The impact of State-Of-Rivers Reporting on people's attitudes towards river conservation : a case study of the Buffalo and Hartenbos & Klein Brak Catchments in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During 2007, two evidence-based studies were undertaken in two catchment areas in South Africa.The first study ascertained the relationships between demographic attributes and generalawareness, human impacts, attitudes and water use behaviour. The second study determinedwhether or not State-of-River (SoR) materials developed for foundation phase learners (grades 1 to3) improved their understanding of and influenced their attitudes towards river conservation.Surveys were conducted amongst learners (n=1178) and parents (n=1144) from different culturesand socio-economic backgrounds. Questionnaires were available in three languages, namelyEnglish, isiXhosa and Afrikaans.The SoR reporting materials were not adequately distributed. The first study could therefore notascertain whether increased awareness or attitudinal and behavioural changes could be ascribedto SoR reporting in the catchments. The majority of respondents (82%) indicated that there was aneed for more information on rivers and 60% of the respondents indicated that they wouldparticipate in a follow-up survey. Thirty percent of respondents from the Buffalo catchment and 22% of respondents from the Hartenbos and Klein Brak catchment indicated that they use water verysparingly. Respondents from urban areas scored higher in their attitudes towards riverconservation and were more aware of water issues than those from rural areas. Both attitudinaland awareness scores did not align with water use behaviour, with rural respondents using watermore sparingly. Attitude and awareness improved with increased education levels. Respondentswho indicated that they would rather pay more for water than change their water use behaviourshowed the lowest score for attitude towards river conservation.Learners from the Buffalo rural area showed a significant increase in understanding the benefitsthat healthy rivers provide, and this can be ascribed to the distributed SoR activity book and poster.A survey consisting of quantitative and qualitative items, as well as participatory evaluationsdetermined learners' level of understanding of human impacts on rivers. The quantitative studyshowed learners from the Hartenbos and Klein Brak area as well as the Buffalo rural area improvedthe most over time. The qualitative items showed a 35% and 40% increase in the number ofcorrectly listed items as either making a river happy (healthy) or sad (unhealthy) after exposure toSoR materials. Respondents from both catchments taking part in the participatory evaluationsdisplayed an overall increase in their understanding of good practices, as well as the negativeimpact of human activities on rivers. Those learners that scored low in the participatory evaluationsat time 1 showed the most improvement over time, concluding that those learners who knew theleast at the start of the study, gained the most understanding of human impacts on rivers. Allschools in the Hartenbos and Klein Brak catchment, with the exception of one, showed a slightincrease in understanding of human impacts on rivers. Results from the schools in the Buffalocatchment were more variable. Data gathered demonstrated that the SoR materials helpedlearners to better understand benefits from clean rivers as well as human impact on rivers.Although the learners from urban areas had a better understanding of the concept of riverconservation before contact with the SoR materials, learners from the rural areas showed the most improvement over time. There was an increase in the number of learners that showed a willingnessto take responsibility for their actions that could impact on river health. Far more learnersmentioned remediation types of actions than protection or preventative actions.A change in peoples' attitudes and behaviour is needed to ensure adequate protection of SouthAfrica's natural water resources. Imprinting values and perceptions that would last into adulthood need intervention at an early age and throughout children's' formative years.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University