Community Education
Community education is
vital if
the Andean bear is to be saved from extinction. The
problem will not be solved by research alone. The biggest
threat
to the Andean bear is humans: habitat encroachment, hunting and illegal
trade are the main reasons for the decline of this bear species.
It is only once both local and international communities gain
an
understanding of these bears and an appreciation of their importance
that we will be able to mitigate the threats that humans pose.
The Andean Bear Project
aims to form
strong relationships with communities that share land with the
bears. Despite living close to the elusive bears for
generations, many local people
know
little about them. Many villagers
fear that
the bears will attack them or their family, despite the fact that this
does not happen - Andean bears are mostly timid and avoid contact with
humans. As well as formal community education presentations
and workshops, bear biologists and bear
tracking volunteers
chat with
local farmers and villagers that they meet while working on the
project. We let them know what
we are
doing and why and try involve the community to help
us save the bears from extinction.
In areas where Andean
bears have killed cattle (which only happens with a very few bears in a
limited number of areas), we hold community education
workshops to help local farmers understand more about the bears and how
to co-exist with them. This is very important to minimize the
deaths of innocent bears. Farmers who are losing cows and
feel
ignored or
misunderstood by local authorities often take the law into their own
hands and shoot any bear they see - not realising that only one bear is
the killer. Children take their attitudes towards bears from
their parents if they have no other source of information.
Each workshop costs
around $300 to run, but is a
lasting investment in Andean bear conservation.
We work with the children of the community, with
presentations, games and activities appropriate for their age, as well
as with the adults. During the workshops the farmers learn
more about the bears, understand that some of the myths about them are
untrue and have the chance to talk about the problems they are
experiencing and explore ways to resolve human-bear conflict.
We would like to hold a
series of workshops in as many
affected communities as possible, returning over the next few months to
reinforce the message and help the communities find a way to co-exist
with the bears. We also have other ideas, including
a
national Day of the Andean Bear, more education materials, educational
visits and much more! You can donate to help
fund rural community education here on PayPal:
Our first "Workshop
Wednesday" online event on Facebook, on 30th March 2011 was a great
success and raised enough to run one community workshop, and $50
towards another. Many thanks to everyone who donated and
participated.
We are also seeking mural
artist volunteers to leave a colourful reminder in
the villages about the information given in our community education
workshops.
The Andean bear
conservation project also
has teaching
assistant
volunteers, who help out in local schools and explain to the
students
more about the bears and their importance in the local ecosystem.
Community schools are usually under-staffed, so the
volunteers
help with general education as well as environmental awareness.
Community volunteers can also introduce themes such as good
nutrition, personal health care and dental hygiene, all of which are
lacking in this area of poverty.
Since
education is so important for the future of the local communities and
the bears they share the land with, the volunteer research side of the
project helps with the cost of
transport from some of the more remote villages to the nearest college.
The students are aware that the bear project is helping them
get
to their secondary education, and the communities know that if a bear
is killed in the area, this support will be withdrawn.
Andean
Bear Conservation Project: Community Education
The Andean Bear Conservation Project works with local communities to
reduce human-bear conflict and raise awareness of the need for habitat
conservation. Community education and involvement is crucial
if Andean
bears
are to survive now that their habitat is fragmented by human activity.
