Attracting Public towards Conservation by Expeditions
600km solo kayak expedition for marine conservation awareness
Fisher children greeted during the start of 600km solo sea kayak expedition for marine conservation awareness in southeast coast of India
1200 km solo bike expedition for creating awareness about coastal ecosystems 2002
1200 km solo bike expedition for coastal ecosystem awareness 2002
This was really Pushing Boundaries beyond my capability by 1100 km bike riding in 2002 and 600km sea kayaking in 2007. The purpose is to create mass awareness on marine conservation among public through TV, newspaper media towards the value of our local coastal ecosystems. In 2007 I paddled sea kayak along the coast for about ~20km everyday and reach a nearby village. I stayed on the beach and conducted marine conservation education classes on the shorelines, beaches, community halls, houses and schools. After spending time with those villagers, and registering some volunteers for our organization, I again paddled along the coast to next village. I did the same awareness by my 1100km bike expedition along the coast of my state Tamil Nadu in 2002.
This one man awareness needed personal training and commitment especially for sea kayaking. A complete set of marine awareness materials, good knowledge on local coastal area and traditional knowledge of fishers was essential for both expeditions. Thousands of childrens, villagers and students were reached during those two expeditions A wide coverage of media was achieved through the expedition, which highlighted the conservation message of this expedition to common people.
Mass public attention and media can be turned towards local marine conservation issues by organizing such expeditions. The expedition should be well planned and the person has to be easily approachable to public throughout. Large number of conservation booklets and materials has to be issued to public and media along the conservation expeditions. The route of expedition should be close to human inhabitants in order to get the attention of public/media about the purpose and updating the status of the expedition. 1200 km bike expedition for marine conservation awareness 2002 600km seakayak expedition for marine conservation awareness in 2007
Participatory GIS mapping of Mangroves and Landuse Pattern
Backyard mangrove nursery
Mangrove awareness field trips and education for schools
Attracting Public towards Conservation by Expeditions
Promote relevant legislation and strictly comply with the regulations, formulate planning and management measures and implement them
In order to strengthen the protection of the park, make rational use of natural resources, and ensure the sustainable development of the park, a regulation on the protection of the park was issued and implemented in 2007. Wudalianchi Geological Park became the first geological park implementing protection and supervision with legislative support in China. A master plan was developed for the development of the park for 2007 – 2025, to formulate the development objectives of resource protection, tourism, agriculture and forestry. The park has formulated more than 100 regulatory work systems in 8 aspects, including atmosphere, water, geological remains, forestry, grassland and biology. A comprehensive inspection team of 120 people from departments of environmental protection, homeland, planning, forestry and others was also established. Since 2003, more than 20 cases of resource destruction have been investigated and dealt with, effectively reduced the impact of human activities on the environment of the core area and buffer zone. All these measures are to ensure the protection and development of the park have laws and regulations to follow, the management is rational, and the management is done by capable professionals.
A Management Committee was set up in 2000 to be in charge of planning, conservation, park development, scientific research and tourism, to ensure implementations are in compliance with regulations and rules. Monitoring and assessment are conducted. Revenues are from government financial support, ticket income and national special funds, thus Wudalianchi Management Committee has long maintained an independent status to stay unbiased. All the decisions made are guaranteed fair and are on the premise of priority of ecological protection.
Since Heilongjiang Province was the first one in China made legislation to rule the protection and management of the park, there had been inevitable imperfections in the process of making and implementing the laws and regulations. Although over the years, the Management Committee has made the effort to modify and improve the regulations and the procedures, Wudalianchi locates in a remote area, the closest big city is Harbin, outreach and exchange are not as easy and convenient as those that locate in easy-to-access areas, thus there is improvement, but it could be more. Wudalianchi would like to be more pro-active to establish academic/research collaboration, engage more experts/partners to provide valuable economic, social and protection experiences (or even lessons learned) in achieving the balance between ecological protection and human development. It is always efficient to learn from others and avoid the wrong paths.
In addition, due to the same reasons, it’s not as easy to recruit staff with the capacities the park needs as in other more developed areas.
Vulture house: venue for discovery, vision (camera placed near the nest) and education for young people. The creation of an interpretive trail and discovery around the griffon vulture has been staged around the lives of these birds and interpretive panels to attract the attention of the general public, especially children . Ornithological tours (free or guided). Tourist services such as accommodation and support draw profits from these trips. The tour professionals, who are trained by officers of the National Park, can enhance a hike with the theme of birds of prey and take advantage of the regional and touristic Pyrenees National Park brand. This recognition can lead to increased activity.
Balancing preservation and enhancement of the natural heritage Promotion of knowledge around raptors. National Park and partners can educate, inform, and pass on their knowledge to economic actors and local decision makers so that they can develop tourism products. (implementation of training / awareness, exchange days for professional accompaniment and tourists). Development of tools and media popularization around raptor knowledge Technical and financial support to local businesses for the definition of a project and the content of interpretation.
The development of tourism tools around the theme of raptors is part of the economy in rural and mountain areas. The resources dedicated to the awareness or the dissemination of knowledge are essential. Before raising awareness it is important to gain knowledge. Knowledge is provided by staff of the National Park and its partners and then transferred to the tourism actors to take ownership of the topic. But it is also necessary to manage the interactions between raptors and certain tourist activities (disturbance in the nesting activities such as hiking, climbing, aerial activities, ...). Human resources made available by the National Park are important in the development of this activity. They are necessary in terms of knowledge, training, and technical support. The establishment of tools such as cameras or GPS are expensive, thus financial resources are important.
Our staff conducted a Knowledge Attitudes and Practices (KAP) survey of local communities to asses local perspectives on fish ecology, natural resource management, food sources, and current understanding of the law related to these topics. The survey was designed to be executed at three times throughout the project to a diverse demographic, representing a mix of ages and genders, as well as to those people that relied on different primary livelihood sources. By looking at changes in responses, we hope to measure the success of the project. During initial surveys, local people demonstrated a strong knowledge of endangered Probarbus fish behavior, and also reported declines in this and a number of other fish species
Obtaining a representative sample of opinions from the village- Respondents feeling comfortable to speak honestly and not be influenced by other members of their community or what they think the surveyor wants to hear
Despite our efforts to conduct surveys with individuals out of earshot of the rest of the community, the weatherthwarted our plans. Heavy rain caused many people waiting to be surveyed to crowd into the buildings where the surveys were being conducted.- It is necessary to plan for variable field conditions in a way that will ensure stakeholders have privacy while being surveyed- It is important to develop strategies that ensure all voices are heard. One key aspect of such a strategy is an understanding of which members of the community might be reluctant to speak and why.
We held stakeholder workshops with local communities during all of the planning stages of this project to discuss the establishment of FPAs, assess what type of structure and regulations would be most effective for them, and improve the potential for success. This engagement involved many rounds of meetings with various groups within communities, including fisher’s unions, women’s unions, and village heads.
Developing relationships in early stages- Obtaining representative opinions from the community- Working within cultural context
Guide books for the re-enactment event were compiled using the historical documents.
Some skills in layout and design are required to compile guide books for the re-enactment event. Writing guide books requires time, money and the availability of someone who is suitably skilled to do the task. This is an ideal task for a retired park ranger or scientist to relive a part of history and make it come alive for the young people on the walk.
Perfection is not essential, as long as there is adequate supervision of the publishing task. This time we ran out of time to achieve publication standard, but the walkers found the guide books very helpful to develop their understanding of the journey they were undertaking.
