CONSERVATION AND BEHAVIOR

CONSERVATION AND BEHAVIOR 

I recently had a talk with a senior county government official in Kenya on why it is paramount for the government to pay more attention to environmental conservation. The current Kenyan constitution has decentralized most of government functions to its devolved structures. One of such functions is environmental conservation  

To my surprise, he told me that there are more important issues to take care of than environment. He cited insecurity, poverty, unemployment, and food, water deficiency among others.

Getting such sentiments from a learned chap mandated to make policies aimed at changing fortunes of many citizens is regrettable to many but to me it was an eye opener to one of the challenges conservationists face.

Most people think that environmental challenges are more severe globally than locally leading them to rank environmental degradation as a lower priority than more salient threats such as terrorism, poor economic conditions, and diseases e.t.c

One very important question that remains unanswered is how are we going to guarantee food and water security without taking care of our biodiversity? Most industries get their raw materials either directly or indirectly from the natural world. Scramble for these resources is a major threat to security both at national and international levels. 

Robert Redford once said, “I think the environment should be put in the same category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?”

The major menaces to our environment are our own activities which form our behavior. We tend to perceive ourselves as separate from nature.

Serious conservation initiative must start with behavior change. According to Mascia and others (2003), environmental conservation is human endeavor initiated by humans, designed by humans and intended to modify human behavior.

So how can we modify behavior change? Most people will emphasize the need for education. But does education really induce behavior change? Yes, education can induce behavior change but education alone cannot prompt change in behavior.

According to McKenzie-Mohr and others, motivation is a driving force behind behavior change. Efforts to educate the public and raise awareness must include motivational elements that is, a reason for action.

We can encourage motivation for example by attaching economic value to trees. People are more likely to plant more trees if they see direct rewards in them.

Lastly, it is important to note that behavior change and conservation often involves a level of cost or sacrifice to an individual such as reducing consumption or abstaining from a previous behavior.

Kenfrey Kipchumba Katui

The writer; a Sociologist and Environmentalist is the founder and the Executive Director of Scope Intervention

Why target School going children?

I am just 27 years old and I have witnessed the total insurgency in our environment from the way we interact with it to the way we treat it.

May people have asked me one question: why school children?

To answer this, let me start by saying children who are exposed to natural world at an early age are more likely to appreciate nature when they grow up.

Children learn through imitation. The past couple of generations including the generation I grew up with were brought up believing that trees are supposed to be used, which is true. On rare occasions did people take time to explain to us what is going to happen when we deplete this very important resource and its relationship with nature; the only life supporting system available to mankind. The emerging uprisings have always talked of human rights. No one talks of human responsibilities.

Climate change is like HIV/AIDS. We all know it’s real but tend to ignore it. Everybody (I suppose this is 21^st century) knows that AIDS is real and anyone can get infected through irresponsible sexual behavior but people still act irresponsibly with their sexual affairs. With climate change, we know that ozone layer is being washed-out, weather patterns are becoming unpredictable and soon the ecosystem might not be able to support life because of our irresponsible use of natural resources but we still act irresponsibly in regard to our relationship with nature.

I personally grew up knowing that trees are supposed to be cut when we want to construct something. But one valuable thing I learnt from my grandparents (who raised me) is that trees are important. We need them for their medicinal, nutritional and aesthetic among other values. Sometimes with their little education I would hear them say something about trees and rain.

I don’t know if my grandparents thought that trees will always be there and won’t be exhausted because they hardly said that we should plant more trees to replace the ones we are cutting down.

We destroy nature by not connecting our children to nature. Chief Seattle once said, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”

Green Schools project is therefore designed to check this gap and flow of information in respect to environmental conservation. We want to attach each school going child with child with a tree. We want them to plant and grow trees with sense of ownership and pride and grow up appreciating trees knowing that we endanger our survival when we don’t care about our trees.

Kenfrey Kipchumba Katui

The writer; a Sociologist and Environmentalist is the founder and the Executive Director of Scope Intervention