Reference study on awareness, attitudes and public engagement in support of biological diversity and ecosystem services

Background

The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 sets 20 targets, called Aichi targets, which aim at steering the efforts of the international community for the protection of the world’s biodiversity. The progress made towards these objectives need to be assessed, that is the reason why the international community intensified its reflexion on the creation of indicators.

The KBIN wishes to contribute to that work in the framework of its awareness raising program. Raising public awareness is indeed the first Aichi target: «By 2020, at the latest, people are aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably».

National Clearing House Mechanisms play an essential role in educating and informing the public and thus also hold a key position in the evaluation of the progress made towards that aim. The present call is in line with that process. In addition, the results of the funded projects can be used as a reference for the update and monitoring of the national strategies of the involved countries.

Objectives

The primary objective of this call is the identification, trial and validation of indicators for the evaluation of awareness, attitudes and public engagement in support of biological diversity, which would be adapted to the different national contexts of African countries.

The second objective is the execution of a baseline study using the selected indicators.

Finally, the project results can be used in a long term perspective for the assessment of the actions carried out within the framework of the new strategic plan and the final impact evaluation in 2020.

Duration

The project can run over one year at most and will be divided in two clearly distinctive but complementary phases. As the second phase depends partly on the results of the first phase, the project description for the second phase can be adapted accordingly once the first phase has been finished. However the budget can’t be adapted.

First phase

Number of supported projects: 8 maximum.

Funding available per project: 3.000 € from RBINS. A national contribution of 20% of the budget is obligatory.

The first phase, which will not go beyond 31 March 2012, could be considered as a stand-alone study, or as a preparatory phase for the second phase. The decision is left to the discretion of the subscribers.

The objective of this phase is to identify indicators on public awareness and public participation that can be measured and analysed.

The choice of the indicators should be based on an exhaustive analysis of useful national characteristics, especially advantages or disadvantages linked to the use of one indicator related to these characteristics, as well as the different public awareness activities undertaken in the country. These activities can be implemented through initiatives of different actors (CHM, governmental administrations, national and international Non Governmental Organisations, international institutions and organisations, civil society, …) and target different audiences (local communities, students, teachers, policymakers, ….)

More information on possible indicators can be found here.

This analysis should make it possible to establish, based on a sound argumentation, of a list of potential indicators that are suited to the context of the country.

This list of potential indicators should form the basis for a national discussion for a preliminary validation. This can for example be done through a national workshop that will bring together the different stakeholders in the country.

The first phase should be finished by 31 March 2012.

Second phase:

Number of supported projects: 5 maximum.

Funding available per project: 5.000 € from RBINS. A national contribution of 20% of the budget is obligatory.

The second phase, with a duration of 8-9 months, has as objective to test and later on validate the indicators chosen in the first phase. The first and second phase together can’t run over more than one year.

This phase will use the indicators chosen in the first phase (after a preliminary validation by the national stakeholders) for the actual gathering of data on public awareness towards biodiversity. Through the aforementioned process of validation of indicators, this second phase should lead to undertaking a « base-line study » on the state of the art on public awareness, attitudes and public engagements towards biodiversity.

The use and the validation of the indicators should be based on the elaboration of sound and re-usable methodologies in light with future studies that will permit a comparison between the 2012 data and the establishment of an appraisal towards 2020.

Finally, this second phase should also analyse the gathered data in the reference study in order to be able to determine needs in public awareness, identify strengths and weaknesses in the current national strategy of the country, as well as give recommendations towards its future orientations.

The second phase should be finished by 30 November 2012.