Journal Article

Children Prioritize Virtual Exotic Biodiversity over Local Biodiversity

Brischoux, Francois, Station d’Observation et de Protection des Tortues et de leurs Milieux (SOPTOM SRCC) ; Centre de Recherche et de Conservation des Chéloniens (CRCC), Department of Biology [Gainesville] (UF|Biology) ; University of Florida [Gainesville] (UF), Ballouard, Jean-Marie, Bonnet, Xavier, Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

2011

Overview

Environmental education is essential to stem current dramatic biodiversity loss, and childhood is considered as the key period for developing awareness and positive attitudes toward nature. Children are strongly influenced by the media, notably the internet, about biodiversity and conservation issues. However, most media focus on a few iconic, appealing, and usually exotic species. In addition, virtual activities are replacing field experiences. This situation may curb children knowledge and concerns about local biodiversity. Focusing our analyses on local versus exotic species, we examined the level of knowledge and the level of diversity of the animals that French schoolchildren are willing to protect, and whether these perceptions are mainly guided by information available in the internet. For that, we collected and compared two complementary data sets: 1) a questionnaire was administered to schoolchildren to assess their knowledge and consideration to protect animals, 2) an internet content analysis (i.e. Google searching sessions using keywords) was performed to assess which animals are themost often represented. Our results suggest that the knowledge of children and their consideration to protect animal are mainly limited to internet contents, represented by a few exotic and charismatic species. The identification rate of local animals by schoolchildren was meager, suggesting a worrying disconnection from their local environment. Schoolchildren were more prone to protect ''virtual'' (unseen, exotic) rather than local animal species. Our results reinforce the message that environmental educationmust also focus on outdoor activities to develop conservation consciousness and concerns about local biodiversity

• Publisher: HAL CCSD,Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Analysis / Animal species / Animals / Attitude / Attitudes / Awareness / Biodiversity / Biodiversity conservation / Biodiversity loss / Biology / Cetacea / Child / Children / Children & youth / Conservation / Content analysis / Dolphins & porpoises / Ecology / Education / Elementary school students / Endangered & extinct species / Environmental education / Environmental Sciences / Humans / Influence / Internet / Internet access / Introduced species / Knowledge / Media coverage / Nature / Outdoor activities / Reproducibility of Results / Science Policy / Search engines / Social and Behavioral Sciences / Species diversity / Surveys and Questionnaires / Taxonomy / Technical education / Trends / Wildlife conservation