A proposed enviromental education curriculum to address ecological impacts of petauke district in Zambia
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Date
2012-11-01
Authors
Banda, Kennedy Richard
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Abstract
The research focused on investigating the levels of awareness by the people in Petauke district on Environmental Education (EE), causes of environmental problems and their mitigation measures; and then to determine the ecological impacts in the district to form as baseline data to design an EE on curriculum to strengthen sustainable development. It was not known whether the deterioration of the environment was being addressed through educating the people on environmental issues. Therefore, this gap constituted a problem which needed to be addressed. As a consequence, it was vital to explore the extent to which EE had been implemented to address the ecological degradation as a result of farming, lumbering, charcoal production and infrastructure development.Furthermore, the study employed the following research questions which were instrumental in soliciting data: what were the main ecological impacts facing Petauke district; what were the levels of awareness about EE in the district in view of the growing population; and what activities were to be proposed to form an EE curriculum to ensure environmental sustainability of the study area? In the same vein, the aim of the research was to determine ecological impacts in Petauke district and generate baseline data to be used in designing an EE programme that would help to sustain the environment of the study area.Consequently, the purpose of the research was addressed through the following objectives: to determine ecological impacts in Petauke district; to explore the existence of EE in the study area and to propose an EE curriculum to address the ecological impacts which will be identified in the study area. The key findings of the research showed that 53.6 percent of the respondents were aware of EE. The respondents were able to identify the environmental issues affecting Petauke.In conclusion, the data gathered after the study was important to responding to the current environmental issues as well as developing strategies to prevent further environmental problems. It was very gratifying that a lot of stakeholders were aware of the environmental issues affecting Petauke, which provided a spring board to design an EE curriculum to address the ecological impacts in Petauke. Further, the study suggested the following recommendations to address the ecological impacts affecting Petauke district: to embark on bee-keeping to preserve the young trees or forests whilst taking care of the trade-offs; to practice conservation farming; to conduct EE awareness programmes to the public on the impacts of environmental problems; the expansion of Rural Electrification Scheme to all remote parts of the district to continue so as to reduce deforestation for charcoal production and firewood; to strengthen Community Resource Boards to encourage sustainable use of natural resources and replanting trees in areas where they have been cleared.
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Keywords
Enviromental education--Zambia , Ecology(curricular)--Petauke district--Zambia