Can Short-Term Citizen Science Training Increase Knowledge, Improve Attitudes, and Change Behavior to Protect Land Crabs?

Chia-Hsuan Hsu, Yuan-Mou Chang and Chi-Chang Liu
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Chia-Hsuan Hsu: School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Yuan-Mou Chang: Department of Ecology and Environmental Resources, National University of Tainan, Tainan 70167, Taiwan
Chi-Chang Liu: School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 14, 1-15

Abstract: Citizen science projects are considered popular and efficient approaches to scientific research and conservation of sustainability. In addition, much research suggests that citizen science can improve participants’ environmental and scientific literacy when they participate in surveys over a period of time. However, considerable research indicates that people in short-term training programs do not change their environmental literacy significantly. Nevertheless, studies have stated that these results might result from inappropriate evaluation methods. In this study, we used personal meaning mapping (PMM) to evaluate participants’ knowledge, attitude, and behavior intention in relation to land crab protection. This method merges quantitative and qualitative dimensions, used in scientific knowledge research, which we extend to evaluate attitude and behavior intention. As a result, even with short-term training, we observe that participants’ knowledge, attitude, and behavior intention significantly improves. Although some individuals exhibit no change in certain respects, we use PMM to understand the causes in detail. Taiwan is an island, famous for its fertile landscapes and biodiversity, and we anticipate finding efficient means to improve public environmental literacy. According to our research, public engagement in citizen science projects is an excellent approach to environmental education and conservation for sustainability.

Keywords: environmental literacy; land crab conservation; citizen science training; personal meaning mapping; public engagement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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