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| The Management of Environmental Education in wildlife parks | ||||||
| The one-year feasibility study on Environmental Education in wildlife parks is finished. Based on a broad statistical survey deep insights into this special branch were given at the DBU's Centre for Environmental Communication in Osnabrück. | ||||||
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Project Outcome and Outlook
From an empirical point of view the study provided insights into the current situation in the nearly thirty parks involved in the survey. This investigation was conducted as a standardized survey based on a letter-questionnaire from January 2007 to August 2007. Additionally telephone and personal interviews were arranged in order to provide better data on complex issues. This extensive survey provided the basis for a concept of certification to ensure and support the quality of Environmental Education and ESD in wildlife parks.
This concept has to be refined in coming project phases. The basic idea is a three-level-system of certification. Each level was derived from empirical findings about current situations considering aspects like content, appointments and circumstances of Environmental Education and ESD in wildlife parks. This concept may be perceived as a best-practise or benchmarking approach. From level to level the managerial and educational requirements increase, i.e. selected indicators verify if the managerial, educational and programme's quality is sufficient for the desired level of certification. Derived from the survey's findings the levels are called: "Park with good practice", "Park with good management" and "Park with good Environmental Education".
Innovative Approach
The Wildlife parks are unique in their central aspects like size, financing, structure, organisational learning and corporate mission. In other words, their operational abilities are based on very different resources and strategies. However, the survey shows clearly that the educational performance is not simply correlated with such characteristics. Good Environmental Education is not directly influenced by indicators like economic performance or public or private sponsorship of the institution.
In contrast the extensive data mining showed three different strategic types of wildlife parks which are called: "Profiled park with wildlife-typical offerings", "Classic wildlife park" and "Profiled park without wildlife-typical offerings". These were indicated by the strategic positioning of the wildlife-typical offerings and the importance of Environmental Education and ESD related to the overall corporate strategy. Different understandings, the acceptance of and the openness for Environmental Education and ESD as part of the parks' performance are crucial for the educational quality - independent of the overall economic performance.
Project Conference
The conference was opened by guiding words from Dr. Witte, head of Environmental Communication at the DBU. He welcomed the participants and introduced the multifaceted activities of the foundation. In relation to the research the topic of Environmental Education was discussed in the broader context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). For the DWV (Deutscher Wildgehegeverband - German Association of wildlife parks), the second project partner, Eckhard Wiesenthal gave a summary of some of the association's milestones related to the topics of Environmental Education and ESD.
These mainly general speeches were complemented by a practitioner's report on the everyday business of a wildlife park. Ute Kröger, responsible for education in the wildlife park Eekholt, Schleswig-Holstein, presented several practical approaches and highlighted key issues related to successful dissemination and management of Environmental Education in this distinct area. For the third project partner, DeWiSt (Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung - German Wildlife Foundation), Hilmar Freiherr von Münchhausen touched on the DeWiSt's general aim of making complex information on wildlife accessible to the broader public.
Currently, an extensive report on empirical and theoretical findings is being written by Dr. Berno Herbert Haller and Florian Lüdeke who carried out the project research.
Authors: Dr. Berno Herbert Haller, Florian Lüdeke
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