GHANAIAN CHILDRENS’ PERCEPTION OF RAINFOREST BIODIVERSITY

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Annals of Biological Research, 2013, 4 (6):312-322 (http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/archive.html)

ISSN 0976-1233

CODEN (USA): ABRNBW

312 Scholars Research Library

Ghanaian children’s’ perception of rainforest biodiversity

Rofela Combey, Rosemary Aggrey Korsah and Peter Kwapong

Department of Entomology and Wildlife (DEW), School of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Coast – Cape Coast, Ghana

_____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Despite the important role rainforest biodiversity play globally in our survival, limited knowledge of its floral and faunal compositions as well as influences of key environmental parameters seem to be known by the general public especially Children. This study therefore focused on assessing the knowledge of school children within four different age cohorts on rainforest fauna and flora diversity well as its climate in order to unravel this perception. Questionnaires were administered to children in selected urban and rural schools. Results indicate all the children within the different age cohorts seemed to know more about the larger (macro) animal taxa such as mammals than the lower (micro) taxa such as insects. Thus mammals and reptiles were over-represented compared to insects or the other invertebrates. Several factors were found to influence the children’s perception of rainforest biodiversity. Predominant among them are environmental education at schools and some TV programmes. Children need to be encouraged to visit natural environments to improve their understanding of the biodiversity within the rainforest and the natural world as a whole. Keywords: Children; Ghana; rainforest; biodiversity; knowledge; education; nature _____________________________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on earth, which includes diversity of ecosystems, species, genes and the ecological processes that support them. Natural diversity in ecosystems provides essential economic benefits and services to human societies - such as food, clothing, shelter, fuel and medicines, as well as ecological, recreational, cultural and aesthetic values. Perhaps, the greatest assets of tropical forests come from maintaining the Earth’s life-support systems [1]. Tropical forests are usually characterized by dense, tall floral species with very diverse faunal component [2] and all stakeholders must be involved in its conservation. Children constitute an important group of the population owing to the direct link of their future to the development of the nation. In many cases, children who have interacted and coped with nature, develop the capacity for assimilating knowledge and understanding which in turn leads to rapid development of cognitive and problem solving skills in the future [3]. Further, research conducted at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies has shown that, children who receive early exposure to nature, grow up with a greater sense of appreciation for animals and the environment. Hence, providing firsthand information in nature to children teaches them many important concepts, such as aesthetics, respect, caring for the earth, and the interrelationships among humans and the habitat [4].

Rofela Combey et al Annals of Biological Research, 2013, 4 (6):312-322 _____________________________________________________________________________


Rainforest biodiversity is globally-significant but poorly described. In most instances, very little is understood in terms of its functional significance considering the fact that the rainforest is under threat from forest loss and degradation. Estimates suggest that about 10 million hectares of rainforest in West Africa may have been lost in the 20th Century, and around 80% of the original forest area is now an agriculture-forest mosaic. As a consequence, the future of biodiversity in the region is intimately linked with the lives and livelihoods of local people [5]. People are increasingly being disconnected from nature, unaware of its importance and value although, there is link between the survival of humans and the rainforest, [6]. Presently, it is estimated that over 80% of Ghana’s population depends on the forest biodiversity and agriculture [7]. Globally, natural ecosystems are being lost to agricultural land at an unprecedented rate. This land-use often results in significant reductions in abundance and diversity of the flora and fauna, as well as alterations in their composition. In spite of this phenomenon, there is little public perception of which taxa are most important [6, 8]. In Ghana, most children in the past had informal education about the flora and fauna of the rainforest from folktales or “Ananse stories” as most of the principal characters were inhabitants of the rainforest. However, with the inception of video games and cartoons today, the culture of listening to these stories is gradually becoming eroded. A recent survey conducted in Britain of 2,000 8 to 12 year-olds for the TV channel Eden revealed that more children can identify a Dalek (Robot character of a TV series) than an owl. Children are now admitted to British hospitals for injuries incurred falling out of bed than falling out of trees [9]. In Switzerland, Swiss children were able to name only few of the plants and animals on their way to school which was possibly an indication of lack of proper environmental education or training in taxonomy in schools [10]. With the opening up of Ghana into global technological era, there is a growing perception among older social classes that children’s perception of rainforests are limited with their ideas based on misconceptions and isolated facts. Yet, another school of thought has it that children also have knowledge in the floral and faunal diversity of the rainforest. This study therefore seeks to assess Ghanaian school children’s knowledge on forest flora and fauna diversity and determined which taxa are commonly known among the different age cohorts, as well as, determined factors that influence a child’s perception about a forest. Result of the study will provide baseline data to all stakeholders in biodiversity conservation and its allied fields in the country on how to reach children on ways of mitigating effect of biodiversity losses. Such awareness is important for conservation, as without appreciation of their value and conservation status, species are unlikely to receive adequate conservation protection from all stakeholders including the children.

Figure1 A map showing the distribution of the various study sites



MATERIALS AND METHODS

STUDY AREAS This study was conducted in four different schools within the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly and the Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District Assembly (Figure 1). These two locations represent the urban and rural centres respectively where these surveys were carried out. Two of the schools from the urban center are approximately 3 km away from the Sea: • George Ekem Ferguson Preparatory School (49m N 05° 06́ 38.8˝ and W 001° 14́ 09.0˝) • Amamoma Presbyterian Model School (13 m N 05° 06′ 29.20″ and W 001°17.5′5.3″) The remaining two schools from the rural setting are approximately 30 km away from the Sea and near the Kakum National Park: • Abrafo Catholic Primary School at Abrafo-Odumase (134 meters N 05°20′02.8″ W 001° 22′53.4″) • Mfuom D/A Primary School at Mfuom (174 meters N05°22′39.7″ W001°24′32.0″) The Survey The main techniques used in this survey were sampling with questionnaires and analysis of sketches of “typical forests” drawn by the school children. Pupils within the age cohorts 3-5 years, 6-8 years and 9-11 years took part in this survey. In extreme cases, pupils above 11 years who are still in primary four or below were also considered. These age cohorts were chosen for this study because this stage helps the child develop the capacity for assimilating knowledge and understanding which in turn leads to rapid development of cognitive and problem solving skills achieved through the interaction with and coping in natural world [3]. Questions from the questionnaire comprised mostly close-ended questions with options and a final question to draw anything they knew about the forest were given to the pupils to answer. The questions centered on the three objectives of this study. The first objective was evaluated by asking a question such as; “what is a forest?” and options which included “a place with plenty trees and animals”, “a place we play”, “a place we guard” and “a wild place” were provided. Furthermore, the second objective was evaluated by asking pupils to list some animals they knew and finally by asking a question such as “Have you visited a zoo, museum, or a forest before?” Student knowledge on flora and faunal composition of rainforest biodiversity were assessed Selection of respondents was based on only school children with the assumption that their education curriculum covers some aspect of environmental education. Applying the first language model of teaching and learning, 60% Ghanaian Language was used during the administration of the questionnaires to the pupils. For children within the age cohort 3-5 years who were mostly in nursery an interview schedule which followed the same questions from the questionnaire was conducted. In all, a total of 300 pupils took part in this study. A copy of the questionnaire can be found at Appendix I. Analysis of data Results from the questionnaires were analysed using SPSS Statistics tool version 17. The entries received from the diagrams (question 17) were examined and graphical presentation of the different climatic and vegetative components which occurs in the environment of respondents were recorded. The categories that were included for the climatic and vegetation components of a rainforest were: sun, rain, trees, flowers, fruit and so on. Presences of any human were objects like cups, car, houses and even human beings also recorded. Faunal categories recorded were: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and other invertebrates. However, domesticated animals were not grouped under mammals or birds and this was to determine how well the children knew the animals in the rainforest from those commonly reared at home. Question number 7 and 11 which also required pupils to list some animals was also categorized as it was done in question 17 and recorded. In addition to the above, the frequency of the different climatic and vegetation components of the rainforest, fauna and the other features drawn by the children were compared between the three age cohorts. Chi-square tests were used to test for the association between the frequencies of the taxa drawn by children and their biomass and total number of described species. Charts were used to analyse the results and the various taxa were sorted out and grouped together. Finally, answers to the other questions were analyzed to determine how children of the different age cohorts in the urban and rural communities viewed a typical forest.



RESULTS

On the global fronts, children over-estimate large mammals relative to the ecosystem services they perform [6]. Among primary school pupils, insects and other invertebrates are under-represented and the explanations for this are that children are more aware of larger taxa or that children prefer larger taxa. Furthermore, familiarity and aesthetics are important factors governing children's connections with animals [11], exemplified by the popularity of mammals and birds [12-13]. Out of a total of 300 entries were received from the four schools 162 (54%) were from urban schools whiles 138 (46%) were from the rural schools. Amamoma Presby Model School had the highest of 94 respondents representing 31.3% and Mfuom D/C primary had 52 respondents which is 17.30% of the total (Table 1). Male respondents constituted 55% whiles the remaining were females. Respondents within the age cohorts 6-8 years were 130 representing 43.30% of the total while’s respondents above 11 years were16 representing 5.30% and 3.30% respondents did not provide their ages.

Table 1 Relative proportions of pupils in Respondent schools

Total 300 100.0

School of respondent Frequency Percentage of respondent

Amamoma Presby Model Sch. 94 31.3

George Ekem Ferguson Pri. Sch. 68 22.7

Abrafo Catholic Primary School 86 28.7

Mfuom D/C Primary School 52 17.3

Figure 2 Distribution of responses among the four schools

When pupils were asked what a forest was, 206 defined it as a place with plenty trees and animals whiles 26 pupils (8.7%) said a forest was a place we guard. Further, three pupils did not respond to any of the options and they represented 1.00% of the total. A comparison of the responses among the different schools revealed that over 50%



of all the respondents from each school had an idea of what a forest is (Chi-Square value = 11.704, d. f = 9 p-value = 0.231). Respondents who did not answer question 1 were excluded in this analysis (Figure2). On pupils knowledge on climatic features of a rainforest, 99 pupils (33%) responded that a forest has clouds whiles 12.70% responded that a forest has rainbow with 1 pupil (0.30%) not responding to any of the options provided to that question. Analysis of the entries received from their drawings revealed a complete presentation of the various components of a typical rainforest, though some respondents incorporated human objects and domesticated animals into their drawings. In all, there were a total of 770 valid entries consisting of various vegetative, climatic and faunal categories of a rainforest. Of this number, there were 238 trees and flowers whiles humans and human objects appeared 121 times. However, faunal records showed 81 domesticated animals and 62 mammals’ whiles only one entry was made for amphibians. The different climatic, vegetative, faunal and human components were not significantly associated with the different ages of children (chi-square=42.534 d.f=40 p=0.363). A comparison of the entries from drawings among the different age cohorts showed that generally children over represented mammals and reptiles in their drawings than they did for insects and other invertebrates (chi-square=45.449 d.f =40 p=0.255). Vegetative components, climatic features, human objects and domesticated animals were excluded from the figure because they appeared in the drawing of almost all the respondents (Table 2).

Table 2 Distribution of Different Taxa in Respondent Schools

Among the different age cohorts, over 50% (in each) agree to mammals living in the forest with the exception of children within cohort 3-5 years, 98% of respondents within age cohort 9-11 years responded “no” to insects living in the forest and 87% of children within age cohort 3-5 years responded “no” to the same question (Figure 3). When pupils were asked to list some animals they see on their way to school, a total of 784 animals and human objects were recorded. In all, 688 were mammals and birds kept in the home often referred to as domesticated animals, whiles insects and other invertebrates recorded were 7 and 3 entries respectively (Figure 4).



Figure 3 Faunal categories drawn among the different age cohorts Despite the non-variation in the organisms children see on their way to school, respondents showed variation in responses when they were asked to list any animals they knew. In all 762 entries were received from the 300 pupils. Out of this figure, 296 were mammals while insects and other invertebrates like spider, snail were 51 and 40 respectively (Figure 5).

Figure 4 The organisms children see on their way to school

Analysis of the results to assess respondents’ exposure to the natural world revealed that most children have not visited a zoo, museum or even a forest before. Only 95 (31.70%) pupils have visited such places before. Very few pupils had seen the rainforest before and most of them were from the rural schools. Furthermore, respondents showed wide variation in the sources of information on rainforest biodiversity (Table 3).



Figure 5 The taxa commonly known among primary school children

Table 3 Sources of Childrens’ Information on Rainforest Biodiversity

DISCUSSION

Children's perceptions of animals and the natural environment can be diverse, although their ideas are based around isolated facts and misconceptions are common [13-14]. Forest habitats and definitions of the environment are usually characterised as wild places and a habitat for animals [12, 15-16]. Children also express awareness that humans are part of the environment and that human activities can be detrimental to the natural world [15-16]. The environment in which children live can influence their perceptions. Children living in more rural landscapes have a better understanding of the environment and knowledge of animals and plants [12, 17]. Results from this study clearly demonstrate that primary school pupils have a high perception of the rainforest biodiversity. The perceptions of the children included a wide variety of different climatic and vegetative components in their drawings. The children also showed awareness in the fact that the rainforest is populated with a diverse animal fauna. Children of all age cohorts expressed a general knowledge of the floral and faunal diversity of a rainforest including climate. The survey found that school children have ideas of the floral and faunal components of a rainforest. More than 50% of the respondents shared the idea that a forest was a place with plenty trees and animals. In responding to whether they have seen rain forest or not, most of the respondents had not seen a real rainforest before. Their



understanding of a rainforest is an important tool to commence environmental education and conservation among school children. Although awareness will not guarantee protection of a rainforest, lack of awareness will make achieving conservation of endangered environments and species difficult [18]. Knowledge of the diversity of species and of the natural world is also important in recruiting the next generation of naturalists and conservationists [18-19]. Despite the knowledge of children on flora and fauna diversity of the rainforest, there was under-representation of some faunal taxa in their drawings. This finding confirms a similar survey conducted by Snaddon et. al, [6], where children under-represented social insects, other insects and annelids compared to their contribution to the rainforest biomass. In this study, most pupils agreed that mammals like lions, tigers and elephants lived in the forest but were quick to disagree that insects and other invertebrates lived in the forest. The taxonomic and ecological information of small invertebrates are relatively sparse, yet it is essential that they are incorporated into conservation planning in order to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions. It is important that this imbalance is addressed by raising the profile of these taxa through organisations devoted to their conservation, documentaries and public events aimed at reconnecting people and children in particular with the natural world. Domesticated animals were represented in almost all the drawings of the children and the list of animals they made in this study. A possible explanation to this connection with domesticated animals might be that most of the respondents lack interaction with nature at first hand or even because most children today do not interact directly with nature at all. As such, there might be difficulty recognizing any organism apart from those kept at home. This is because they do not get the opportunity to see these other animals often. This situation was prevalent among both the rural and urban school children. A further explanation could be because most of the respondents kept gardens and reared animals at home. Furthermore, most of the children have not been to a rainforest. Only few pupils had visited reserves such as Kakum National Park, a Zoos or even Museums. The few pupils who had been to such places were mostly from the urban schools. Though on the whole very few respondents have visited a forest reserve before, it did not affect their knowledge of a rainforest. However, it became clear that rural children had a better understanding of the components of a rainforest and its produce than their counterparts from the urban schools. Responses from the rural children may have been influenced by their location as most rural children live close to forest areas and accompany their parents to farms and forests as part of their livelihood activities. This was evident in their responses to whether they had seen a forest before. Most of the children who said they had seen a forest before either said it was close to their home or farm. In contrast, respondents from the urban schools who claimed to have seen rainforests before mentioned areas such as Amamoma and Abekamu which are all suburbs of Cape Coast. The vegetation cover of Cape Coast is mostly Coastal Shrub and Grassland and therefore does not qualify as rainforest areas. Respondents from the urban schools tend to confuse Coastal Shrub and Grassland vegetation for a Rainforest because to the best of their knowledge any area with few trees qualifies to be a rainforest. Again, it is possible that the path these children use to attend school does not have any rainforest and therefore do not get the opportunity to see any rainforest vegetation. Results from the study, clearly showed that several factors influence a child’s perception including exposure to natural world, domesticated animal among others. This explains the presence of several human elements in their drawings. Though the environment of a child influences his or her perception, this survey revealed that another influential factor of their perception is the Television. These findings tend to agree with the survey conducted by Henley [9] in Britain that children spend more of their time watching TV than interacting with nature. In spite of these findings that seems to suggest that Ghanaian school children perception on rain forest biodiversity are limited with their ideas based on misconceptions and isolated facts, the calculated p-value (after the chi-square test among the different age cohorts) was higher than the standard p-value (p=0.05). The implication possibly could be that, Children have a high perception of the rainforest biodiversity.

CONCLUSION

In this study, school children seem to have some knowledge of the constituents of rainforest diversity. Most respondents characterized the rainforest as a place with diverse plant and animal species. However, all the children within the different age cohorts seemed to know more about the larger (macro) taxa such as mammals than the lower (micro) taxa such as insects. Several factors influence children’s perception of rainforest biodiversity and



predominant among them are environmental education at schools and some TV programmes. It is therefore recommended that more nature studies should be incorporated in the curriculum of Ghanaian schools where pupils would get the opportunity to experience contact with nature activities. Further, as highlighted in other related publications, children should be encouraged to visit natural environments to improve their understanding of the natural world. Early exposure to natural world, proper environmental education and basic taxonomic training in schools will create awareness and connect people more to lesser known taxa. The creation of Children’s biodiversity Centre in the country will go a long way to offer a good platform for obtaining sound environmental education. Acknowledgement The authors wish to express profound gratitude to the head teachers, teachers and students in all the participating schools for their contribution to the success of this research.

REFERENCES

[1] E Losos. Rainforest. In: Microsoft Student [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007. [2] Missouri Botanical Gardens. Types of rainforest. 2002. http:// www. mbgnet.net /sets/forests/types (22/02/2011 at 20: 30pm). [3] P Kahn; Kellert S. Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural and Evolutionary Investigations. 2002 Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [4] RS Kellert. Reflections on Children’s Experience of Nature, In: Children and Nature Network Leadership Writing Series, 2009, Volume 1: Number 2. [5] KN Asase; A Collen; B Gockowksi; J Mason; J Phalan; Wade B. Biodiversity in a forest-agriculture mosaic- The changing face of West African rainforest, 2010. [6] JL Snaddon; EC Turner; Foster WA. Children’s perceptions of rainforest Biodiversity: which animals have the lion’s share of environmental aware? Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, 2008. [7] NN Duut. Traditional ecological Knowledge in Addressing Global Warming- The Ghana situation. A paper delivered at the International Conference of the Society for Restoration-Zaragoza, 2005, Spain. [8] S Tamilenthi; K Mohanasundram; Padmini V. Archives of Applied Science Research, 2011, 3 (6):98-106 [9] J Henley. Why our children need to get outside and engage with nature, In: http://www.guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 August 2010 21.00 BST [10] P Lindemann-Matthies. Children's perception of biodiversity in everyday life and their preferences for species. Dissertation. Universität Zürich. Europe, 1995 [11] S Tomkins; Tunnicliffe SD. Journal of Biological Education, 2007, 41: 150–155. [12] E Strommen. Journal of Science, 1995, 32(7): 683-689. [13] SH Chen; CH Ku. Aboriginal children's alternative conceptions of animals and animal classification. Proceedings of the National Science Council, 1998, 8: 55–67 [14] P Prokop; M Prokop; Tunnicliffe SD. International Journal of Science Education. 2008, 30: 431–449. [15] E Greaves; M. Stanisstreet; E. Boyes; Williams T.. Journal of Biological Education, 1993, 27: 189–194. [16] DP Shepardson, B Wee; M Priddy; Harbor J Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2007, 44: 327–348. [17] L Barraza. Environmental Education Research, 1999, 5: 49–66. [18] A Balmford; L Clegg; T Coulson; Taylor J.. Science, 2002, 295: 2367–2367 [19] OD Cheesman; Key RS. The extinction of experience: a threat to insect conservation? In: Stewart AJA, New TR, Lewis OT, editors. Insect conservation biology: Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society's 23rd symposium. 2007 Wallingford; Cambridge, Mass: CABI.



APPENDIX

COPY OF QUESTIONNAIRE A.GENERAL INFORMATION Name: ……………………………………………………. Age: a. 3-5 b.6-8 c.9-11 d. above 11 years Sex a. Female b. Male School: ……………………………………………………. Place of residence: ………………………………………... District/Metropolitan Assembly: …………………………. B. TO ACCESS SCHOOL CHILDREN’S KNOWLEDGE ON RAIN FOREST FLORA AND FAUNA DIVERSITY. 1. What is a forest? a. A place with plenty trees and animals. b. A place where we play. c. A place where we guard d. A wild place 2. A forest has... a. Clouds b. Plenty sunshine c. A black sky d. Rainbow 3. A forest must have plenty plants and animals. a. Yes b. No 4. Have you seen a rain forest before? a. Yes b. No 5. Where did you see this forest? …………………………………. 6. The forest you saw was not big because of the following a. Farming b. Tree cutting ` c. Building houses d. Animals C. TO DETERMINE WHICH TAXA IS COMMONLY KNOWN AMONG THE DIFFERENT COHORT. 7. Which animals do you see when you are going to school? a. ……………………………… b. ……………………………… c. ……………………………… 8. The animals and plants at home are different from those at the forest because the two places are not the same. a. Yes b. No 9. Which animals live in the forest? a. Mammals (for example lion, tiger, monkey) b. Birds c. Insects (for example bees, butterfly, ants) d. Other invertebrates (snail, worms) 10. The spider, the ant, the worm and the caterpillar also live in the forest. a. Yes b. No 11. List some animals you know. a. ……………………….. b. ………………………. c. ………………………...



D. TO DETERMINE THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE CHILDREN’S PERCEPTION ABOUT THE RAINFOREST 12. a. Have you visited a zoo, museum, or a forest before? a. Yes b. No (go to 13) 12. b. What did you see there? ………………………… 13. a. would you like to have a garden at home? a. Yes b. No 13. b. Do you have a garden or animals at home? a. Yes b. No 14. Can we find some of the animals at home in the forest? a. Yes b. No Instruction: You may choose more than one answer for question 15 and 16 15. Where do you hear stories about plant and animals from? a. from school b. from people at home c. from story books d. Visiting a forest e. Watching cartoons 16. We can get the following from the forest a. Firewood b. Bush meat (Grass cutter, rat) c. Snail d. Medicine 17. Draw anything you know about the forest.

GHANAIAN CHILDRENS’ PERCEPTION OF RAINFOREST BIODIVERSITY

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