Impacts of the conservation education program in Serra Malagueta Natural Park, Cape Verde

Abstract

Environmental and conservation education programs are commonly offered in the rapidly expanding network of protected areas in developing countries. There have been few evaluations of these programs and their impacts on participants. At Serra Malagueta Natural Park in Cape Verde, we assessed changes in environmental knowledge, opinions, and behaviors among visiting school children and a comparison group that did not visit the park. Participation in the park’s conservation education program has a positive impact on environmental knowledge after the visit. The program may also contribute to student knowledge by influencing classroom teaching in anticipation of the park visit.

Keywords:

• conservation education
• Cape Verde
• park visitation
• impact evaluation
• conservation knowledge

Acknowledgements

We thank all of the Serra Malagueta Natural Park Staff for their help and support with this research. We are also grateful to the teachers and students who completed the questionnaire, many of them three times.

Notes

1. There are approximately 265 people living in four traditional communities inside the park (Park staff, personal communication, February 11, 2013).

2. The total number of students listed includes university students. The total number of national and foreign tourists also increased yearly from 2008 to 2010. There were 1763 national tourists and 686 foreign tourists in 2010.

3. The survey protocol and instruments were reviewed and approved by the NCSU IRB (#1894). The survey instruments were written in Portuguese.

4. The objective was to have the students complete two post-tests, to evaluate retention of knowledge, evolution of opinions, and changes in self-reported behaviors over time (cf. Kruse and Card 2004; Kuhar et al. 2010). However, only two groups completed a second post-test, due to logistical constraints related to the school calendar. Thus, we only include results from the first post-test in the analyses reported here.

5. The intended outcomes of the program were assessed through close observation of the program during the 12 months prior to the survey, while the lead author was a Peace Corps volunteer posted with SMNP.

6. The 12 statements reflect the topics discussed by park staff who lead the conservation education programs. Translated to English, they are as follows: (1) People should be allowed to let their goats graze freely in Serra Malagueta; (2) Natural Parks are for rich people and foreign tourists; (3) Determined plants should be removed from natural parks; (4) It is not necessary to preserve natural areas that don’t have forests; (5) There are still lots of natural areas on Santiago Island; (6) SMNP is too large; (7) I would like to visit Serra Malagueta in the future; (8) If Serra Malagueta offered services for an environmental camp, I would like to participate; (9) It is important to know/visit natural or protected areas; (10) It is good that Serra Malagueta is protected as a Park; (11) It is important to reforest the Park with native plants; (12) Soil erosion on Santiago Island is a big problem.

7. In two of the groups who visited the park, the teachers did not complete the questionnaire. In one group of three classes, only one teacher filled out the questionnaire.

8. This measure was developed because the biodiversity question had the highest non-response rate, probably because it was the only fill-in-the-blank question in the knowledge section. The other knowledge questions had answer choices and students were likely to answer them whether or not they knew the answer, because they could simply select one of the choices, i.e. they could guess at the answer. Conversely, if they left them blank, they may have simply forgotten to go back and select one of the choices; that is, skipping these questions seems more likely to be a mistake in completing the questionnaire and less likely an indication of lack of knowledge.