Biodiversity knowledge loss in children's books and textbooks

Culture is a complex dimension of global environmental change (Proc­ tor 1998; MA 2005). Loss of local knowledge about the environment is both a cause and consequence of cul­ tural homogenization worldwide and threatens present and future conser­ vation efforts (Miller 2005; Rozzi 2013). Children are especially sus­ ceptible to cultural homogenization because of their decreasing interac­ tion with nature and their growing connection with visual electronic media (Pergams and Zaradic 2006; Soga and Gaston 2016). Here we examine a comprehensive sample of children’s books (school textbooks as well as fictional and natural history storybooks) to assess their role in providing school­ aged children with information about their local envi­ ronment and native biodiversity (Cutter­ Mackenzie et al. 2010). A key driver of biodiversity knowl­ edge loss, one that is also associated with cultural homogenization, is the biased perception children have of their home environments and local biota, received from the media, including literature, television pro­ grams, computer games, and the internet (Pergams and Zaradic 2006; Wason­ Ellam 2010). Loss of knowl­ edge about local biodiversity and wild nature has become widespread (Ballouard et al. 2011), especially in Latin America, since the mid­ 20th century (Zent 2009; Rozzi 2013). This process can be exacerbated by deficient information about local nature provided to schoolchildren through the literature available in formal and non­ formal educational settings. To assess the relevance of books in enhancing or detracting from children’s knowledge about nature in their area, we reviewed 1242 children’s books (both fiction and non­ fiction) that were marketed in Chile and that contained stories based on natural history or presented drawings or photographs of plants and animals in wild landscapes. Our sample was obtained from the 2012 International Children’s Book Fair that took place in Santiago, Chile, and included only books in Spanish, some of them with a broader distri­ bution in Latin America and Spain (WebTable 1). We asked how fre­ quently and in what form local biodi­ versity and their environments were portrayed in the sampled literature. We sought to quantify biases toward native or exotic examples of flora, fauna, and landscapes, thus providing a baseline for future analysis. With this letter, we hope to stimulate addi­ tional research about the potential drivers of biodiversity knowledge loss and cultural homogenization. We grouped the sample of books into three non­ exclusive categories, depending on whether the storyline included plants, animals, or wild landscapes. Books were further divid­ ed into two groups, based on whether the plants, animals, or landscapes pictured were native or foreign to Chile. We report the proportions of the total number of books classified in each category. We also inspected required­ reading textbooks on natu­ ral science, which are recommended by the Chilean Ministry of Education for children from preschool (kinder­ garten) to high school. In each of these textbooks (n = 12), we tallied and analyzed the specific examples of plants, animals, or wild landscapes shown. Overall, these 12 textbooks included 88 examples of flora, 243 examples of fauna, and 85 examples of wild landscapes. We report the percentages of examples of native or exotic wildlife and environments. Regarding the subjects of the story­ books, exotic species or landscapes appeared more frequently (89%; 1106 out of 1242) than native biodiversity or environments. Only 7.6% (83 out of 1095) of the children’s books depicted native fauna. Also, these books mostly depicted exotic plants and foreign wild landscapes or natural scenarios (Figure 1a). Among the 12 textbooks (Figure 1b), 67.9% (165 out of 243) of the represented animals and 72.7% (64 out of 88) of the repre sented plants were exotic. Altho ugh 52.9% (45 out of 85) of the landscapes shown in textbooks were native, this value was not statistically WRITE BACK WRITE BACK WRITE BACK