人類的下一代掌舵著野生生物保育的未來,不過這不免令人擔憂都市小孩,可能因為欠缺與野生生物接觸的環境,特別是學齡初期的孩童,使得未來的保育工作帶有一絲不確定性。
美國密蘇里大學都市野生生物管理系助理教授尼隆(Charlie Nilon)表示:「即使是生活在都市裡的兒童,也有機會對野生生物產生深刻的認識」。
另一方面,尼隆和同僚們調查發現,若孩子的生長環境與野生生物的互動有限,未來將可能影響他們和大自然接觸的意願。
因此尼隆認為,不論孩子成長的所在地為何,我們應自孩子年幼時就鼓勵他們去認識野生生物。「如果你在四至五歲時就開始接觸野生生物,到了青壯年時,你對牠們將會有相當程度的認識,然後漸漸培養出興趣來,了解這塊領域的作用與價值,而最後你將發現自己已經參與保育工作的行列」。
尼隆指出,「我們的研究結果顯示,身為父母的你若能提供孩子合適的認知環境,未來他們在野生生物保育這方面,將會發展出相當正面的態度,並且讓這樣的態度留傳保持下去」。
The future of wildlife conservation depends on the next generation, but there is concern city children may not be in touch with wildlife, especially in their early impressionable years.
"Even in cities it's possible for kids to have really positive experiences with wildlife," said Charlie Nilon, associate professor of urban wildlife management at the University of Missouri.
Nilon and his colleagues found that a negative experience with wildlife around a child's home could limit future contact with nature.
Nilon said it is important to foster an appreciation of wildlife at a very young age regardless of a child's location.
"If you're engaged when you're four or five," he said, "and then you get those positive messages when you're a teenager, you're going to be engaged in wildlife and you'll be a person who recognizes the value of places like this and therefore really be involved in the conservation."
"If you can get kids engaged," said Nilon, "our results suggest that they'll develop really positive attitudes about wildlife and those attitudes will continue."
全文及圖片詳見 ENS