An Overview Of Our Solution
The Biological Education Program (PEB) is a program of the Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG) focused on students, teachers and parents from the communities surrounding the protected wilderness areas that make up the ACG, and is characterized by providing educational tours, through which the dry forest, the coastal zone and the humid forest are visited, to study the characteristics of each of the environments and the natural history of the biodiversity that inhabits them.
Biological Education is teaching Biology and Ecology in the field, which promotes sensitivity in the population and develops better criteria to make decisions in the environmental field in the future. It is a new and unique experiential process because it uses the forests as laboratory classrooms, where the student builds his knowledge.
- Population Impacted: 32,000
- Continent: South America
First name
Last name
Organization type
Email Address
Context Analysis
The ACG is one of the 11 conservation areas of Costa Rica. It is located north of the province of Guanacaste, which covers 20% of the Costa Rican territory. 8% of the total population of the country lives in this province. The figures from the 2018 National Household Survey (ENAHO) indicate that in this region 26% of the population is in a situation of poverty, that is, 4.9 percentage points above the national percentage (21.1%). . The ACG administratively covers the cantons mainly of Liberia and La Cruz and to a lesser extent Bagaces, Santa Cruz and Carrillo and Upala (Alajuela).
The canton of La Cruz is one of the cantons with the lowest human development index in the country, likewise, La Cruz and Liberia have the highest percentage figures for overcrowding in the province. The main economic activities are agriculture, forestry, fishing and livestock, however, tourism has been on the rise, taking advantage of its biodiversity and culture, in addition, almost 50% of the ACG is under some category of management and It has been declared a natural heritage of humanity by UNESCO by conserving, connected, 4 of the main ecosystems of the region.
The region has been widely affected by climate change, tropical storms, hurricanes and droughts have intensified. In 2015, Costa Rica suffered the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, causing serious losses in the agricultural and livestock sectors, mainly in Guanacaste due to its dry characteristics. Forest fires occur every year in the province during the dry season, when temperatures reach 36 degrees Celsius, 99% of these fires are caused by humans, generating a direct impact on local ecosystems. Another problem is the extraction of wildlife to be sold illegally as a pet, mainly parrots and parakeets, aggravated after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
The PEB is dedicated to carrying out a process of biological awareness through educational tours. The process begins at 10 years of age and ends at 12 years of age. Each person makes 4 visits per year to the different ACG ecosystems, for a total of 12 tours. 31 educational centers that are located in the surroundings of protected wild areas participate. Once a year, those people who showed the greatest interest participate in the biodiversity workshop (a 3-day specialized workshop). In order to achieve this, we work through a formal agreement with the Ministry of Public Education. The contents seen on the tours are the same as those studied in the school curriculum, in order to avoid overloading the teaching staff. The teachers accompany them during the tours and receive an awareness workshop once a year, as do the parents. There are also 2 tours a year for high school students, from 4 educational centers.
Describe your behavioral intervention.
The sensitization carried out through the educational tours of the Biological Education Program at the local level, allows the person who participates to make decisions in the future in favor of the environment regardless of their professional profile. The ACG does not claim that all people are biologists, but rather that they understand the importance of ecosystems and the organisms that inhabit them.
The Program stimulates the use of the senses and invites you to build your own knowledge through experiential experiences. This methodology is known as inductive-constructivist education. It is a bio-Cultural restoration process, the participating people do not receive a message of repression, the boys and girls are not directly told that they should stop burning the forest or extracting wildlife, after three years of process Continuous and constant in contact with nature, people understand for themselves why they should not do this type of action.
For the PEB, the forest is a natural library that can always be consulted, regardless of age. In this link you can obtain a summary of the work of the PEB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKl7t2df4Zw
The experience of the Program was systematized in 2017 and can be found at the following link chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/images/imagenes-noticias/educacion/tomo_2_-_manejo_participativo_en_costa_rica.pdf
Behavioral Levers Utilized
As needed, please explain how you utilized the lever(s) in more detail.
The Program serves as a reinforcement of the teachings that are provided to students during their formal education. It has a content plan that is periodically updated and is directly linked to the school curriculum for the second cycle of basic general education in the country. Topics such as pollination, the water cycle, historical aspects or geography are seen in the field with the Program, while students learn them in their educational centers.
Work is also carried out with the transversal axes of climate change and environmental management. Each educational tour contains at least one activity related to both axes. The student body advances in a process of 4 visits per year for 3 years, to complete a total of 12 educational tours, the content of which becomes more complex with each tour. At the end of the process, a printed acknowledgment (certificate) is obtained. There are also 4 secondary schools, which carry out 2 annual educational tours.
Describe your implementation
Activities:
-Four annual educational tours in Protected Wilderness Areas for IV, V and VI year students (10, 11 and 12 years old). For a total of 12 educational tours in 3 years for each group.
-Two annual educational tours for students of VII and VIII year of high school (13 and 14 years).
-A specialized biodiversity workshop for 40 students for 3 days and 2 nights.
-An annual workshop in 2 sub-groups for teaching staff of educational centers.
- An annual workshop in 2 sub-groups for parents.
The change in behavior is achieved through the process, the educational tours start in a very basic way and gradually increase their degree of complexity, these are maintained generation after generation. Teacher participation ensures that teachers continue the process in the classroom, since they are familiar with the PEB methodology and philosophy. Parents are part of this process and if they have doubts they will be clarified in the annual workshops.
Previously having the ecosystems, the willingness of the government, the good reception of the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) and scientific support, helped make this system work. The problems that have been faced have been overcome with the help of strategic allies from multiple private sectors and NGOs. The versatility and adaptability of the people who work in the PEB also allows the process to be maintained, for example, during the pandemic caused by the arrival of the SARS-Cov2 virus that causes COVID19, the educational tours were adapted to the virtual format, using the platform enabled by the MEP and with the help in the purchase of technological equipment by local foundations.
Security is also a cornerstone of the program, people attend tours under strict protocol and have an insurance policy that covers them throughout the year, even outside the school period.
Describe the leadership for your solution. Who is leading the implementation?
To describe the Program team, it is necessary to mention that in Costa Rica, the Ministry of Environment and Energy is in charge of looking after the environment through the National System of Conservation Areas. The Guanacaste Conservation Area is one of the 11 Country Conservation Areas, these areas are administered by programs, for example, in the ACG, the Biological Education Program who respond to a regional director.
This Program is the only one in the country that uses the methodology described above. It currently has 10 people; 7 educators (including the Program coordinator and 3 drivers) aged between 33 and 65, 2 women and 8 men from different professions but related to biology.
PEB educators receive a one-year training to be able to carry out educational tours, this training is given in the field with the other educators, the experience of the team in biological education varies between 5 and 35 years.
Share some of the key partners or stakeholders engaged in your solution development and implementation.
The PEB is a Program of the Guanacaste Conservation Area, one of the 11 areas of the National System of Conservation Areas, which is a dependency of the Ministry of Environment and Energy. The PEB works inter-institutionally with the Ministry of Public Education in Costa Rica through a Cooperation agreement.
However, for the PEB it is necessary to maintain the support of key actors that allow it to seek physical and financial resources. The first educational tours of the Program became a reality, thanks to the support of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation (Noyes Foundation) who believed in the idea in 1986 together with the Danish government, under the initiative of Dr. Daniel Janzen and the direction of the protected area.
Other actors have collaborated with the PEB throughout its history, such as the Growing Together Association, Innocent Drinks, Fundación Ranchos Horizontes and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Currently the PEB receives direct support through the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF) and the National Parks Foundation (FPN), in addition to the National Insurance Institute (INS), the National Commission for Biodiversity Management (CONAGEBIO) and various researchers who carry out their research work in the Guanacaste Conservation Area.
Various universities, independent researchers and professionals provide constant support in terms of donating educational materials and carrying out mediation activities, mainly in the workshops in which they participate through an invitation according to the theme. At the same time, the PEB gives talks, when so requested, to different professionals and to the academy regarding the task of biological education.
Who adopted the desired behavior(s) and to what degree? Include an explanation of how you measured a change in behavior.
Qualitative examples of PEB graduates:
Guillermo García: student who specializes in the study of fungi. https://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/noticias/noticas-del-programa-de-educacion-biologica/5296-3-de-marzo-dia-mundial-de-la-vida-silvestre
Bryan Pérez's PEB experience https://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/educacion/programa-de-educacion-biologica/experiencias-peb/5633-fotografia-gira-educativa-peb-es-incluida-en-el-nuevo -book-snakes-of-costa-rica
ACG, Adapting to Climate Change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MRA5V_Y670
Alana Salgado's PEB experience https://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/educacion/programa-de-educacion-biologica/experiencias-peb/4733-mi-primer-experiencia
PEB experience Pamela Mora https://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/noticias/noticas-del-programa-de-educacion-biologica/5731-actividad-dia-internacional-de-la-mujer-y-la-nina- in science
How did you impact the environment (biodiversity conservation, ecosystems, etc.)? Please be specific and include measurement methodology where relevant.
This aspect has not yet been measured or correlated with the work of the Biological Education Program. It is necessary to find a methodology that allows the study to be carried out and thus to understand the real impact after the process of biological education in the total population served after more than three decades.
In the fifth year, an educational tour focused on aquatic ecosystems is carried out, in which different activities are carried out so that they understand, through bioindicator organisms, about water quality. Resulting in the possibility of avoiding contamination of water sources.
With the transversal axis of environmental management, the proper management of waste is promoted, preventing it from contaminating aquatic ecosystems.
How has your solution impacted equity challenges (including race, ethnicity, social class/income, indigenous communities, or others)?
The Program represents an opportunity for the neighboring communities (mostly rural, in mountainous and coastal areas close to a border region, with all the social problems that this implies) to get closer to a quality education based on science, through experiential experiences, offering alternatives for communities such as tourism and sustainable development.
The participation of women in the educational tours and workshops of the Program is considered one of the key success factors. In the region, women have a more leading role in the educational training of their sons and daughters. Historically, more women than men attend the workshops, while in the educational tours, it is very equitable.
There is a constant flow of migrants in the area who participate in the educational tours of the PEB, offering the opportunity to raise awareness among this population and reducing the possibilities of species trafficking in the future.
What were some sustainable development co-benefits?
People recognize protected wilderness areas as part of their communities, as they have gone through a process of sensitization from an early age. This aspect helps empowerment with the opportunity to carry out enterprises and multiple environmental projects. The Program teaches to recognize the ACG as an ecosystem services factory that provides water and food security to its neighbors, as well as clean air, scenic beauty and job opportunities.
Sustainability: Describe the economic sustainability of your solution.
The Program payroll and some of its general expenses (for example fuel) are covered by the State. The cost of materials, the organization of the tours, workshops and other events are covered by means of external financing. Currently, the GDFCF and FPN foundations are the ones that provide the greatest financial support to the Program, through donations that are directly channeled for the activities. specific.
The Program remains standing thanks to its strategic allies, however the continuity of the processes and their results, with an effective and intelligent investment, have been key for the Program to continue its work after more than three decades.
Return on investment: How much did it cost to implement these activities? How do your results above compare to this investment?
The Program invests $54,143 annually. To achieve the complete process of Bioliteracy in a person, a period of three years is necessary. The average population that graduates from the Program each year is 490 people, in the last 5 years the student population of the program has been around 1,500 to 1,600 students. Currently, we are working at maximum capacity with the resources available. The Program provides the knowledge to the student body to learn to "read" nature, the total number of students who participate in the bioliteracy process, have the opportunity to be sensitized, any cost-benefit analysis is subjective because it is up to each person to decide what to do in your future with that knowledge.
How could we successfully replicate this solution in Latin America?
The PEB processes have already been replicated previously in Panama, Honduras and Colombia (ACG, 2017, p.49-51), these replicas have been carried out on a regional scale by country. In order to implement a similar Program, it is necessary to have transportation, biological educators, and a policy for the people who initially participate in the process. Little by little, the number of inputs and educational centers can be increased as the Program progresses. The educators of the Program must be in training for one year and have a biological knowledge base, it is convenient to have a teaching base as well, in addition to being a charismatic person who likes to work with children.
References
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/images/imagenes-noticias/educacion/tomo_2_-_manejo_participativo_en_costa_rica.pdf