Environmental Education
Part of the Project: Conservation of Neotropical Migratory Bird Habitat in the Sierra de Chamá Biological Corridor, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

Institution: PROEVAL-RAXMU

Project period: November 2002 - March 2005

Summary: This program is targeting two main objectives:

• Help local families learn about the natural wonders around them, involving their own spiritual background.
• Support the achievement of long-term conservation effects.

During 2003, diagnostic interviews were carried out with the participation of mixed groups in communities. During that year research was done on existing materials that could be adapted to local reality and used in communities on the sierra Sacranix. As result, an inventory of useful information in Spanish was gathered and a basic environmental education program was established.

In the year 2004 different methods were used for implementing this program in the communities. The most successful method for developing any theme of environmental education was to train a local promoter to teach small groups.
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Introduction: The lack of environmental awareness in rural areas is generalized, specially among adults with low literacy. People with a low family income and large families focus their efforts on fulfilling the basic needs of food and shelter. Health could sometimes even be a luxury to them. It is easy to understand that they do not have time nor energy to invest in learning about their environment, if they have to take care of bringing food to their table in first place. Still, environmental education could help them to take a better care of the resources they have, so their children can still profit on them in the future. This issue can be important not just for the people to fulfill their needs, but also in conservation. This applies when local families are the ones who make decisions about the future of forest remnants, which is the case in the Sacranix area.

Participation of local people in conservation efforts is an important element in the management of natural resources (Barzetti 1993). But for achieving this, actions taken need to address a positive change in life quality for them (Badola 1997). That is why learning about the attitudes and perceived needs of a community is so important (Fiallo and Jacobson 1995), specially in the development of an educational program. If the activities of a program are related to their reality and needs, they will have the interest to participate, learn, and apply their new knowledge to improve their lives and environment. Asking people about their needs should be the first step for designing an environmental education program. This would help to find the issues that get their interest, many of which are related to conservation of natural resources.
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Project description:

The work for achieving the main objectives of the environmental education component focuses on:

• Elaborating a curriculum for environmental education.
• Comparing three different methods for multiplication.

During 2003, research on local opinions and attitudes about environmental problems was done with participation of mixed groups in communities. Men and women attended, as well as local leaders, elders, agricultural and health promoters. Here an overview of the answers of the people that showed some facts in common:

• The majority understands the importance of the forest for the water supply.
• The loss of fertile soils is a general, widely recognized problem.
• Farmers confide that commercial fertilizers enhance production each year, in spite of the of evident soil degradation.
• Farmers lack natural history information about soil and crops (e.g. pollination).
• Farmers use certain conservation techniques by tradition, even though farmers do not know the technical or scientific reason for it (like planting corn and beans together, thus taking advantage of nitrogen fertilization by the beans).
• There are plant diseases that affect coffee and cardamom that farmers do not know how to deal with.
• Women help their husbands taking care of the crops, but men are the ones taking the decisions over their management.
• The families are willing to use alternative and not polluting farming techniques, but they do not know how.
• Many times farmers suffer a disease because they cannot afford medicine.

Research was done on existing materials that have been developed for Latin America or that could be adapted to local reality, and later used in communities on the sierra Sacranix. With this research an inventory of useful information in Spanish was gathered. The information gathered includes a list of web sites that will be part of an information database on the web site of PROEVAL-RAXMU (see list of useful links). It also includes a stock of books, other printed and software resources that will be set in a library accessible to the public in the main city of Cobán.

Based on this diagnostic and information a basic environmental education program has been established. The program is focused on environmental, agricultural and health issues that are generalized on the sierra Sacranix. The base for designing each activity is a local problem or common event in the local people's life, in which they could have an influence for a change. Each activity has been organized with the next structure: Unit, title adapted to local reality, objectives, content, material, practice, expected results (see examples of some activities).