Using environmental education to nurture positive human-wildlife interactions in India
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Environmental education has the potential to help reduce negative human–wildlife interactions by increasing positive attitudes toward wildlife and providing participants with knowledge and skills that can help mitigate conflict situations and promote safety. To promote positive human–wildlife relationships, effective programs could be implemented widely in areas near remote wildlife reserves and protected areas. We created and evaluated a new environmental education program for 10- to 13-year-old students in rural schools in India where human–wildlife conflicts with large mammals frequently occur. Between July 2019 and March 2020, we tested the program at 129 schools, reaching 4331 students. The program, which was iteratively designed to fit the local context, is both cost-effective and scalable. We found that participation in the program resulted in a significant positive increase in local environmental knowledge, in knowledge of safe behaviors, and in some measures of environmental attitudes. This paper reports on the lessons learned while creating this program that may help other organizations interested in using environmental education in regions where negative human–wildlife interactions frequently occur.
Date Issued
2024-03-01
Date Acceptance
2024-02-06
Citation
Conservation Science and Practice, 2024, 6 (3)
ISSN
2578-4854
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Conservation Science and Practice
Volume
6
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Authors. Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Subjects
ATTACKS
ATTITUDES
BEAR
Biodiversity & Conservation
Biodiversity Conservation
coexistence
CONFLICT
CONSERVATION
conservation education
environmental education
human-wildlife conflict
India
INSIGHTS
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
PROGRAM
RISK
Science & Technology
TOLERANCE
Western Ghats
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e13096
Date Publish Online
2024-03-01