Rural Children's Views on Human Activities and Changes in a Greek Wetland

Abstract

We studied the views of Greek children about their likes/dislikes regarding changes to a protected wetland as a result of human activities. We focused on two primary-sector (i.e., fishing, harvest) and two ecotourism (i.e., bird watching, boat tour) activities as these reflect the contrast between traditional land uses and newly established management regimes. We used photos as visual aids for conducting structured interviews with 200 children aged 4 to 10 years. Fishing generated the most negative dispositions, although all activities elicited positive reactions by the majority of children. Our findings add to the existing literature on the image of nature as unchanging and the divide between nature and society in the views of rural children. Messages promoted in the study area through environmental management and education should address the fact that primary-sector activities are not incompatible with environmental conservation but can be transformed toward a more sustainable form.

Keywords:

• dispositions
• environmental views
• Greece
• human activities
• Lake Kerkini
• rural children
• wetland

Research presented in this article was undertaken within the “Integrated Management of European Wetlands–IMEW” project, funded by the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme (contract EVK2-CT2000-22001).

Notes

Note. Significant differences indicated by ∗p < .05 and ∗∗∗p < .001.

Note. Significant difference indicated by ∗p < .05 and ∗∗∗p < .001.

Note. ∗∗ = p < 0.01, ∗∗∗ = p < 0.001; numbers presented for likes/dislikes correspond to the percentage of children mentioning at least one like/dislike; 62.5% of the sample did not mention any desirable change, while 44.5% of the sample did not refer to any anticipated change; 25.0% of the sample referred generally to anticipated change without providing any details.

For the purposes of this article, protected areas are designated by national law or international conventions for the purpose of environmental conservation, where land uses have to comply with a zoning system monitored by an administration scheme particularly appointed for this reason (Hovardas 2005).

Since we studied children's views on human activities, the photos we used depicted people performing these activities. The photo of fishing depicted two fishermen sitting in a fish boat in the lake, surrounded by pelicans, selecting fish from a net. The photo of harvest presented a cornfield, where a combine harvester is selecting corn seed and it is depositing it to a vehicle to be transported out of the field. The photo of bird watching included a group of about 25 people, equipped with binoculars and telescopes, observing birds along the bank of the lake. The photo of a boat tour showed two boats full of people, about 10 persons each, which have just departed from the bank of the lake. Photos can be provided by the authors upon request.

A very large percentage of children's references were to “animals/nature” when trying to explain their negative dispositions toward fishing (see Findings section, subsection Description, Reasoning, and Dispositions Toward Activities). This shows that photos of people performing activities did not prevent children from referring mainly to the natural realm.