Short-term conservation education influences Ugandan adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes and investment decisions

What is it about?

The impact of conservation education can be difficult to assess. Methods often rely on assessing changes in people’s self-reported attitudes and beliefs. However, conservation often requires that people change their behavior as well as their attitudes, and behavioural change can be costly (e.g., sorting recycling or seeking less convenient travel methods). In our study, we describe results from an easy-to-employ method that captures changes in participants’ knowledge, attitudes and—critically—their costly investment behaviour. In this study, we worked with adolescents in a part of Western Uganda that is home to abundant primate wildlife and that faces key conservation challenges.

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