupto plan developments designed to improve the socio-economic situation ofthe local people. The priorities of all the projects approved were to be nonpollutingand to provide opportunities for under-privileged and unskilledcitizens.More recent evidence of community interest in the environment is provided54