ASSESSING BIODIVERSITY LITERACY AND CONSERVATION ATTITUDES: EVALUATING MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON REGIONAL FAUNA AND ECOLOGICAL PROTECTION

Abstract

Public awareness is urgently needed to save biodiversity from the increasing threats of global extinction. This study examined the knowledge gap and conservation attitudes of 248 students from science and non-science departments of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur in southern Punjab, Pakistan. The study revealed a discrepancy in literacy attitudes. Both groups of students recognized that human activities are causing various declines. Social science students consider their fields irrelevant with respect to these issues. This gap in agency reinforces disciplinary silos in higher education. Global biodiversity loss is becoming a serious environmental problem. Public awareness and educational awareness play a crucial role in the survival of local life, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. This study aimed to understand the relationship between knowledge and conservation attitudes of biodiversity among students of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur in southern Punjab, Pakistan. For this purpose, information was obtained from 248 students of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur through a survey. The results showed that science students have relatively more scientific and technical knowledge about the regional fauna. In contrast, the knowledge of social science students was found to be limited. The attitudes of both groups towards environmental protection were very similar. Most students supported the ban on hunting and acknowledged that human activities are a major cause of species decline. Importantly, an important aspect of this study was that many social science students consider environmental protection primarily the responsibility of scientific disciplines and consider their field to be less relevant to this process. This situation points to the departmental division existing in the higher education system. Which means that environmental knowledge is probably mostly limited to the realm of life sciences. The study emphasizes that a multidisciplinary educational strategy is necessary for the protection of a unique arid ecosystem like Cholistan. Regional ecology should be included in the general curriculum to instill a shared environmental responsibility among all students. This will bridge the gap between the scientific and social sciences and in the future, such knowledgeable individuals will be prepared who can play an effective role in conserving biodiversity in South Punjab.