An Anthropocentric Approach to Saving Biodiversity: Kenyan Pupils' Attitudes Towards Parks and Wildlife

This study used an unobtrusive attitude survey and questionnaires to investigate Kenyan pupils' attitudes towards parks and wildlife. The positive attitudes found result from their understanding of the link between these resources and their own wellbeing. The sentiments about parks and wildlife expressed by the pupils are an extraction of the prevailing world-view which they bring to the classroom from their homes. This perception is not antienvironment or antiecological. It is a perception constructed from the social realities of parks and wildlife within their society. Thus, pupils' attitudinal profiles about parks and wildlife can be described as being mainly constituted by the Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP). This DSP becomes the culture around which biodiversity is valued and conserved. It is therefore a form of anthropocentricism that might help to safeguard the ecological balance and landscape in rural Africa.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to acknowledge and thank the support provided by FAO and especially Ms. Purveen Kharas and her team in Rome, Dr. Alan Rodgers, the British Council, and the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (USA) for carrying out this research. I also wish to thank the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya for supporting this study and Dr. David Western for his encouragement and support for this research and conservation initiatives that have a bearing on people and their lives. Last but not least, I am grateful to the many teachers and pupils who kindly participated in this study.