Introduction

Sprawling urban landscapes are a growing threat to biodiversity conservation [1] and are assumed to separate the majority of the world's population from the biological reality and functions of the natural world [2], [3]. However, green areas in cities can harbour wildlife and can even host a rich diversity of species [4]. Urban nature (here broadly referred to as the non-human world) thus offers a dual ecological and social challenge: (1) to preserve urban biodiversity to contribute to global conservation [5] and (2) to increase interactions between city-dwellers and urban fauna and flora to reconnect people with nature [2], particularly through educational programs [6].

Conservation education is a part of environmental education, i.e., a “learning process that increases people's knowledge and awareness about the environment and associated challenges, develops the necessary skills and expertise to address these challenges, and fosters attitudes, motivations, and commitment to make informed decisions and take responsible action” [7]. In this sense, conservation education aims to increase awareness and knowledge and to change attitudes towards biodiversity conservation among general audiences, scientists and policymakers [8], [9]. In the last two decades, interest in conservation education has increased [10] and various programs have been promoted worldwide in natural history museums, zoos, botanical gardens, natural or semi-natural parks and reserves [11]. These programs target different segments of the public (e.g., children, teachers, farmers, and managers), who may have different types of relationships with the environment (e.g., visitors of nature reserves versus residents) [9], [12]. Finally, these programs use a variety of methods, from presentations of conservation issues, concerns, and practices (e.g., [11], [13]) to more integrated programs designed to enable people to participate in conservation research, decision-making, and action (e.g., [8], [14], [15]).

Some conservation education programs are still based on the knowledge deficit model, which assumes that people do not become involved in a given issue because they lack knowledge (e.g., [16], [17]). However, in addition to this top-down knowledge transmission pattern [18], many initiatives now combine outdoor activities with emotional, aesthetic, and creative involvement, which have positive effects on individual awareness of biodiversity (e.g., [19], [20], [21]). These action-based programs may achieve better results in influencing pro-environmental behaviour [22], [23], [24]. Education programs that combine information transfer with an empirical approach are assumed to have more value for biodiversity conservation [25]. Indeed, these activities may be more prone to combining cognitive, affective and behavioural components of environmental education [26].

Several studies have assessed whether these different approaches can have a conservation impact [27], [28]. However, the empirical difficulty in measuring changes in attitudes after taking part in a conservation education program and in quantifying any conservation impact may make it difficult to achieve unambiguous results [14]. Studies have revealed positive changes in attitudes and intentions towards conservation in the short term, just after taking part in the program [29]. However, these changes often wane within a few months after the activity, although a traceable impact may remain [30],[31]. Other studies have found that the duration of the education program was a significant predictor of its effectiveness (reviewed by [32]). However, most of this knowledge was gathered from children and adolescents [28]. The influence of conservation education programs on adults' attitudes and practices is relatively unstudied. However, addressing this value-action gap between individual knowledge, declared intentions and subsequent behaviour is one of the keys to monitoring effective environmental protection and biodiversity conservation [26], [33], [34].

Although several authors have already stated the potential importance of urban biodiversity for conservation education [2], few studies have shed any light on the effectiveness of these programs in the urban environment. Two participatory conservation programs [8], [15] and one top-down outdoor activity for children [35] have shown an increase in knowledge and pro-conservation attitudes among participants immediately after the activity. In the urban context, however, we are not aware of any study that has investigated this increase in the longer term or the effect of the pro-environmental profiles of the participants (i.e., accounting for the fact that the participants in conservation activities may already have a pro-environmental profile, as mentioned by [8], [15]).

Here, we used an interdisciplinary approach to study the influence of an empirical urban conservation education program on individual interest for urban fauna and flora (what we refer to as biodiversity) both in the short term (immediately after the program) and in the longer term (a few months later). We aimed to explore how partaking in a short empirical semi-participative (i.e., knowledge-based education and participation in conservation effort activities) urban conservation activity day can influence individual interest in local urban biodiversity. For each participant (and accompanied children), we followed their level of involvement in the activities and investigated whether greater involvement was associated with a higher short-term interest in additional urban nature activities. In parallel, we identified the profile of each adult participant (using a questionnaire) to assess the degree of environmental concern of each participant. Finally, we used qualitative methods (phone and face-to-face interviews) to explore changes in knowledge and pro-environmental attitudes in the medium term, especially concerning local biodiversity.

Methods

Organisation of the activity day

We organised three identical conservation activity days for the general public in three different small gardens (approximately 1 ha) in residential areas of Paris, France. These activity days were part of a larger research project conducted since 2009 that explores the means to conserve or increase biological diversity in the small gardens of Paris. The main aims of these empirical semi-participative activity days were twofold: (1) to expose residents to the urban biodiversity and particularly the species, i.e., birds, spontaneous plants (“garden weeds”) and pollinating insects, that can be found nearby; and (2) to give residents an opportunity to actively get involved in a project intended to increase local biodiversity.

To contact the residents who live in close proximity to and regularly visit the gardens, we advertised the events in a 500-metre radius neighbourhood around each garden. We distributed 4500 flyers in mailboxes in the streets surrounding the gardens and put up posters in public places (e.g., gardens, bakeries, and grocery shops). The municipality of Paris also announced these three activity days on its website and in its monthly events magazine. The activity days were conducted during school holidays, on 27–29th April 2010, and were designed to be attractive to both children and adults. Five different activities were repeatedly proposed throughout the day by a team of researchers from the National Museum of Natural History (Table 1). The first two activities invited participants to take part in local conservation efforts. The other three activities allowed participants (children and adults) to explore and interact with the diversity of species and to learn about their biology and related conservation efforts (Table 1). Additionally, a small poster exhibition showed the diversity of birds, spontaneous plants and pollinators sampled in each garden in 2009 and the diversity of the different taxonomic groups in the urban environment.

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Table 1. Description of the five activities proposed to the participants during the three activity days.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038642.t001

Flyers on eleven free-of-charge activities on urban nature that were to take place in the following months were distributed in each garden (Table 2). These flyers offered participants opportunities to widen their interaction with urban biodiversity both locally (i.e., in the same garden or at home) or in the Paris area. We selected and designed these advanced activities to be attractive to various types of people, including parents and children. The flyers were made by the authors to ensure that they were as similar as possible in the design, colour and pictures used. The flyers were laid out on a table a short distance from the main activities. After each activity, people were informed about these flyers without being taken to the table. We made the assumption that the quantity of flyers taken reflected (and was a proxy of) people's short-term interest in widening their interactions with urban biodiversity.

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Table 2. Description of the eleven further activities proposed to participants by the during the activity days.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038642.t002

Data analyses

We explored the differences between the profiles of participants and general visitors using a general linear model with a binomial error structure. All of the social, pro-environmental profiles and garden variables were entered into the model (Table 3). We then explored the relation between the number of flyers taken (dependent variable) and the participation level (number of activities), while controlling for relevant profile and garden variables (i.e., variables we expected to influence the number of flyers taken; Table 4). We used a generalised linear model with a quasi-Poisson error structure. All linear models were fitted using a stepwise backwards procedure followed by a forward procedure [36] until only significant terms (P≤0.05) remained in each model. We tested for the absence of significant collinearity between the independent variables and for each model's assumptions using residual and leverage plots [36]. All of the statistical analyses were performed in R.2.12.2 (R Development Core Team 2007). We transcribed and analysed the semi-directive interviews through a qualitative ground-theory approach [37].

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Table 3. Results of the general linear model with binomial error structure comparing differences between the social and pro-environmental profiles of people who came to the activity (participants; n = 69) to people who visit the gardens on a day-to-day basis (general visitors; n = 408).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038642.t003

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Table 4. The results of the general linear model, with quasi-Poisson distribution errors, are given to account for the variance in taking flyers, by profiles, garden variables and the number of activities in which each attendee participated (n = 69).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038642.t004

Results

More than 250 people took part in the three activity days, the majority being children. We monitored the participation of 102 adults, who came with approximately 128 children, but the children were not considered in the analysis of this study. Most of the 69 people that agreed to answer the questionnaire at the end of the activities (69%) knew about our activity day and had deliberately come to take part in it. Others had come to visit the garden, where they discovered the activity day and chose to participate. Most adult participants (80%) lived close to the gardens (i.e., within a 500-metre radius). Subsequent detailed interviews (n = 13) suggested that the main reason for coming was curiosity, both for the theme (biodiversity-related activities) and the location (in their neighbourhood): “Curiosity… To find out…Because we've got the impression that there are no insects, no animals here…” (7; number indicates the interviewee's profile; Table S3). The activities were perceived as an opportunity to acquire or deepen knowledge about the daily environment: “I'm unemployed now, so I have free time, I live in the neighbourhood and I often come to this garden […] so I came to this event to find out more about the area” (6).

Discussion

In this study, we explored the consequences of taking part in a short semi-participative activity day on urban conservation. The research focused on people's interest and awareness in local urban nature and on their concern for conservation. Our results demonstrated that local environmental activities could be attractive to urban dwellers and especially to parents of young children. Our quantitative and qualitative results showed that participating in biodiversity activities could increase people's knowledge, awareness and interest in urban biodiversity in the short term. These findings are partly consistent with other studies on education in non-urban environments [9], [14], [28]. These studies have also demonstrated an increase in knowledge, concern and behavioural intentions immediately after participating. However, we found that this increase did not encourage individuals to further participate in biodiversity-dedicated activities.

Most of the participants were women (mothers or grandmothers) who visited the gardens with/for their children (77% of adult participants) and lived nearby. Most participants were children-minded and therefore had competing interests due to constraints related to child rearing. This could explain the lack of participation in the further activities (note, however, that eight out of the eleven further activities were directed at families). As families represent approximately 40% of the Paris population [38] and 49% of the gardens' general visitors, it seemed highly relevant that we understand their interactions with urban biodiversity and their response to conservation education programs.

The participants also seemed to be more environmentally sensitive than general garden visitors, as they preferred to spend their holiday in the open air and sought interaction with nature when visiting the gardens (Table 3). As in other studies [15], [35], these results could have confirmed that conservation education programs tend to attract an environmentally sensitised audience. However, our qualitative results showed that people's motivations for attending the activity day were less related to an existing interest in nature than with the proximity of the event and their own curiosity (raised by local advertising). We therefore suspect that in their answers to those two questions, the participants might have been influenced by the topic of the day and accordingly adapted their answers, especially because those questions were open-ended. The results of the qualitative interviews provided additional support to this hypothesis, as all interviewees mentioned a lack of knowledge of local urban biodiversity. These people, who are characterised by limited environmental concern, a lack of knowledge and mostly children-rearing interests, may also have limited experience with nature. Thus, they constitute a valuable group for conservation education programs [2], [9]. Our results indicate that the short type of activity we offered attracted this group of people and raised short-term and local interest, but it did not impact participation in further nature actives.

We considered “flyer taking” as a proxy for a short-term interest in urban biodiversity, and actual participation in the further activities was proposed as a sign of longer term interest. The flyer-taking proxy could have potential flaws, as the flyers' aesthetics and people's concern for the environment (e.g., paper consumption) could have influenced the number of flyers taken. For that reason, both the table's location and the flyers' design were planned carefully to provide a modest level of attractiveness and thus avoid any habitual flyer taking. Indeed, only 44 participants approached the table and took flyers, whereas the majority of adult participants (n = 62) were indifferent to the table, and only three participants took all flyers available. Most of these 44 people appeared to read and compare flyers, showing an interest in the further activities. Moreover, as we discussed above, our impression was that the participants did not demonstrate strong environmental concern. Therefore, although we cannot overrule this hypothesis, we believe that concern for paper consumption or attractiveness of flyers did not bias the results. Additionally, the proposed activities were all free of charge, avoiding a potential money-related bias in the choices [39]. We therefore believe that flyer-taking served as good a proxy for immediate interest. Evidence for an increased interest in urban biodiversity and biodiversity knowledge was also recorded in the 13 face-to-face interviews in which seven of the interviewees specifically mentioned that the activity day stimulated their curiosity for urban nature: “It is true that I never though about taking interest in Violet's square fauna” (13).

Our finding that immediate interest toward conservation was not translated to further actions in the longer term (which is often a challenge in conservation education [9], [14]) coincides with results of other studies in the field of psychology [40] and with assessments of other conservation education programs [9], [14], [28]. The strong correlation between the level of participation and interest (i.e., number of flyers taken) may suggest that interest in nature activities was increased during the activity day. However, our qualitative results in the longer term showed that although people gained knowledge and curiosity for their local biodiversity, they did not actually seem to engage in further biodiversity-dedicated activities. This result could highlight a gap between intentions in the short term and interest in longer term, but it could also be explained by the nature of the participants, who may have time constraints related to child-rearing.

The face-to-face interviews gave us an opportunity to investigate this gap and to explore the influence that this type of activity day can have on participant's awareness of urban biodiversity. During the activity days, people acquired knowledge on local biodiversity and discovered that they shared a common environment with wildlife. The interviews showed that this increased awareness of local species may have made people reconsider their local urban environment, which is consistent with the fact that the most attractive flyers were those advertising activities taking place locally (Table 2). This result is also consistent with other studies that showed the importance of close contact with ordinary local biodiversity [41] to increase people's interest in conservation in general [19], [42]. In cities, Evans et al. (2005) demonstrated that knowledge of urban biodiversity can be related to developing awareness and concern for urban nature. This awareness could be the first step in subsequent decision-making regarding conservation activities [41], [43].

Following the theory of planned behaviour [44], [45], we postulate that a shift in perceptions is a prerequisite for action. Our interviewees said that their non-participation was mostly due to a lack of time and flexibility and not due to lack of interest. We found that nature-related beliefs and activities appeared to be in competition with many other beliefs and activities that invite people's responses in their everyday lives [43], [46]. Although most of the further suggested activities were local, they required people to change their daily routine to deliberately participate in the activity. The hypothesis that the regular implementation of biodiversity observation in the individuals' routine is important was supported by the fact that people implemented some conservation actions at home and in a private context (nest-boxes, pollinator-friendly planters). Although they did not come back to the gardens on the suggested dates, several interviewed people showed enthusiasm for similar activity days. Thus, we believe that implementing activity days on a regular basis and in accordance with individuals' everyday routines involving children's recreation for instance could encourage people to prioritise their choices and to introduce biodiversity care in their daily lives. A single activity day was already sufficient to produce changes in individual knowledge and awareness of urban biodiversity for some people.

We suggest here three important features that can improve the efficiency of nature-related activities aiming at increasing individual awareness. First, being local appears to be a key factor for involving people. Second, the activities should aim to give local residents a central role through activities combining elements such as science, personal observations, games, and emotions [14], [24], [47]. Finally, we suggest that to increase the efficiency of conservation education, it is important to develop long-lasting programs that integrate observations and interaction with nature as closely as possible into people's daily lives [41], [48].

Supporting Information

Acknowledgments

We would first like to thank the Paris municipality's Green Areas and Environment Department (“Direction des Espaces Verts et de l'Environnement” – DEVE) for their collaboration in organising the activity days. We would also like to thank our colleagues from the Natural History Museum who led the different activities. We would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers for very useful comments that helped to improve an earlier version of this manuscript.