Cultivating Conservation Literacy: “Trickle‐Down” Education Is Not Enough

As one of a group of idealistic graduate students at the University of Wyoming in the early 1990s, I paid close attention to the growing call for scientists to work with the general public on real-world problems (Brewer et al. 1992). Even then, I could see that it would be difficult to engage the public in a meaningful dialogue about the environment if policymakers and others did not have a basic understanding of the science we do. The serious environmental problems we face in the twenty-first century will not be solved solely by collecting more data—results that may never make it into the hands of decisionmakers. We do not have the time to wait for our discoveries to “trickle down” to the public through the filters of textbooks and other media. We must take more responsibility for translating the results and significance of our research in a way the public—our families, neighbors, and communities—can understand. This is an exciting time to take on the challenge of charting new directions for the education section of Conservation Biology. As the new education editor, I plan to focus our attention on the successful practice of conservation education—the practical nuts and bolts of connecting teaching with learning to cultivate conservation literacy. In the coming few years, there will be fundamental questions to discuss and answer in this section of our journal: (1) What do we want conservation biologists to know and be able to do? (2) How can we successfully translate new conservation knowledge for the benefit of the general public? (3) How will we know if these educational methods and approaches have been successful? All these questions about teaching and learning, long ignored by many in the academic science community, are critical to the future of conservation biology and for that reason will be major emphases of future articles. Upcoming columns and contributed papers will explore new horizons in conservation education, feature national and international programs and approaches that work, and document educational effects with data.