k|ltlaDa
Nature reflects our nature
Importance of Conservation Education
Growing up in the countryside, I spent
my childhood collecting firewood and grasses,
listening to the songs of birds and wallowing on
the grassland. I was profoundly attached to na-
ture and realized the intimate relationship of hu-
mankind with it, which aspired me to work for its
conservation. Travelling to different parts of the
country and working with different communities,
I delved into the life of the rural people and re-
alized that biodiversity is closely linked with the
livelihood and well-being of the local communi-
ty. However, people are unaware of the impor-
tance of forests, wild animals, and other natural
resources. Furthermore, over the past few years,
Nepal has experienced devastating climatic and
non-climatic hazards thus threatening biodiver-
sity and wellbeing of humankind. In addition,
Nepal has become the easiest route for smug-
gling wildlife parts to Tibet and people that are
arrested for smuggling frequently make the cov-
erage. It shows that people are oblivious about
the importance of conservation, which strongly
suggests a need for creating awareness from the
grassroots level, work for educating children and
youth today, so they could turn into individual
conservationists in near future.
Conservation Education is vital to tackle the en-
vironmental issues today. We know that today’s
children are tomorrow’s conservation leaders.
However, today’s children are not as connected
with nature as previous generations. If people
do not have a connection to nature, they do not
realize its value or feel a sense of responsibility
for it and are less likely to take action to save
it. I believe that every person should have regu-
lar opportunities to connect with nature, so they
value it, and take action to save it. If a child’s
everyday activities directly or indirectly connect
with nature, the more manageable will be their
symbols. It is thus important to urge children and
youth to understand and conserve nature and
wildlife. Everyone should learn the role of each
plant and animal in the ecosystem and discern
the significance of its existence.
Educating our children today to be a responsible
citizen to conserve the nature is one of the most
important works any of us can do for future gen-
erations. Creating awareness by visiting youth
clubs, schools, and colleges and encourage
teachers and students to integrate conservation
education activities in school curriculum should
be done. In addition, it is necessary to engage
students in practical aspects of conservation by
communicating in-house and outreach conser-
vation programs as follows.
Jungle walks: Calculate the velocity of walk, iden-
tifying trees, taught the importance of plants, and
identifying butterflies. Children will touch, taste,
and smell herbs and fruits, listen to the sounds
of streams and the songs of birds. They will en-
gage in physical activities like running across
meadows, jump on the grasses, hide beyond the
trees, collect the leaf litters, and soon.
Bird watching: Taught to use binoculars, iden-
tifying birds, listening to the bird calls, identifying
their salient features.
Zoo visit: Identifying animals and their behav-
ior, being encouraged to take photographs, and
asking each student to write what they have
learned during their visit.
Encouraging students to start eco clubs in
schools.
Encouraging them to minimize the use of plas-
tic bags.
Celebrating wildlife weeks and conservation
days: Conduct painting and speech competition.
Making bird houses and feeding birds at
schools.
Encouraging them to plant trees at school and
home.
However, in Nepal it is challenging to demand
conservation education in school curriculum as
this concept is new and no school and colleges
have prioritized conservation education till date.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop suitable
conservation education curriculum in supple-
ment with the school courses.
Manisha Parajuli
Bsc Forestry, Hetauda
Email:[email protected]
Mobile no: 9849921634
Nature and Social Concern Society
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