Promoting long-term local ownership of natural heritage through outreach: the case of the endemic Bolivian titi monkeys

Abstract

Adequate knowledge and learning about local biodiversity are a prerequisite for effective attitudinal changes in favour of species protection. Outreach activities are considered a useful tool for sharing information with local stakeholders who play a crucial role in conserving wildlife. We conducted two outreach campaigns focused on schoolchildren in two villages to share information on the natural history of the Bolivian endemic titi monkeys, Plecturocebus olallae and Plecturocebus modestus, to promote their conservation. We assessed the students' ability to retain new information and their understanding of biodiversity through pre- and post-questionnaires, finding an improvement in the knowledge about these two endemic primates from pre- to post-talk assessments, as well as an increase in their awareness about local efforts to preserve biodiversity between outreach campaigns. We also found signals of appropriate experiential learning on wildlife value and its relationship with human activities. Additional outreach work across two decades resulted in important achievements that reflect positive attitudinal changes in favour of the endemic primates and biodiversity, with a remarkable involvement of local people. In this way, we show how outreach work can promote important local support for biodiversity conservation, how primates can act as flagship species, and the need to reinforce knowledge acquisition and learning processes to consolidate conservation actions in the long-term.