IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i10p4277-d361942.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Personal Assessment of Reasons for the Loss of Global Biodiversity—an Empirical Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Matthias Winfried Kleespies

    (Bioscience Education and Zoo Biology, Goethe-University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany)

  • Paul Wilhelm Dierkes

    (Bioscience Education and Zoo Biology, Goethe-University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany)

Abstract

The UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs), which aim to solve important economic, social, and environmental problems of humanity, are to be supported by education for sustainable development (ESD). Empirical studies on the success of the implementation of the SDGs in the field of education are still pending. For this reason, using the loss of global biodiversity as an example, this study examined the extent to which high school students, teacher trainees in biology, and biology bachelor students can identify the causes of the global biodiversity loss. A new questioning tool was developed and tested on 889 participants. In addition, the relationship between connection to nature and the personal assessment about biodiversity threats was examined. The factor analysis of the scale used showed that 11 out of 16 items were assigned to the intended factor. The comparison between high school students, teacher trainees in biology, and biology bachelor students showed no significant difference in overall assessment of the reasons for global biodiversity loss. When comparing the three risk levels in which the risk factors for biodiversity could be divided, across the three student groups, only minor differences were found. Therefore, a specific education of prospective teachers is necessary, as they have to pass on the competence as multipliers to their students. No significant difference could be found when examining the relationship between connection to nature and the overall scores of the assessment scale for the reasons of biodiversity loss. However, it was found that people who felt more connected to nature were more capable of assessing the main causes of risk for global biodiversity, while people who felt less connected to nature achieved better scores for the medium factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Winfried Kleespies & Paul Wilhelm Dierkes, 2020. "Personal Assessment of Reasons for the Loss of Global Biodiversity—an Empirical Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:10:p:4277-:d:361942
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/4277/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/4277/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bradley J. Cardinale & J. Emmett Duffy & Andrew Gonzalez & David U. Hooper & Charles Perrings & Patrick Venail & Anita Narwani & Georgina M. Mace & David Tilman & David A. Wardle & Ann P. Kinzig & Gre, 2012. "Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity," Nature, Nature, vol. 486(7401), pages 59-67, June.
    2. McNeely, Jeff, 2001. "Invasive species: a costly catastrophe for native biodiversity," Land Use and Water Resources Research, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Centre for Land Use and Water Resources Research, vol. 1, pages 1-10.
    3. Jennifer Schneiderhan-Opel & Franz X. Bogner, 2020. "The Relation between Knowledge Acquisition and Environmental Values within the Scope of a Biodiversity Learning Module," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Wilfried Thuiller, 2007. "Climate change and the ecologist," Nature, Nature, vol. 448(7153), pages 550-552, August.
    5. Sean L. Maxwell & Richard A. Fuller & Thomas M. Brooks & James E. M. Watson, 2016. "Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers," Nature, Nature, vol. 536(7615), pages 143-145, August.
    6. Eija Yli-Panula & Eila Jeronen & Piia Lemmetty & Anna Pauna, 2018. "Teaching Methods in Biology Promoting Biodiversity Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ann Hindley, 2022. "Understanding the Gap between University Ambitions to Teach and Deliver Climate Change Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Siti Nur Fatehah Radzi & Kamisah Osman & Mohd Nizam Mohd Said, 2022. "Progressing towards Global Citizenship and a Sustainable Nation: Pillars of Climate Change Education and Actions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-23, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yutong Zhang & Wei Zhou & Danxue Luo, 2023. "The Relationship Research between Biodiversity Conservation and Economic Growth: From Multi-Level Attempts to Key Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Amanda Irwin & Arne Geschke & Johan P. Mackenbach, 2024. "The Biodiversity Impact of Health Care: Quantifying the Extinction-Risk Footprint of Health Care in The Netherlands and Other European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-12, February.
    3. Hao Huang & Dongmei Tang & Bin Chen & Weiwen Li & Danyun Ou & Lei Wang & Lina An, 2019. "Short Comments on the Application of Criteria for Identifying Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Yang Liu & Jing Zhao & Xi Zheng & Xiaoyang Ou & Yaru Zhang & Jiaying Li, 2023. "Evaluation of Biodiversity Maintenance Capacity in Forest Landscapes: A Case Study in Beijing, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-23, June.
    5. Scott Duke Kominers & Alexander Teytelboym & Vincent P Crawford, 2017. "An invitation to market design," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 33(4), pages 541-571.
    6. Bardsley, Douglas K. & Bardsley, Annette M., 2014. "Organising for socio-ecological resilience: The roles of the mountain farmer cooperative Genossenschaft Gran Alpin in Graubünden, Switzerland," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 11-21.
    7. Kristian Steensen Nielsen & Theresa M. Marteau & Jan M. Bauer & Richard B. Bradbury & Steven Broad & Gayle Burgess & Mark Burgman & Hilary Byerly & Susan Clayton & Dulce Espelosin & Paul J. Ferraro & , 2021. "Biodiversity conservation as a promising frontier for behavioural science," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(5), pages 550-556, May.
    8. Smith, Helen F. & Sullivan, Caroline A., 2014. "Ecosystem services within agricultural landscapes—Farmers' perceptions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 72-80.
    9. Wang, Xiong & Wang, Xiao & Ren, Xiaohang & Wen, Fenghua, 2022. "Can digital financial inclusion affect CO2 emissions of China at the prefecture level? Evidence from a spatial econometric approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    10. Oskar Englund & Ioannis Dimitriou & Virginia H. Dale & Keith L. Kline & Blas Mola‐Yudego & Fionnuala Murphy & Burton English & John McGrath & Gerald Busch & Maria Cristina Negri & Mark Brown & Kevin G, 2020. "Multifunctional perennial production systems for bioenergy: performance and progress," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(5), September.
    11. Paul L. G. Vlek & Asia Khamzina & Hossein Azadi & Anik Bhaduri & Luna Bharati & Ademola Braimoh & Christopher Martius & Terry Sunderland & Fatemeh Taheri, 2017. "Trade-Offs in Multi-Purpose Land Use under Land Degradation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-19, November.
    12. Emblemsvåg, Jan, 2022. "Wind energy is not sustainable when balanced by fossil energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    13. Nibedita Mukherjee & Jean Huge & Farid Dahdouh-Guebas & Nico Koedam, 2014. "Ecosystem service valuations of mangrove ecosystems to inform decision making and future valuation exercises," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/217963, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    14. Sueur, Cédric & Fourneret, Eric & Espinosa, Romain, 2023. "Animal capital: a new way to define human-animal bond in view of global changes," OSF Preprints svg7x, Center for Open Science.
    15. Bogoni, Juliano André & Peres, Carlos A. & Ferraz, Katia M.P.M.B., 2020. "Effects of mammal defaunation on natural ecosystem services and human well being throughout the entire Neotropical realm," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    16. Muhammad Mumtaz Khan & Muhammad Tahir Akram & Rhonda Janke & Rashad Waseem Khan Qadri & Abdullah Mohammed Al-Sadi & Aitazaz A. Farooque, 2020. "Urban Horticulture for Food Secure Cities through and beyond COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-21, November.
    17. Jan Streeck & Quirin Dammerer & Dominik Wiedenhofer & Fridolin Krausmann, 2021. "The role of socio‐economic material stocks for natural resource use in the United States of America from 1870 to 2100," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(6), pages 1486-1502, December.
    18. Daniels, Silvie & Bellmore, J. Ryan & Benjamin, Joseph R. & Witters, Nele & Vangronsveld, Jaco & Van Passel, Steven, 2018. "Quantification of the Indirect Use Value of Functional Group Diversity Based on the Ecological Role of Species in the Ecosystem," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 181-194.
    19. Patricia Esteve-Guirao & Mercedes Jaén García & Isabel Banos-González, 2019. "The Interdependences between Sustainability and Their Lifestyle That Pre-Service Teachers Establish When Addressing Socio-Ecological Problems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-18, October.
    20. Yiwei Lian & Yang Bai & Zhongde Huang & Maroof Ali & Jie Wang & Haoran Chen, 2024. "Spatio-Temporal Changes and Habitats of Rare and Endangered Species in Yunnan Province Based on MaxEnt Model," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:10:p:4277-:d:361942. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.