Using Education to Reach Conservation Action Objectives

By: Judith Silverberg PhD, NH Fish and Game Department

    As wildlife people, we hold a deep and abiding love of nature and the outdoors.  We are connected to it not only in our pastime but also in our work.  Passionate about building an understanding of the interrelatedness of all things, we envision a society and culture that supports biological diversity, and citizens that appreciate and understand wild places and wild things.  We want those citizens to support the work of the conservation of wildlife -- not only in dollars but in vote and voice.  We often lament that people “just don’t understand,” while simultaneously hoping that they can and will understand, and accept the biology and management as we see it.  Education is a critical component in accomplishing this hope of making people understand. Leopold, Wilson, Orr and others have all articulated that education and ethics are as important as science and policy in attaining the goal of conserving biological diversity.

    What this “education” is and isn’t, is a difficult question that is often faced.  Perhaps we should start by answering the question of what is it we want from an educated citizenry and then create strategies for getting there.  The ultimate goal is that we want to create in people an understanding of the relationship between the biotic and abiotic environment and the role human beings play in catalyzing changes in the natural world. We want people who will take responsibility for their role in these changes, whether good or bad.  This is not a new idea, rather its roots can be traced backed to an address that Aldo Leopold delivered in 1947 called “The Ecological Conscience.”  This address was later developed into the essay “The Land Ethic.”  

    Taking this a step further, we could describe our goal as wanting people to have ecological knowledge -- but knowledge alone is not enough.  Education has to go beyond simply creating knowledge.  It must develop in people the desire to have healthy ecosystems and the skills and behaviors to support the management strategies that meet that end.  Stephen Kellert (1996) also provides some insight into what this education can and cannot be:

Informing the public about nature and living diversity has ranged from serious undertakings intended to instill a deep and abiding appreciation of the natural world to little more than public relations efforts seeking to cultivate organizational and political allegiance.  Trying to obtain support for any agency’s program or financial backing for certain groups is not an unworthy goal, but it can become problematic when efforts to manipulate people for largely self-serving purposes are substituted for more lasting and meaningful education.  Public relations and mass media efforts can never replace the more complex and relevant task of nurturing knowledge and conviction among people of the indispensable role of a healthy and diverse natural environment.

    Creating an ecologically conscious citizenry requires more than just the acquisition of knowledge; it requires a behavioral change. Perhaps what we really desire to do is to create ecologically (environmentally) literate people.  As Charles Roth (1992) defines this:

Environmental literacy is essentially the capacity to perceive and interpret the relative health of environmental systems and take appropriate action to maintain, restore or improve the health of those systems… Environmental literacy should be defined in terms of observable behaviors.  That is people should be able to demonstrate in some observable form what they have learned—their knowledge of key concepts, skills acquired, disposition towards issues and the like.

    How to accomplish the task requires an understanding of educational processes and learning.  This is important whether you label yourself as a biologist or educator.  Whether you are the program deliverer or not, your understanding of these processes is  essential for creating a set of tools to accomplish the task.  These processes do not always happen in a linear way, and there are different points of entry. 

   Cranton (1989) defines education as any organized, sustained activity for the purpose of changing, knowledge, skills or values. Making people know they are a part of the natural world and have a role to play is an important part of education.  Cultivating an appreciation or awareness of the living world, acknowledging its wonder and beauty are things that happen in the affective learning domain. These feelings are often developed through an experience or an emotional event, often building an attachment to the natural world because of connection to place and affinity with the familiar.  This creation of connection to the environment may occur because of activities associated with family and growing up -- like hunting, fishing, hiking, watching wildlife -- or it may be created because of attachment to place or any number of other ways, including through a cognitive learning experience.  This is the idea of the connection to the land that Leopold espouses in “The Land Ethic.”  Rachel Carson expressed this in how she viewed the study of biology.  “Our first conscious acquaintance with the subject should come, if possible through nature -- in fields and forests and on the shore.”

    Cognitive learning is a way of acquiring facts and knowledge. This is the part where people are instructed in identifying, classifying and learning ecological concepts.  It is a lifelong process because of our changing knowledge about how things work in the natural world, and moves to a conceptual understanding of structure, function and process. This type of learning becomes more complete when connections are made to how humans impact the natural world, and includes the development of skills for exercising responsible actions and interventions. This is the realm that scientists and biologists are most comfortable with because it is based on scientific theory and evidence.

    A third aspect of education that cannot be overlooked, if we are looking to create an ecologically literate citizen, focuses on attitudes and beliefs. This is values education and is where the ethic of caring and stewardship for the environment is developed.  It requires internalizing and fusing aspects from the affective and cognitive domains, yet is distinctly essential if people are going to change behaviors and act upon the knowledge they have.

    Where values learning takes place is varied and includes formal, non-formal, informal, and indirect learning contexts.  Formal education takes place generally in a school or classroom.  The institution controls both the objectives and means of learning with required frameworks and standards for what can be taught.  Learning tends to be sequential and organized through curricula.  Nonformal learning tends to be less structured.  The participants set the objectives of what they want to learn and determine what, where and how they will participate.  Methods of instruction in nonformal learning may vary but might include activities and methods also used in formal education (Heimlich 1993).  This type of instruction is very important to us: this is the club meeting, the workshop, and other opportunities for the participation of a broad base of constituents .

    Informal education includes those activities that are structured by educators but the choice of participation is entirely up to the individual.   This might be choosing to attend a nature walk, listen to a radio program, or read an interpretive sign. This is the kind of learning that occurs continually (Heimlich 1993).  A fourth type of education is self-directed.  This is when the learner controls both the outcomes and the means for learning.

    Achieving an ecologically literate citizenry will require taking a comprehensive approach, which addresses multiple learning domains and multiple educational methods and approaches. This will require sustained efforts on the part of educators and biologists as well a continued commitment or resources. We now have the opportunity to make this a reality through the actions we choose to take to bring education to the forefront as part of the tools to achieve the goal of conserving biological diversity.  The question then becomes, how to do this.

    The public has given us feedback that directly links how they view education as a part of conservation.  For example, at a Wildlife Summit that the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department conducted a year ago four large issue areas were explored: habitat loss and degradation; private lands stewardship; human/wildlife interactions; and successful fish and wildlife conservation. In the discussion of all these issues, education was identified as an important component, and in three of them education was listed in the top two actions to be taken.   In addition, the Responsive Management for the Northeast Conservation Information and Education Association conducted a survey that focused on public opinion on fish and wildlife management issues and the reputation and credibility of issues. The survey showed that 78% of the public expects that we will provide education around fish and wildlife issues.

    Education is an important strategy for implementing conservation action.  While you might have some general educational programs that increase awareness and understanding of fish and wildlife resources in general, more targeted educational programs can have a direct impact on conservation objectives. You can use education as a powerful tool to help implement conservation action and affect behavior.  The key is to making sure you have the right “tool” for achieving the outcome.  There are some important questions to ask in this effort. What is the desired conservation outcome?

    Who would be essential in doing the action? Would an educational objective help reach the desired outcome?  Is it measurable, or can it be documented that there is an impact to the outcome? What are the appropriate activities to reach the objective?   You will recognize these questions as being the basic steps you would go through for any planning process. 

    How then can you use education when you are thinking and planning for larger fish and wildlife management actions?  Let’s use an example from Concord, NH.  A small population of Karner Blue butterflies (a federally endangered species) survives on 328 acres of pine barren habitat,  which is only a small patch of what had been extensive pine barren habitat as recently as 30 years ago. Industrial, commercial and airport development surrounds the area.  A threat to that population is habitat loss and degradation. Another problem is the availability of blue lupine plants, a vital food source for the butterfly. A conservation action that is needed is to restore pine barren habitat with presence of blue lupine, not only on the refuge itself, but also on adjacent lands.  How can this be made to happen?  Who are potential audiences that can make this outcome a reality?

    In this case, school children can help, as blue lupine can be raised relatively easily in the classroom for planting on the refuge.  Consequently, we have the following conservation action objective: Increase the number of lupine grown and planted to 1000 per year by schoolchildren to help reach desired restoration objectives. In developing the implementation strategy (delivery approaches) there is the opportunity to get students involved in a concrete conservation action as well as a way for them to learn about pine barren habitat and why it is necessary to improve and maintain it.  The immediate benefit is the lupine plants.  The long-term benefit goes toward creating that educated citizenry that understands responsible behavior.  This particular type of education is conducted within the bounds of formal education.

   Education is not just about children.  Using the Karner Blue example, let’s think about some of the other audiences; for example, landscapers and residential homeowners.  Another of our objectives is to increase by 20% the number of residents, landscapers and developers adopting Karner Blue-friendly management practices by 2008 in appropriate pine barren habitat to reach desired acres for restoration.  In this particular case, the potential audience needs to be made aware of the problem, build their knowledge about what can be done, and then provided with positive actions about what they can do.  The education could be conducted in the formal, nonformal, informal and in some cases self-directed realms of education.  For example, a class on landscaping with native plants could be developed and taught at the technical school for landscape design majors, workshops could be given to the professional landscape group or for residential homeowners, a brochure could be produced and disseminated to local residences, and the list goes on.  By investing the time in educating people in the community, the ultimate number of acres restored would be far more than those just within the refuge that we as a state agency have control over.

   I would like to stress again that conserving biological diversity requires a continued commitment from conservation educators and biologists to develop and maintain a partnership. It requires working together and building from both areas of expertise and strengths.  It is important to understand that we must work together if we are to create and educate an ecologically literate citizen, who is aware, knows how and chooses to act appropriately in their relationships with the land and our resources.

By: Judith Silverberg PhD, NH Fish and Game Department

References

Cranton, Patricia (1989) Planning Instruction for Adult Learners, Wall and Emerson, Middletown Ohio

Disinger, John F. and Charles Roth (1992) Environmental Literacy, ERIC. Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education.

Flader, Susan and J.Barid Callicott (Eds). (1991) The River of the Mother of God and other essays by Aldo Leopold. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI.

Heimlich, Joe E. (1993) Nonformal Environmental Education: Toward a Working Definition, ERIC. Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education

Kellert, Stephen (1996) The Value of Life Biological Diversity and Human Society. Island Press, Washington D.C.

Lear, Linda (ed) (2001) Lost Woods The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson. Beacon Press, Boston, MA.

Leopold, Aldo (1949) A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Oxford Press, London.

Orr, David W. (1992) Ecological Literacy, Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World. State University of  New York Press, Albany, NY.