Provide educational or other training programmes about the marine environment to improve behaviours towards marine invertebrates

Overall effectiveness category Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)
Number of studies: 1
Share Tweet Email

View assessment score

How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

65%
Certainty

21%
Harms

0%

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Whether through school curricula, education programmes, training courses, workshops, or outreach events, providing education and training programmes can help raise awareness about marine conservation issues and potentially induce a behavioural change (Colleton et al. 2016; Kwan et al. 2017; Leisher et al. 2012). These programmes may be about the marine environment in general or about specific ecosystems, species, or groups of species, their biodiversity, conservation, and management.

Evidence for related interventioms is summarised under “Education and awareness – Organise educational marine wildlife tours to improve behaviours towards marine invertebrates”.

_{Colleton N., Lakshman V., Flood K., Birnbaum M., Mcmillan K. & Lin A. (2016) Concepts and practice in the emerging use of games for marine education and conservation. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 26, 213–224.}

_{Kwan B.K., Cheung J.H., Law A.C., Cheung S.G. & Shin P.K. (2017) Conservation education program for threatened Asian horseshoe crabs: a step towards reducing community apathy to environmental conservation. Journal for Nature Conservation, 35, 53–65.}

_{Leisher C., Mangubhai S., Hess S., Widodo H., Soekirman T., Tjoe S., Wawiyai S., Larsen S.N., Rumetna L., Halim A. & Sanjayan M. (2012) Measuring the benefits and costs of community education and outreach in marine protected areas. Marine Policy, 36, 1005–1011.}

Key messages

One study examined the effects of providing educational or other training programmes about the marine environment on subtidal benthic invertebrate populations. The study took place in Hong Kong.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE (0 STUDIES)

POPULATION RESPONSE (0 STUDIES)

BEHAVIOUR (1 STUDY)

Behaviour change (1 study): One replicated, before-and-after survey study in Hong Kong found that a conservation education programme on the Asian horseshoe crab in secondary schools significantly increased the students’ behaviour towards Asian horseshoe crab conservation.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A replicated, before-and-after study in 2009–2016 of 96 secondary schools in Hong Kong (Kwan et al. 2017) found that a 14-month-long conservation education programme improved students’ behaviour towards Asian horseshoe crab Tachypleus tridentatus conservation. The programme increased students’ behaviour towards horseshoe crab conservation by 21%. This included a 43% increase in students promoting horseshoe crab conservation to relatives and friends, a 5% increase in students themselves promoting horseshoe crab conservation, and a 15% increase in their willingness-to-pay for conserving Asian horseshoe crabs. The programme also improved their general biology and ecology knowledge of Asian horseshoe crabs by 26% and their perception and awareness towards horseshoe crab conservation by 17%. Between 2009 and 2016, the “Juvenile Horseshoe Crab Rearing Program” took place in 96 schools. Teams of students reared juvenile crabs for 14 months before releasing them into nursery grounds. Before the start and after the end of each programme, students were asked to respond to a set questionnaire regarding their behaviour towards horseshoe crab conservation, knowledge of horseshoe crab biology/ecology and their perception and awareness of horseshoe crab conservation. A total of 1,391 students responded.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Kwan B.K.Y., Cheung J.H.Y., Law A.C.K., Cheung S.G. & Shin P.K.S. (2017) Conservation education program for threatened Asian horseshoe crabs: a step towards reducing community apathy to environmental conservation. Journal for Nature Conservation, 35, 53-65.

Please cite as:

Lemasson, A.J., Pettit, L.R., Smith, R.K. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Subtidal Benthic Invertebrate Conservation. Pages 635-732 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Subtidal Benthic Invertebrate Conservation

Related Actions

	Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
	Provide educational or other training programmes about the marine environment to improve behaviours towards marine invertebrates Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	1	Synopsis Link
	Organise educational marine wildlife tours to improve behaviours towards marine invertebrates Action Link	No evidence found (no assessment)	0	Synopsis Link