The impacts of environmental education on reducing human-wildlife conflict

Document Type : Biodiversity

Authors

1 Department of Environmental Education, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Environmental Education, South Tehran Center, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

4 Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources, Kurdistan University, Sanandaj, Iran

Abstract

The protected areas management rules have been designated for conservation purposes, it has limited access to natural resources by villagers and tribes. conservational actions have increased the population of wild species, which will result in greater damage to gardens, agricultural land and domestic livestock. Rural and nomadic communities are in direct need of using these resources to provide their livelihoods. These laws, while ignoring the economy and livelihoods of local communities and focusing solely on protective laws, create a negative attitude towards the law and the tendency to escape the law of the local communities will increase. Consequently, the result will be a growing human conflict. After collecting and classifying data, descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to analyze the data. Correlation analysis shows that there is a significant relationship between the local people's environmental awareness and reduce human-wildlife conflict. Correlation analysis shows that between independent variables: socio-economic factors of indigenous inhabitants, wildlife management, threats to ecosystem and wildlife, environmental behavior, awareness and knowledge of the protected area and sources of information in the area of conservation, there is a direct and meaningful relationship with the dependent variable of environmental education to reduce the challenge of humans and wildlife. Also, most studies only look at the technical aspects of reducing conflict between humans and wildlife, and environmental education is ignored. Therefore, to solve this problem, there is a need for a comprehensive long-term program that can cover social, cultural and protective aspects.
 

Keywords


  1. Amaja, L.G.; Hunde Feyssa, D. and Mekonnen Gutema, T., 2016. Assessment of types of damage and causes of human-wildlife conflict in Gera district, south western Ethiopia. Vol. 8, No. 5, pp: 49-54
  2. Berkes, F.; Colding, J. and Folke, C., 2008. Navigating social-ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change. Cambridge University Press.
  3. Damerell, P.; Howe, C. and Milner-Gulland, E.J., .2013. Child-orientated environmental education influences adult knowledge and household behaviour. Environmental Research Letters. Vol. 8, No. 1, pp: 105-106.
  4. Dickman, A.J., 2010. Complexities of conflict: the importance of considering social factors for effectively resolving human, wildlife conflict. Animal Conservation. Vol. 13, pp:458-466.
  5. Fascion, N. and Delacnand, S., 2004. people and predators from conflict to coexistence. Island press. Washington Covelo London.
  6. Frick, J.; Kaiser, F.G. and Wilson, M., 2004. Environmental knowledge and conservation behavior: Exploring prevalence and structure in a representative sample. Personality and Individual differences. Vol. 37, No. 8, pp:1597-613.
  7. García-Alvarado, J.; Santos, M.; Verde-Star, J. and Norma L., 2001. Traditional uses and scientific knowledge of medicinal plants from Mexico and Central America. Journal of herbs, spices & medicinal plants. Vol. 8, No. 2-3, pp: 37-89.
  8. Barua, M.; Shonil, A. and Jadhav, S., 2013. The hidden dimensions of human, wildlife conflict: Health impacts, opportunity and transaction costs. Biological Conservation. Vol. 157, pp: 309-316
  9. Markert, L., 2002. Aspects of Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) Biology, Ecology and Conservation Strategies on Namibian Farmlands, PHD thesis, university of oxford.
  10. Mills, M.G.L.; Broomhall, L.S. and Toit, J., 2004. Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) feeding ecology in the Kruger national park and a comparsion across African savanna habitat: is the cheetah only a successful hunter on open grassland plains? Wildly. Biol. Vol. 10, pp: 177-186.
  11. Newmark, W.D.; Manyanza, D.N.; Gamassa, D.G.M. and Sariko, H.I., 1994. The conflict between wildlife and local people living adjacent to protected areas in Tanzania: human density as a predictor. Conservation Biology. Vol. 8, pp: 249-255.
  12. Oğuz, D.; Çakci, I. and Kavas, S., 2010. Environmental awareness of university students in Ankara, Turkey. African Journal of Agricultural Research. Vol. 5, No. 19, pp: 2629-2636.
  13. Rakshya, T., 2016. Living with wildlife: Conflict or co existence Acta Ecologica Sinica. Vol. 36, No. 6, pp: 509-514.
  14. Salehi, S., 2010. People and the environment, LAP Lambert Academic publishing.
  15. Vasilios, L.; Vasileios, J.K.; Georgari, M. and Baltzi, L., 2017. Public acceptance of management methods under different human, wildlife conflict scenarios.Science of TheTotal Environment. Vol. 579, pp: 685-693.
  16. Williams, H., 2011. Examining the effects of recycling education on the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of elementary school students. Illinois Wesleyan University. Outstanding Senior Seminar Papers.