Environmental education in Cabo Verde 211
attitudes towards nature, increasing knowledge both of and about the environment, and highlighting key problem- solving skills to facilitate the identification of solutions to environmental problems (Lucas, 1979; Edsand & Broich, 2020). This type of education is essential for slowing the loss of global biodiversity (Ruiz-Mallen et al., 2009). Biodiversity conservation is dependent on the understand- ing of threats to ecosystems and of the workings of eco- systems themselves (Kassas, 2002; Lanjouw, 2021). It is cru- cial that local communities become part of conservation efforts, and this starts with environmental and conservation education (Ardoin et al., 2020). Environmental education is a powerful tool, with many
effective projects having been undertaken (Ruiz-Mallen et al., 2009; Ortiz et al., 2018; White et al., 2018; Spooner et al., 2019; Karris et al., 2020). However, because of its many benefits, environmental education has sometimes been thought of as a general-purpose solution to many different environmental problems, without clearly defin- ing goals or critically assessing the activities undertaken (Edsand & Broich, 2020). For environmental education to reach its full potential, its impact must be evaluated. An in- creased understanding of the impacts could improve the ef- ficacy of the education itself and also help to increase the impacts of policies and programmes involving the environ- ment, practices for sustainable development and the envir- onmental career prospects of participants (Kassas, 2002). Changes in environmental attitudes, knowledge acquisi- tion and even career trajectories should be monitored and assessed, and this has often been done using case studies focusing on particular environmental education programmes (Borchers et al., 2014). However, these evalua- tions have been predominantly in the USA and Europe (Stern et al., 2008;Kossack & Bogner, 2012; Koutromanos et al., 2018;Spooner et al., 2019). In areas that contain high levels of biodiversity, such as
West Africa, environmental education has rarely been eval- uated (Kuhar et al., 2010; Borchers et al., 2014). Because of the increasing establishment of conservation foundations, predominantly NGOs, environmental education is increas- ing in Africa, but there have been few evaluations of these projects (but see McDuff, 2000; Carelton-Hug & Hug, 2010; Borchers et al., 2014; Leeds et al., 2017; Velempini et al., 2018). Additionally, differing cultures, social and edu- cational systems and environmental circumstances have not necessarily been considered in the implementation of these educational activities. As a result of cultural and so- cial differences, it cannot be assumed that similar environ- mental education strategies will have the same effects or be similarly applicable in Africa and Europe/North America (Bettinger et al., 2010;Borchersetal., 2014;Lanjouw, 2021). Here we add to the limited research evaluating the im-
pacts of environmental education in West Africa. We used the island of Maio, Cabo Verde, as a case study, evaluating
the impacts of a one-time classroom intervention under- taken by the local conservation NGO Maio Biodiversity Foundation across all 10 fourth-grade classes on the island. We aimed to investigate whether and how a single exposure to environmental education in the classroom could influ- ence attitudes towards the environment, knowledge acquisi- tion regarding local environmental problems and aspirations regarding career and studies.
Study area
Cabo Verde is an archipelago comprising 10 islands c. 600 km west of the coast of Senegal, West Africa. The is- land of Maio is one of the smallest of the nine inhabited is- lands of Cabo Verde, with an area of 269 km2 and a population of c. 6,980 inhabitants (Instituto Nacional de Estatística de Cabo Verde, 2015). Cabo Verde contains a great variety of endemic marine fauna and flora. The island of Maio is home to a wide range of this biodiversity, includ- ing some of the endemic bird taxa of Cabo Verde: the Iago sparrow Passer iagoensis, Bourne’s heron Ardea purpurea bournei, Alexander’s swift Apus alexandri and cream- coloured courser Cursorius cursor exsul (Rice et al., 2020). Maio is also home to the largest resident breeding population of Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus in the Macaronesian archipelagos (Engel et al., 2020; McDonald et al., 2020). Maio hosts a range of sea turtle species during the reproductive months of June–October, including olive ridley turtles Lepidochelys olivacea and green turtles Chelonia mydas, and it is one of three Cabo Verde islands with large nesting colonies of loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta (Lopes et al., 2016; Patino-Martinez et al., 2022). Maio comprises 13 distinct communities in four zones, with 11 primary schools. This study focused on fourth- grade students; i.e. the 142 students with an age range of 9–10 years old. Because of the small population size of some rural communities in Maio, fourth-grade students have been condensed into 10 classes distributed across eight schools. The content taught was relevant to the lar- gest wetland on the island: Salinas do Porto Inglês. This is a Ramsar site of c. 535 ha (Oliveira, 2013; Pereira, 2016) containing saltmarsh, grassland and semi-desert habitats and is home to a variety of biodiversity, including endemic bird species and sea turtles.
Methods Environmental education intervention
During 18–25 May 2021 we collaborated with Maio Biodiversity Foundation to visit all 10 fourth-grade classes on the island of Maio. At each school we (RR and HS) de- livered a 2-h environmental education intervention. The
Oryx, 2024, 58(2), 210–217 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323000303
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