Biodiversity Conservation through Environmental Education for Sustainable Development - A Case Study from Puducherry, India

Abstract

Promoting students commitment to protect local biodiversity is an important goal of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in India. The main focus of this Biodiversity education was to expose the complexity of ecosystems and interrelationships between organisms and their environment at local level. Student’s needs to understand and develop skills related to solve various biodiversity problems with reference to local context. In order to develop the Biodiversity consciousness, developing attitudes, values and skills, and promoting participation among students about their local Biodiversity activity based environmental education methods such as field trips, hands-on-activities, experiential education, debates, autobiography, games, practical and field visits is vital to achieve sustainable biodiversity at local level in future. Local environment such as lakes, ponds, vegetation, animals, water, air and soil is the richest resource base for environmental studies for students. We developed a comprehensive framework to assess the efficacy of biodiversity education modules in enhancing teaching and training in biodiversity conservation. Since the pre-test indicated little lesser than average interest in the relevance of biodiversity, the change in post-test was increased and significant to the high starting value.

Keywords

• Biodiversity conservation, Environmental education, Skills, Knowledge, Confidence