- Title
- An investigation of plant conservation strategies employed in Makhanda, South Africa: an educational exploration
- Creator
- Cimi, Pumlani Viwe
- Subject
- Plant conservation
- Subject
- Rare plants Biodiversity conservation
- Date Issued
- 2019
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Doctoral
- Type
- DPhil
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/37979
- Identifier
- vital:34276
- Description
- The school curriculum in South Africa gives educators the freedom to design and organise learning experiences according to their local circumstances and availability of resources. In that context, this study advocates conservation education through use of plants on school grounds and visits to local herbaria and botanical gardens as part of the school curriculum. Trees growing on street verges in town suburbs are also a resource that could be using for teaching. School learners from three schools representing different areas of Makhanda (Grahamstown) participated in plant-related activities and were surveyed to determine their prior knowledge about plants and plant conservation. Learners answered a series of questions in writing using a funnel sequence and the inverted funnel sequence in questionnaire design. This motivated respondents to co-operate and fully complete a questionnaire. In addition, the non-participant observation technique was used to capture behavioural reactions to the activities in order to supplement the data generated through questionnaires and interviews. This proved to be a purposeful, systematic and a selective way of watching and listening to an interaction phenomenon as it takes place. Interviews and questionnaires revealed that most Makhanda residents (especially in rural and township areas) use traditional medicine and medicinal plants to treat many diseases. They also use plants for cultural activities. Traditional remedies are practised among the rural and township communities because of ease of availability, convenience, and also due to social, psychological and cultural reasons. Medicinal plants have been increasingly recognized for their role not only for health care, but also for improving the economic status. Community members and street vendors were also questioned using semi-structured interviews. Open-ended questions were used successfully to assess the person’s knowledge, attitudes, opinions, beliefs and feelings. This type of interview ensures that a specific question does not lose its purpose. These interviews were used to determine how community members see, interpret and relate to nature. In the interviews, I also assessed the real needs of the local communities because there is a tendency to think that our power, knowledge and resources can give us the right to predict what communities really need without actually asking them. When our imposed initiatives fail, we often accuse these communities of a lack of interest in our issue of interest. Documents on plants and their uses kept in the Selmar Schönland Herbarium were compared with the information given by community members and street vendors. Xhosa plant names and ethnobotanical information given by the community members and street vendors was used to augment existing information on plant use. A further aim of this study was to investigate the potential use of plant resources provided by the street trees and gardens for education. Makhanda streets were sampled and, of the 1 435 plants that were countered from 17 streets, only 15 indigenous species were represented, while 20 alien species were recorded. These trees can be used for lessons on both alien and indigenous plants. Notable differences in tree density and species richness were evident across suburbs with the highest density and richness found in the more affluent suburbs and poor representation of trees in the township. This will affect learner perceptions and viewpoints. The results from the analysed data revealed that use of the school grounds, botanical gardens, the local herbarium and town streets are effective in plant conservation education in schools and communities. These types of resources could be used for environmental education for future generations in South Africa and all over the world.
- Format
- viii, 182 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Pumlani Viwe Cimi.pdf | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |