Education for the conservation of great apes and other wildlife in northern Congo—the importance of nature clubs

Breuer, Thomas; Mavinga, Franck Barrel

doi:10.1002/ajp.20774

Cited by 64 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Primate conservation education, with its documented ability to change the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of its participants, has become a tenet of many primate conservation programs and is encouraged by most granting agencies [Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002;Kuhar et al, 2010;Leisher et al, 2012]. However, in practice, primate conservation education programs (PCEPs) are diverse, facing different challenges, targeting different audiences, running for different lengths of time, and employing different combinations of active and passive methods of learning that range from nature clubs to comic books to film [Breuer & Mavinga, 2010;Dolins et al, 2010;Wright, 2010]. Moreover, the conservation educator often operates in triage, self-teaching principles from diverse disciplines in hopes of acquiring the many skills necessary to implement successful community conservation programs on-site in primate habitats [Garber, 2010;Jacobson, 2010].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several recent publications have identified specific factors that characterize impactful PCEPs in specific instances [Jacobson, 2010;Kuhar et al, 2010;Sherrow, 2010;Wallis & Lonsdorf, 2010]. For example, longevity, local involvement, collaboration, evaluation, use of effective communication tools, carefully considered program planning, and attachment of conservation education programs to existing conservation efforts have all yielded increased success in individual programs [Alexander, 2002;Breuer & Mavinga, 2010;Dietz et al, 2010;Dolins et al, 2010;Jacobson, 2010;Pusey et al, 2007;Savage et al, 2010;Wallis & Lonsdorf, 2010;Wright, 2010]. However, todate, no study has quantified the range and scope of PCEPs currently in practice, determining the extent to which primate conservation educators follow suggested best-use practices and quantifying where possible which applied practices have the greatest overall impacts on primate conservation as a whole.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, community conservation programs such as the Community Baboon Sanctuary in Belize [Alexander, 2002;Horwich & Lyons, 1998] and Proyecto Tití in Columbia [Savage et al, 2010] have reported impressive conservation successes, and both programs provide economic and non-economic incentives for program participation and to help support the community in which they are located. Involving participant and community members in the conservation process by holding open meetings that affect program operations and decisions is another important means of building community integration and support and/or providing valuable feedback that can aid in targeting the community's most pressing needs [Breuer & Mavinga, 2010;Padua, 2010].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Are we making the grade? Practices and reported efficacy measures of primate conservation education programs

Kling

Hopkins

2014

American J Primatol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Conservation education is often employed alongside primate conservation efforts with the aim of changing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward non-human primates. Recommended best-use practices include longevity, use of program incentives, collaboration among educators, and adaptive program assessment, among others. This study surveys primate conservation education programs (PCEPs) to assess the frequency of suggested best-use practices, and to investigate impacts on program efficacy. Online surveys were collected from PCEPs in 2013-2014 (N = 43). The majority of programs reported lengths of 5-10 years, with participant involvement ranging widely from a day to several years. Non-economic and economic incentives were distributed by approximately half of all programs, with programs that provided economic incentives reporting positive participant attitude changes more frequently than those that did not (P = 0.03). While >70% of PCEPs consulted with community leaders, local teachers, and research scientists, only 45.9% collaborated with other conservation educators and only 27% collaborated with cultural experts such as cultural anthropologists. Programs that collaborated with other conservation educators were more likely to report reductions in threats to primates, specifically to bushmeat hunting and capture of primates for the pet trade (P = 0.07). Formal program evaluations were employed by 72.1% of all programs, with the majority of programs using surveys to assess changes to participant attitudes and knowledge. Formal evaluations of participant behavior, community attitudes and behaviors, and threats to primate populations were less common. While results indicate that PCEPs follow many suggested best-use practices, program impacts may be enhanced by greater discussion of economic incentivization, increased collaboration between conservation educators, and improved commitment to adaptive evaluation of changes to behaviors in addition to attitudes and knowledge.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Are we making the grade? Practices and reported efficacy measures of primate conservation education programs

Kling

Hopkins

2014

American J Primatol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Even a program that is successful in improving knowledge may need to be repeated in the same area, or even with the same audience, to educate a critical mass of individuals adequately in an area to effect positive biological change. Indeed, Breuer and Mavinga (2010) found performance to be highest among participants that had been involved in their Club Ebobo program the longest. Single-event or short-term programs may not provide the same education benefits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…However, language and reading/writing competencies can make evaluation challenging Kuhar et al 2010), and fundamental gaps in biological knowledge may remain (Engels and Jacobson 2007;Kuhar et al 2007a). Repeat participation can improve results over a single visit to a program (Breuer and Mavinga 2010;Kuhar et al 2010), but efforts to reach all demographic groups are important (Engels and Jacobson 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

Education Program Evaluation at Multiple Primate Sanctuaries in Equatorial Africa

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The past decade has witnessed a shift in the role of primate sanctuaries in Africa from warehouses of salvaged animals to proactive conservation organizations. As part of this new role, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) has conducted annual training workshops for educators from member sanctuaries. These workshops have included content on program development, interpretive techniques, and evaluation techniques. Here we use meta-analytic techniques to examine data from the resulting education evaluation programs for trends in knowledge acquisition across PASA sanctuaries. Question content strongly impacted the evaluation results of the conservation education program. In addition, effect size and final performance scores were independent of one another and provide different perspectives as to the effectiveness of a conservation education program. These results highlight the importance of using both final performance scores and effect size measures in conservation education program evaluation. They also underscore the importance of evaluating knowledge transfer as part of the larger picture of evaluating pro-environmental behavior change and conservation impact.

show abstract

Primate Conservation Education

Patricia

Kling

Cornejo

2017

The International Encyclopedia of Primatology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Primate conservation education is a commonly implemented strategy for confronting and combating the many threats facing primate species, particularly anthropogenic dangers. The field utilizes a wide variety of strategies and reaches audiences from the local to international scale. Conservation education's strength in conservation planning is widely held to be its ability to influence the knowledge, attitude, and behaviors (KAB) of relevant stakeholders toward primate well‐being. Strategies and programs practiced by case studies in primate range countries in Africa, Asia, Madagascar, and the Neotropics are explored. While the importance of conservation education as a strategy for primate conservation has long been recognized, numerous challenges encumber its practice, particularly lack of robust evaluation techniques. Primate conservation education, as a dynamic and highly adaptable method, stands as a priority for primate conservation efforts.

show abstract

Education for the conservation of great apes and other wildlife in northern Congo—the importance of nature clubs

Cited by 64 publications

References 17 publications

Are we making the grade? Practices and reported efficacy measures of primate conservation education programs

Are we making the grade? Practices and reported efficacy measures of primate conservation education programs

Education Program Evaluation at Multiple Primate Sanctuaries in Equatorial Africa

Primate Conservation Education

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About