Primate and wildlife law outreach campaigns in the Republic of Congo: Assessing knowledge gain of school children in urban centers compared to rural villages.
Am J Primatol
; 83(4): e23194, 2021 04.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32945569
ABSTRACT
Primate populations are declining throughout tropical Africa. Great apes are threatened from extinction despite the existence of wildlife laws that fully protect them in their range states. But, due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of these laws, they remain largely ineffective. There is, therefore, a crucial need to improve awareness of wildlife laws in Congo. We conducted an education campaign and tested the effectiveness of two communication tools (wildlife law flyer and gorilla/pet-trade comic book) in increasing school children's knowledge in rural and urban settings using evaluation questionnaires. We found extremely low precampaign knowledge of wildlife laws but detected a moderate increase of knowledge attributed to our communication tools. We discuss the usefulness of different communication tools and their relevance for knowledge increase with different audiences. Our study provides insights into the design of education campaigns, most notably the use of flyers and booklets, which can help to increase knowledge. Evaluations can help to improve the design of education campaigns, particularly message wording and identification of appropriate communication tools with the goal of improving compliance with wildlife laws.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Gorilla gorilla
/
Animales Salvajes
Límite:
Animals
País/Región como asunto:
Africa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Am J Primatol
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Article