A study was recently conducted at Zoomarine, Portugal, which assessed the impact of an educational program on promoting conservation attitudes and behaviours.

The study involved 412 adults and was based on an experimental design that compared a control group with an intervention group, which was presented with information about the critical situation of the vaquita, an endangered species. The main objective was to verify whether the intervention could enhance “concern for conservation”, integrating knowledge, feelings and behavioural intentions aimed at protecting wildlife. To this end, a scale was used that measured the cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions of the participants, allowing the evaluation of the immediate effects and those of a follow-up carried out five months later.

The results show that the intervention was quite effective in transmitting information about the conservation status of dolphins, contributing significantly to increasing the knowledge and awareness of participants. The inclusion of data on the vaquita further reinforced this awareness, demonstrating the potential of educational programs to promote a more consistent commitment to biodiversity protection. These findings reveal a positive outlook, suggesting that initiatives of this kind are essential to improve public perception and encourage conservation actions.

However, for these effects to become lasting, it is important to complement the intervention with continuous and comprehensive educational strategies that reinforce and consolidate the change in attitudes and behaviours over time.

Read the full article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08927936.2025.2463212