Environmental education refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, how they interact and are influenced by human activity, and particularly, how human beings can manage their behaviour and physical environment to live in a more sustainable and less damaging way. Whilst often used to imply education within a school system, it can include all efforts to educate the public and other audiences, including print materials, websites, media campaigns, etc.

The term environmental education is often used interchangeably with conservation education although the latter is more grounded in its philosophy of teaching how to conserve the natural world. People fight for what they care about, and one aspect of developing a caring attitude is knowledge. Progress in conservation depends upon the development of public understanding of the relationships between species, the environment and people’s own. The traditional thinking behind environmental education is that we can change behaviour by increasing knowledge and influencing attitudes about environmental and surrounding issues. This assumes that as people become more knowledgeable, they will in turn become more aware of the environment and its problems, and be motivated to act towards the environment in a more responsible way. It is now thought that instruction must go beyond awareness and knowledge of issues to change behaviour, and that ‘students’ must be provided with the opportunity to develop a sense of ownership and empowerment so that they become fully invested and prompted to become responsible active citizens in the environmental arena.

In situ projects are doomed to failure in the long term if the local people are not involved and if the underlying causes of habitat loss and the threats to species are not addressed” Support for in situ education programmes such as these will make a difference in the work to conserve threatened species. Without awareness and understanding of stakeholders, conservation initiatives are likely to be ineffective and consequently most of our conservation programmes have an educational component.

We conduct series of conservation education, capacity building training and awareness raising as a means of in-situ knowledge sharing strategy where conservation information will be shared. We do this by instilling an understanding of the value of nature, wildlife and ecosystem whilst improving understanding of Kenya’s conservation laws.

Help us as we undertake education and conservation outreaches

Wildlife resources belong to all of us, and for wildlife conservation to be effective; the public must understand and value wildlife.  BICO believes education and outreach are essential to wildlife and nature conservation in general. We respond to this need through;

Development of the capacities of the local communities in monitoring as well as conservation of  nature

Development of outreach materials to help the local communities to improve their know how on the values of biodiversity  in general in any ecosystem

Engaging the public on biodiversity conservation through participation in local school programs and providing public lectures;

Local capacity building

Capacity has historically been viewed as a human resource term, such as an individual’s capacity to do, to achieve, to develop, and is most often referred to in terms of competencies and capabilities. People are both the driving force behind biodiversity loss and the reason for protecting it. Long-term conservation success depends on developing and supporting committed individuals and institutions that are strong enough and effective enough to address the threats to the natural world. Whilst outside intervention may provide a short-term fix, the most effective and long-term solutions to safeguard species and habitats lie in local hands. Our capacity building helps directly by providing training and education to the local communities in key skills essential for effective protection of wildlife populations and their habitats. Through community initiatives, public discussions and dissemination of educational material we inform the public on conservation issues to help them make informed decisions. We have been issuing biodiversity conservation materials to the local communities too as a way of building their capacities in conservation.