Best practices are never best: Evaluating primate conservation education programs (PCEPs) with a decolonial perspective

Abstract

Who do we aim to educate with primate conservation education programs (PCEPs)? In a commentary published in a recent AJP, Annette Lanjouw suggested that many efforts to “educate” habitat‐country communities can be neocolonial in their approaches. Forest destruction and habitat loss are a result of global consumption and expansion. We therefore need to approach conservation education from many angles including local stakeholders, policy makers, government officials, and the humans living in industrialized nations who are major consumers of the items that shrink primate habitats. In this review, we investigate PCEPs to determine if the conservation education goals, education methods, and assessment processes are proceeding within a neocolonial context. We reviewed the last 20 years of primate conservation literature and looked for publications that were focused on education programs. We found that in 50 of 52 publications published between 2001 and 2021, the education programs take place in habitat‐country local communities. We also reviewed primate field researcher and field site websites, and in most cases, education programs were also focused on educating local communities living near or in nonhuman primate habitats. Exceptions were student clubs, zoo programs, and a high school outreach program. Many PCEP providers presented a list of “lessons learned” and we compiled their wisdom in combination with our experience to provide a framework for moving forward. We conclude that as conservation primatologists, we must think beyond our field sites to create opportunities for educational outreach. We can reach global consumers by linking to zoos, television/motion picture, print media, social media, and working with schools on curricula. Primatologists can engage our undergraduates to establish clubs and create meaningful assignments that reach beyond the classroom. We encourage primatologists from the Global North to consider their positionality and the history of conservation exclusion in their attempts to conserve primates.

Nine years of the Red Book Challenge conservation education in Southern Madagascar: What we have learned

“…From early on in the Red Book Challenge program design, local people have been sought out to be leaders in the design and implementation of conservation education, although there is a great opportunity to improve in this area. Another area of improvement will be ongoing work to understand more fully the social, cultural and economic profile of Madagascar's South (Nascimento et al, 2016) and the cultural biases that impact the program approaches (Bezanson et al, 2022). Additionally, our organization's creative projects of the past—mainly the coloring book and documentary film, were projects headed by creative talents from North America.…”

“…In line with another important aspect of working towards PCEP best practices (Bezanson et al, 2022;Lanjouw, 2021), known as decolonizing conservation education, it is important for PCEPs to operate not only in habitat countries but also in the program leader's home country. It is often people in far distant countries that hold the most power in the decisions made to protect or to develop primate habitat (Lanjouw, 2021).…”

Expanding the role of the future zoo: Wellbeing should become the fifth aim for modern zoos

“…Social media is a powerful tool for the wider dissemination of information that emphasizes the importance of engagement with biodiversity conservation and welfare in the zoo ( Light and Cerrone, 2018 ; Rose et al, 2018 ; Llewellyn and Rose, 2021 ). Targeted and thoughtful use of social media can promote wider conservation objectives to audiences that may otherwise be hard to reach, and promote access to biodiversity/conservation education information in a more accessible manner ( Bezanson et al, 2022 ). There may be added wellbeing benefits from such indirect connection to nature that the sharing of positive zoo content on social media platforms can bring to online audiences (i.e., bringing examples of the natural world closer to people whilst they go about their daily lives, and then giving them the idea to directly visit nature at the zoo).…”

Participatory action research for primate conservation: A critical analysis of a nonformal education program in Southern Mexico

“…Although conservation researchers are constantly encouraged to be more reflective on their own motivations and their personal ethical agendas, the practice is still insufficient (Bezanson et al, 2022; Haraway, 1991; Riley & Bezanson, 2018). In our personal experience, we had successes and failures.…”

“…There are diverse approaches to PCEPs and different traditions in their implementation and evaluation (Kling & Hopkins, 2015; Wright et al, 2017). However, over the past decade, a growing number of authors have exposed that most of PCEPs underprint a neocolonial focus (Bezanson et al, 2022; Blair, 2019; Cardinal et al, 2022; Lanjouw, 2021; Riley, 2020; Rodrigues et al, 2022). Through our experiences in the field of conservation education research, we realized about the need to value different approaches and methodologies brought to the fore with the potential to improve education programs.…”