Abstract

SCHAAF, Alejandro; ALCALDE, Sofía; RIVERA, Luis  and  POLITI, Natalia. Knowledge by seventh grade students about forest and biodiversity of Southern Yungas in San Salvador de Jujuy city, Argentina. Ecol. austral [online]. 2018, vol.28, n.3, pp.565-571. ISSN 1667-782X.

The Southern Yungas is one of the most endangered ecosystems of the Andean Region. Its outstanding biodiversity has suffered the unplanned pressure from different human activities. Conservation education could be a tool to value biodiversity. In this work, we assessed knowledge and perception of seventh grade students about Southern Yungas biodiversity in San Salvador de Jujuy city. Four schools were randomly selected and 191 students were surveyed through a questionnaire that allowed us to encompass two axes: perception and knowledge. Our results suggest that 88% consider native forests as complex ecosystems that naturally developed in an area and are composed by species that have adapted to local conditions over thousands of years, while 44% perceive that forest are important for providing goods, ecosystem services, and are habitat for many animals and plant species. Eighty percent of students consider that national parks constitute the main strategy for species conservation. Exotic tree species were proportionally more related to native forest than native tree species. Toucans and Jaguars were the animal native species most known by students (>80%). Our results show that it is necessary to further work at schools to raise knowledge and perception among students of the importance of native forests and to improve the knowledge of Southern Yungas native species as a way to promote biodiversity conservation.

Keywords : Conservation; Native species; Surveys.

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